Winter/Spring 2019
CHAMPION WOMEN THROUGH THE ARTS dear members and friends, As we begin a new year, I’d like to share some important news about our 112-year-old building. Those of you who are Founding and Charter Members will remember when, in 1983, the National Museum of Women in the Arts finalized the purchase of its building. A beautiful beaux-arts structure in the heart of Washington, D.C., it was originally a Masonic Temple but had fallen into disrepair. To establish the museum, we completely renovated it with the help of thousands of members, friends, corporations, and foundations. When we opened in 1987, our building had been restored to its former glory, a landmark unique in its focus on exhibiting and preserving work by women artists. Ten years later, in 1997, we dedicated the new Elisabeth A. Kasser Wing, which provided much-needed additional gallery space and a museum shop. It has been a wonderful addition to our original building, and ever since, we have maintained the museum with great care. Still, buildings age over time and ours is no exception. So, in 2016, we began a strategic preservation study to learn what it would take to bring our building up to the latest museum standards. Shortly after we started this process, though, Washington experienced a snowstorm of historic proportion. The weight of snow and ice was so heavy it damaged our building’s roof and decorative metal cornice. We were lucky, however, because our team was immediately able to begin repairs, which were completed in the spring of 2018. Through that work and our preservation study, we have come to better understand all that must be done to renovate our building to prepare for the future. My late husband, Wally, supported every aspect of the museum and its mission, but he always understood the importance of this building as NMWA’s home, and we intend to carry on in his footsteps. In this issue, I invite you to read more about our building’s history and—with continued care and stewardship—its exciting future.
MUSEUM INFORMATION
WOMEN IN THE ARTS
1250 New York Avenue, NW Washington, DC 20005
Winter/Spring 2019 Volume 37, no. 1
PUBLIC TRANSIT
Women in the Arts is a publication of the National Museum of Women in the Arts®
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Elizabeth Lynch ASSISTANT EDITOR
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Alicia Gregory
MAIN
Becca Gross
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DIRECTOR
Susan Fisher Sterling
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DESIGN
Studio A, Alexandria, VA For advertising rates and information, call 202-266-2814 or email elynch@nmwa.org. Women in the Arts is published three times a year as a benefit for museum members by the National Museum of Women in the Arts, 1250 New York Avenue, NW, Washington, D.C. 20005-3970. Copyright © 2019 National Museum of Women in the Arts. National Museum of Women in the Arts®, The Women’s Museum®, and Women in the Arts® are registered trademarks of the National Museum of Women in the Arts. On the cover: Ursula von Rydingsvard, Tak, 2015; Cedar, 5 ft. 2 in. x 4 ft. 2 in. x 2 ft. 2 in.; National Museum of Women in the Arts, Gift of Wilhelmina Cole Holladay; © Ursula von Rydingsvard, Courtesy of Galerie Lelong & Co.; Photo by Michael Bodycomb Founder’s photo: © Michele Mattei
Contents
“I feel like my studio is my sanctuary, the only real place where I can speak.” PAGE 10
//
// DEPARTMENTS
FEATURES
↓8
2 Arts News
Building the Museum’s Future
4 Culture Watch
NMWA’s building—a historic structure and an inspirational home for art by women—serves many different functions, and it is here to stay. winton smoot holladay
6 Education Report 7 Dedicated Donor: Susan Swartz 16 Calendar 24 On View: Maria Schalcken 26 Museum News and Events 30 Supporting Roles 33 Museum Shop
↑ 10
Ursula von Rydingsvard: The Contour of Feeling
This landmark exhibition of monumental sculptures by von Rydingsvard illuminates the process by which the artist gives outward visual form to her ideas and emotions. orin zahra
↓ 20
Ambreen Butt— Mark My Words
Butt’s work features widely ranging techniques and speaks to broader ideas about women making their marks on society. orin zahra
Arts News 2
WINTER/SPRING 2019
Jenny Holzer’s Message Goes Mobile for World AIDS Day For World AIDS Day on December 1, artist Jenny Holzer designed a mobile artwork in partnership with the New York City AIDS Memorial. Part of the #LightTheFight campaign, Holzer’s project featured a fleet of trucks illuminated with LED text that represented a range of responses to AIDS—from love and grief to fury. The trucks carried the messaging to sites around New York City, including the AIDS Memorial Park (whose plaza was also designed by Holzer), the LGBT Community Center, Harlem, Times Square, the Hudson River piers, and the Meatpacking District. Condoms and educational materials were distributed at each site. “The messages on the trucks’ screens . . . could comfort those affected . . . and reignite fires in bellies to end AIDS forever,” Holzer said. Anonymous Was A Woman (But No More) In December, Anonymous Was A Woman announced the 2018 recipients of its annual grant: Dotty Attie, María Magdalena Campos-Pons, Patty Chang, Beverly Fishman, Kate Gilmore, Heather Hart, Deborah Roberts, Rocío Rodríguez, Michèle Stephenson, and Betty Tompkins. The winners, women over forty
“The messages on the trucks’ screens could comfort those affected and reignite fires in bellies to end AIDS forever.” years old who have made significant contributions in their fields, each received an unrestricted grant of $25,000. For twenty-two years, until July 2018, the patron of Anonymous Was A Woman was, herself, anonymous. Artist Susan Unterberg revealed that she was the sole patron of the award, having given more than $5.5 million to artists since she founded the grant. Unterberg came forward in order to provide a philanthropic model and advocate more directly for women artists—she was also “thrilled” to personally congratulate the new winners.
Writer and National Book Award winner Elizabeth Acevedo at NMWA in June 2018
Care to Dance? A new initiative from the Boston Ballet tackles the gender gap among classical dance choreographers. Though the fields of modern and contemporary dance are filled with women choreographers, they lack representation on the ballet stage. To help transform the field, the multi-year ChoreograpHER initiative will support emerging female choreographers from within the company and beyond. Boston Ballet’s plan includes offering support via workshops and programming in the classroom, studio, and on stage. The Write Stuff In November, women writers won big awards and honors at the National Book Awards (NBA). Elizabeth Acevedo won the young adult literature
category with her debut, The Poet X, which tells the story of Xiomara, a young Afro-Latina coming of age in Harlem, who finds her voice in slam poetry. Acevedo, a poet and slam champion herself, wrote the novel in verse and performed selections at NMWA’s June 2018 Fresh Talk. Winning the fiction prize, Sigrid Nunez’s novel The Friend tells the story of a woman who loses a mentor to suicide, and inherits his grief-stricken Great Dane. Nunez is the author of six other novels as well as Sempre Susan: A Memoir of Susan Sontag. Additionally, the NBA honored novelist Isabelle Allende with a lifetime achievement award. Allende, also the winner of NMWA’s 2012 Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Arts, is the first Spanish-language author
PHOTO BY KEVIN ALLEN PHOTOGRAPHY
© 2018 JENNY HOLZER, MEMBER ARTISTS RIGHTS SOCIETY (ARS), NY; PHOTO BY DANIEL SHAPIRO
Jenny Holzer, Light the Fight, 2018; Text: “Living Close to the Knives” from Close to the Knives: A Memoir of Disintegration by David Wojnarowicz, © 1991 by the author; Used with permission of the author’s estate and P•P•O•W, New York; “Notes on Seroconversion” by Ricardo Hernandez, © 2018 by the author, from The Offing, October 17, 2018; Used with permission of the author
to receive the NBA accolade, putting her in the company of Toni Morrison and Joan Didion, among others.
2018 Don Tyson Prize, which comes with a $200,000 award, for outstanding achievement in American art. German, a multidisciplinary artist based in Homewood, Pennsylvania, maintains the Art House, a community space focused on creativity and social justice.
PHOTO BY SEAN CARROLL
Winner’s Circle The Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art awarded artist Vanessa German the
In Memoriam Sister Wendy Beckett, a Roman Catholic nun renowned as a vivid and accessible art critic and educator, died December 26 at age eighty-eight. She became widely known for BBC art documentaries and books for popular audiences, as well as the wonder and awe that she conveyed in unscripted interpretations of art. Born in Johannesburg, South Africa, Sister Wendy studied at Oxford University, taught at convent schools in South Africa, and from 1971 until her death lived in Norfolk, England, supported by a community of Carmelite nuns. She wrote art reviews and
Left: Vanessa German in front of the Art House
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Sister Wendy Beckett
then books—including her first, Contemporary Women Artists, published in 1988—in order to raise money for the convent, and her fame grew. Her death sparked many remembrances, including an essay by Brooklyn Museum curator Carmen Hermo, who wrote, “I hope that her legacy of joy and of pushing past expectations to share one’s knowledge will not leave us.”
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WO M E N I N T H E A RTS
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Culture Watch EXHIBITIONS
COLORADO
Fluid Expressions: The Prints of Helen Frankenthaler, from the Collections of Jordan D. Schnitzer and His Family Foundation Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center RM February 2–June 2, 2019 Highlighting her often-overlooked prints, this exhibition showcases Frankenthaler’s spontaneous painting aesthetic applied to the meticulous art of printmaking. CONNECTICUT
Harmony Hammond: Material Witness, Five Decades of Art Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Ridgefield □ RM March 3–September 15, 2019 Hammond, an artist, activist, and scholar, combines traditional craft with abstraction to create feminist works that reference the body’s energy and resilience.
WASHINGTON, D.C.
Zilia Sánchez: Soy Isla (I Am an Island) The Phillips Collection RM February 16–May 19, 2019 Influenced by her travels, Sánchez’s art delves into the concept of place, both geographical and psychological, in this nearly seven-decade survey of her work. ILLINOIS
Laurie Simmons: Big Camera/Little Camera Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago February 23–May 5, 2019 Over four decades, this trailblazing feminist and photographer has played with scale and societal conventions.
NEW JERSEY // Wendy Red Star, Portrait of Perits-Har-Sts (Old Crow) and with
His Wife, Ish-Ip-Chi-Wak-Pa-I-Chis (Good or Pretty Medicine Pipe)—1873 Peace Delegation Series, 2017; On view at the Newark Museum
LOUISIANA
Mildred Thompson: Against the Grain
Combining elements of painting, sculpture, and collage, Thompson’s found-wood works evoke the past and encourage contemplation of history and memory.
New Orleans Museum of Art RM On view through August 31, 2019
© THE MILDRED THOMPSON ESTATE; COURTESY OF GALERIE LELONG & CO., NEW YORK
WINTER/SPRING 2019
NEW JERSEY
LOUISIANA // detail: Mildred Thompson, Wood Picture, ca. 1971–2; On view at the
New Orleans Museum of Art
© WENDY RED STAR
//
Wendy Red Star: A Scratch on the Earth Newark Museum RM Opens February 23, 2019
TENNESSEE
Alyson Shotz: Un/Folding Hunter Museum of American Art, Chattanooga RM March 1–May 27, 2019 Punctuated by two large-scale sculptural installations, this exhibition interprets the act of folding as both natural and ubiquitous—in science, feminism, and life.
Photographs, textiles, and an immersive installation convey Red Star’s singular perspective on the American cultural landscape as a member of the Apsáalooke (Crow) Tribe.
© ANALIA SABAN ; COURTESY OF SPRÜTH MAGERS
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TEXAS // Analia Saban, Draped Marble
(Fior di Pesco Apuano), 2015; On view at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth
//
BOOKS
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TEXAS
FOCUS: Analia Saban Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth RM March 30–May 12, 2019 Referencing art history and traditional art-making methods, Saban creates inventive objects designed to upend preconceived notions about art and the creative process.
CZECH REPUBLIC
Katharina Grosse: Wunderbild National Gallery, Prague February 16, 2018–June 2, 2019
© LAURIE SIMMONS; PHOTO COURTESY OF THE ARTIST AND SALON 94
Grosse’s immersive installation explores the ability of flat, painted surfaces to become inhabitable spaces.
ILLINOIS // Laurie Simmons, The
Love Doll/Day 27/Day 1/New in Box, 2010; On view at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago
RM North American Reciprocal Museum benefits for NMWA members at the Friend level and above □
See works from NMWA’s collection
Ninth Street Women
Now considered one of the most noteworthy American street photographers of the twentieth century, Vivian Maier (1926– 2009) remained undiscovered in her lifetime. Thanks to historian John Maloof’s recent discovery of her negatives, we now know that Maier was keeping a watchful eye on more than just the children she nannied while roaming the streets of Chicago. Vivian Maier: The Color Work (Harper Collins, 2018) is the first monograph dedicated to Maier’s late-career color slides. Colin Westerbeck, former curator of photography at the Art Institute of Chicago, situates Maier’s work within the broader history of photography. He compares her to Henri Cartier-Bresson, renowned French street photographer, in her ability to capture “instances in which timing is everything.” In Maier’s most striking works, Westerbeck finds what art theorist Roland Barthes famously called a punctum—a singular detail in a photograph that pricks at the viewer’s senses, captivating them. Highlighting images of wit and humor, ambiguity and resonance, this monograph delivers on its promise of photographic vibrancy, showcasing nearly 150 of Maier’s enigmatic works in full, glorious color.
Mary Gabriel’s Ninth Street Women (Little, Brown, 2018) is a refreshing reboot of the story of New York’s postwar art world—this time from the perspectives of the five women painters who revolutionized twentieth-century Abstract Expressionism. Intimately and cinematically, Gabriel illuminates the lives of Lee Krasner, Elaine de Kooning, Grace Hartigan, Joan Mitchell, and Helen Frankenthaler. Their stories are also the stories of cultural revolution, the ever-changing role of women in U.S. society, and the effects of fame and money on the radical creative spirit that drove the movement. After decades in the shadows of their male counterparts—and in the case of Krasner and de Kooning, their superstar husbands—the “core five” are finally and deservedly being shown as complex, courageous pioneers. “Each would pay a price for selecting art over the life society would have prescribed for her,” Gabriel writes. “But it is impossible to imagine that any of them . . . regretted the decision. They simply had no choice. They were artists.”
// BECCA GROSS
// ALICIA GREGORY
Looking for Lorraine: The Radiant and Radical Life of Lorraine Hansberry In Looking for Lorraine (Beacon Press, 2018), Imani Perry provides an expansive, personal view of writer and activist Lorraine Hansberry, best known as the playwright of A Raisin in the Sun. That play earned Hansberry renown as the first black woman writer to have a work produced on Broadway, in 1959, but Perry shows that she should be remembered for much more. Hansberry was born in Chicago in 1930 to a middle-class family that faced racism and segregation. She aligned politically with the Far Left at the height of McCarthyism, and was a principled figure in the early Civil Rights movement. She identified privately (and wrote pseudonymously) as lesbian, but married a man who championed her work. Perry illuminates her brief life—she died of cancer in 1965, at age thirty-four—and original artistic voice. As Perry describes Hansberry’s creative friendship with James Baldwin, “Though they were both most passionately focused on the question of race, it was . . . never posed in isolation from other structures of difference and domination such as gender, class, and sexuality.” // ELIZABETH LYNCH
WO M E N I N T H E A RTS
International
Vivian Maier: The Color Work
Education Report
PHOTO BY ADRIENNE L. GAYOSO, NMWA
Above: St. Albans, West Virginia, teacher Karen Kersey (center) with NMWA educators Ashley W. Harris and Adrienne L. Gayoso
WINTER/SPRING 2019
Right: A fourth-grader’s rubber band book with bug cover, inspired by the art of Maria Sibylla Merian
Travels Near and Far The education department took its talents on the road in October to share components of the Art, Books, and Creativity (ABC) Curriculum and Visual Thinking Strategies with teachers and students in Maryland, Washington, D.C., and West Virginia. Educators traveled to St. Albans, West Virginia, to reconnect with 2015 ABC Teacher Institute alumna Karen Kersey. This partnership grew out of the education team’s goal to support ABC alumni and Kersey’s persistent “dreaming about how my students could expand their art knowledge, learn about a bigger world, and connect with art.” Kersey, a veteran elementary school teacher who believes in the power of art education, described her students’ limited access to visual art, since her district’s elementary schools
depend on itinerant art teachers whose time and resources are strained. She identified an art drought and called NMWA for backup. Senior Educator Adrienne L. Gayoso and Associate Educator Ashley W. Harris worked with Kersey’s colleagues districtwide, as well as with students at Alban Elementary School. They crafted and taught gradespecific bookmaking and writing lessons to secondthrough fourth-grade students at the school. In three days, they provided twenty-one free instructional hours and reached 153 students. Also on this trip, Gayoso and Harris led a three-hour teacher training for twenty Kanawha County School educators at Charleston’s Clay Center for the Arts and Sciences. Participants practiced Visual Thinking Strategies, an inquiry-based methodology
for leading discussions about artwork, and created artists’ books. Several participants mentioned the cross-curricular implications for what they learned. Another said, “This [training] was very informative, interesting, and engaging.” Special thanks to Karen Kersey for shepherding this partnership; to Alban Elementary School principal Johnna Jacobs and teachers Melissa Dickens, Kyle French, Amy Loftis, Doris Loftis, Chelsey Martin, and Francie Vernon for welcoming NMWA educators; to Mark Davis, Fine Arts Supervisor, Kanawha County Schools, for providing a platform to introduce NMWA to a wider audience; and to staff at the Clay Center for graciously hosting. Closer to home, NMWA educators led training sessions for 152 teachers from the Archdiocese of Washington Catholic Schools. The Archdiocese serves students in Washington, D.C., as well as five Maryland counties. A Wish Granted For a second consecutive year, NMWA received the District Arts and Humanities Initiative:
Field Trip Experiences grant from the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities. This award will underwrite costs associated with field trips to the museum for Washington, D.C., Public and Public Charter School students. Thanks to the DC Commission’s generous support, NMWA will welcome over 500 students during the 2018–9 school year for “Thinking Routine Thursdays,” a tour offered through the D.C. Arts and Humanities Education Collaborative and led by fulltime museum educators. Celebrated Book Artist On November 14, NMWA welcomed artist, writer, and educator Carol Todaro for the fourth annual Book Arts Lecture. During her talk “At the Table—Poetry, Artists’ Books, and Book Objects,” Todaro discussed selected artists’ books, collaborative projects, and sculptural tableaus from the past twenty years, exploring the book as both object and subject. The museum holds two books by Todaro—Looking Glass (1999) and i (2002)—in its collection, and has featured her work in three special exhibitions.
PHOTO BY ADRIENNE POON, NMWA
PHOTO BY AMY LOF TIS
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Book artist Carol Todaro (center) with NMWA Book Arts Curator Emerita Krystyna Wasserman and Director of Education and Digital Engagement Deborah Gaston
Dedicated Donor //
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SUSAN SWARTZ
Far left: Susan and Jim Swartz at the opening of her 2018 exhibition at the Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing
“Creativity has helped me to triumph over adversity,” says Susan Swartz, an artist and NMWA Advisory Board member who has generously supported the Women, Arts, and Social Change (WASC) public programming initiative. Swartz paints abstracted, textural nature scenes, which were shown at the museum in the 2011 exhibition Susan Swartz: Seasons of the Soul. She had known the museum since a visit in the late 1980s, and describes the exhibition as a “personal dream come true. I have since gone on to exhibit in major museums around the world, but NMWA’s belief in me empowered me both as an artist and as a woman.” Her work has been shown widely, at museums including the Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing; the State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg; and the Ludwig Museum of Contemporary Art, Budapest. As she describes her art, “Nature has always been one
of my greatest inspirations,” in its beauty as well as its precariousness. Nature’s perils have affected her personal health—she has endured mercury poisoning as well as Lyme disease, both of which are spread or exacerbated by human effects on the environment. Swartz represented the U.S. as an environmental artist during the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, Utah, and through that experience, she says, “I came to understand how my work might help to raise awareness about the increasing fragility of the natural world.” In tandem with her exhibition at NMWA, the museum featured a series of speakers and film programs that addressed people’s impact on the natural world. The pairing of environmental activism and art sparked an idea for NMWA Director Susan Fisher Sterling, who spearheaded the creation of the museum’s WASC initiative in 2015. In each Fresh
Talk, the signature program of WASC, leading innovators, artists, and speakers hold conversations that illuminate the power of women and the arts. Swartz and her husband, Jim, are proud supporters of the programming. The Swartzes’ philanthropy and activism extend to other organizations that support the arts and social change. As Susan describes, she values mission-oriented work that “holds personal meaning and leaves a lasting legacy.” They are founding members of Impact Partners, a group supporting documentary filmmakers who work to shed light on injustice. She says, “When we fund a project we also become advisors to the filmmakers and advocates for the film, much like the museum advocates for its artists. And similar to the museum’s outreach efforts, many of Impact Partners’ films have ignited impact, inspired action, and created social change.”
Susan Swartz admires the museum’s leaders, particularly NMWA Founder Wilhelmina Cole Holladay, whom she calls “a true visionary who never doubted the worth and value of women artists.” Holladay says, “We were pleased to show Susan Swartz’s paintings at the museum in 2011, and it is meaningful to know that the experience was so significant for her and her career. We also appreciate that she and Jim have grown closer to the museum through their engagement in our new public programs initiative.” Looking ahead, Swartz hopes that the museum continues the trajectory it has built with WASC, “to educate and embolden the community.” She says, “I am committed to supporting the museum’s efforts to highlight the power of women and the arts as catalysts for change. I encourage everyone to engage in the conversation to propel it forward.”
WO M E N I N T H E A RTS
Left: Susan Swartz, Gentle Morning, 2007; Acrylic on linen, 36 x 36 in.; NMWA, Museum Purchase
Building the Museum’s Future
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Winton Smoot Holladay
WINTER/SPRING 2019
A symbol, a landmark, a place of beauty, a gathering space for edification and contemplation, and the world’s only major museum dedicated to women in the arts. NMWA’s building serves many different functions and people, and it is here to stay.
Wallace Holladay, first NMWA Director Anne-Imelda Radice, and architect Coke Florance look at NMWA’s building, ca. 1985
A Unique Enterprise NMWA Founders Wallace and Wilhelmina (“Billie”) Cole Holladay always understood that the museum’s original historic building and Elisabeth A. Kasser Wing were vital to the success of our mission. In 1983, when NMWA finalized the purchase of the historic structure at 1250 New York Avenue, NW, the organization’s swiftly growing membership celebrated that this new and unique museum dedicated to women in the arts had found a home. The Holladays, together with a team of experts, shepherded the purchase, planning, and renovation of the 1907 Renaissance Revival building. The building, as Billie Holladay would say, is a “class act.” Originally constructed as a Masonic headquarters by architect Waddy B. Wood and finished in 1908, the façade still features symbols of the Masons (ironically, a group that did not admit women). In the intervening years, its varied uses reflected a century of change and growth in downtown D.C.—accommodating, among other things, the Town Theater and George Washington University’s Law Library. During its complete renovation by Keyes Condon Florance Architects and Omni, a division of Clark Construction from 1985 to 1987, all the spaces were re-envisioned and re-cast for use as a museum, with a marble Great Hall, two floors of galleries, a spacious library and research center, a 200-seat theater, art storage, and staff offices. All of this transformed 1250 New York Avenue, NW, into an award-winning home for inspirational art by women
from the Renaissance to the present, and more. Early in the planning stages, Billie conceived of the Great Hall as an elegant setting for art and events. In addition to people who have had revelatory encounters through an exhibition, educational experience, public program, or research visit, the museum holds a special place in the memories of others who’ve attended a social, corporate, or nonprofit gathering in the Great Hall—from weddings to meetings of the International Association of Women Judges. In 1995, NMWA was able to purchase the building next door and, again, thanks to many generous donors, work began on the Elisabeth A. Kasser Wing. This complementary and well-designed addition made room for an expanded Museum Shop, a board room, and spacious galleries for modern and contemporary art and sculpture. Completed and inaugurated in 1997, the Kasser Wing’s opening was a wonderful way to celebrate the museum’s 10th anniversary and demonstrate NMWA’s growth in stature.
PHOTO BY CVM ENGINEERS PHOTO BY GORDON UMBARGER, NMWA
Top: Damage to NMWA’s roof and cornice from the January 2016 blizzard
Bottom: Contractors work to restore the roof functionally and aesthetically
building requires serious repair and renovation after several decades, so too NMWA’s august yet aging structure is in need of significant refurbishment. This renewal will correct the deterioration of age and incorporate equipment that adheres to the latest museum standards, but also builds upon the museum’s great and exciting legacy for future generations.
Cementing the Future As this issue goes to press, we are awaiting a report from architect Sandra Vicchio and her team, which we will receive in the coming weeks. The Board of Trustees will consider their preservation and restoration recommendations carefully, with an eye toward current and future needs. This building—imbued with the hopes and dreams of its Founders, members, and friends, and women artists from around the globe—has proved to be an ideal home in which to welcome and engage the public in our unique mission, and we intend to carry forward the legacy we have been so graciously given. This space in Women in the Arts magazine will be used for future updates and plans. We look forward to bringing you more news soon regarding these exciting developments! Winton Smoot Holladay is the Vice-Chair of NMWA’s Board of Trustees. //
WO M E N I N T H E A RTS
Damage and Repair As Billie described in her letter at the front of this issue, a record-breaking blizzard in January 2016 seriously damaged the main building’s roof. This crisis had a silver lining, however. Just a few weeks earlier, in December, thanks to grants from the Institute of Museum and Library Services and the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, NMWA had engaged renowned architect Sandra Vicchio and Associates to conduct a preservation study of its building. Vicchio’s skilled team—including engineers and building contractors whose expertise comprises museums, libraries, national monuments, and other cultural properties—was on the scene immediately. Within days, they secured the structure and then skillfully planned the roof and cornice restoration in a manner faithful to its original construction. Since that time, Vicchio and her team have also completed all phases of their preservation study and engaged in necessary pre-design work for the building’s renovation. For historic structures such as NMWA’s, this is a meticulous and careful process of identifying key problem areas both inside and out. They have examined the exterior building envelope, checked the lifespan of all mechanical systems, reviewed current D.C. construction codes for compliance, and undertaken exploratory work in walls and ceilings to better understand the building’s original construction, 1980s renovation, and Kasser Wing, in addition to many other assessments. The list goes on, but, suffice it to say, the Board of Trustees understands the extent of the building’s current needs, and we are encouraged by the transformative possibilities of restoration and renewal. Just as any home or commercial
9
For Natasha, 2015; Cedar and graphite, 9 ft. 1 in. x 6 ft. 7 in. x 3 ft. 6 in.; Š Ursula von Rydingsvard, Courtesy of Galerie Lelong & Co.
Ursula von Rydingsvard The Contour of Feeling march 22 –july 28, 2019
“We don’t know the contour of feeling; we only know what molds it from without.” Rainer Maria Rilke, “Fourth Duino Elegy”
PHOTO BY MICHAEL BODYCOMB
Orin Zahra
The art of sculptor Ursula von Rydingsvard (b. 1942) inspires awe and self-reflection. The Contour of Feeling, her first one-person exhibition in Washington, D.C., presents von Rydingsvard’s monumental carvings in cedar wood as well as recent works on view for the first time. The exhibition centers on her work since 2000 and her continued experimentation. The artist describes an urgent, persistent need to make art, “to survive—to survive living and all of its implied layers.”
W I N T E R / S P R I N G 2 0 19
PHOTO BY CARLOS AVENDAÑO
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The daughter of a woodcutter from a long line of peasant farmers, von Rydingsvard spent several of her early years in the wooden barracks of refugee camps in Germany at the end of World War II. Wood was the source of her family’s meager furnishings, as well as their fuel to keep warm and cook food. The artist resists straightforward biographical readings of her works, yet she describes those critical years of her youth as woven into her subconscious or instinct, which in turn leaves an imprint on her art. In 1950, her family immigrated to the United States and settled in Plainville, Connecticut. In the 1970s, von Rydingsvard embraced art as a liberating vehicle of expression. She earned a master’s degree in studio art in 1975 from Columbia University, where she eschewed the detached mood and machismo that characterized the Minimalist style and discovered the potential of cedar to express both grandeur and humility. “Art doesn’t really have a clear explanation,” states von Rydingsvard. “Let it float and tell you what the piece needs to tell you . . . like the soul.”¹ The Contour of Her Feelings, and Ours Recalling the words of von Rydingsvard’s favorite poet, Rilke, her art expresses her persistent search for deeper truths. Cedar, her primary medium, allows her to mold
and shape each sculpture due to the natural softness of the wood. Her large-scale works command attention, jut into viewers’ space, dangle overhead, and force people to move around them. In their shallow and cavernous grooves and curvilinear forms, von Rydingsvard’s sculptures are poetic and expressive; they reveal the process by which she gives outward visual form to her ideas and emotions. Without directly referencing religion, von Rydingsvard’s works are suffused with a spiritual, introspective aura, often calling to mind sacred shrines or prehistoric monuments. One of her earlier and best-known works in the exhibition, Zakopane (1987), is a colossal, altar-like wall installation of twenty-two fused vertical units, each with a hollow vessel at the base and diagonal protrusion at the top. When von Rydingsvard taught sculpture at Yale University in the 1980s, she created the piece after she received a grant that allowed her to travel to Poland, where she visited the small southeastern town of Zakopane (near her mother’s hometown). Its name derives from the word “zakopać,” meaning to bury and cover with earth. Von Above: Zakopane, 1987; Cedar and paint, 11 ft. 6 in. x 22 ft. x 3 ft.; © Ursula von Rydingsvard, Courtesy of Galerie Lelong & Co.
Opposite: Droga, 2009; Cedar and graphite, 4 ft. 6 in. x 9 ft. 7 in. x 18 ft. 3 in.; © Ursula von Rydingsvard, Courtesy of Galerie Lelong & Co.;
Ursula von Rydingsvard marking cedar, 2007; © Ursula von Rydingsvard, Courtesy of Galerie Lelong & Co.
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and vigorous practice, the team wears masks and suits to protect against graphite, sawdust, and powerful adhesives. They use heavy machinery to lift, place, and assemble the complex sculptures. To begin one of her signature monumental vertical sculptures, von Rydingsvard often draws on the studio floor with chalk, tracing the base of the work, which determines its height and general shape. She primarily uses four-by-four cedar beams, making thirty to forty slices into a piece with a circular saw; each beam’s design is informed by the one cut before it. The carefully numbered sculpted pieces are screwed together temporarily in layers, then fastened using thousands of clamps and resorcinol, a World War II-era glue that was used to mend ships. After she marks the textured surfaces with graphite to show a grittier, hardened appearance that reveals her handwork and forceful gestures, the sections of cedar beams are assembled into their final form. This long,
WO M E N I N T H E A RTS
PHOTO BY MICHAEL BODYCOMB
Building “I feel like my studio is my sanctuary, the only real place where I can speak . . . the only reason we’re there is for the art,” says the artist. Von Rydingsvard’s studio practice involves a close relationship with her studio assistants. In a physical
PHOTO BY ZONDER TITEL
Rydingsvard often uses variations of Polish words for titles, but she prefers to leave them untranslated to preserve the enigmatic nature of her work. As her sculpture practice evolved, von Rydingsvard experimented with the possibilities of cedar. Droga (2009), a horizontal floor-based work, conjures an image of a heavy, slumped creature collapsed on the ground. Krypta I (2014), the first of her cedar works to feature diagonal wing-like appendages, stands more than ten feet tall. Tornado-like, it appears to spin upward, widening as it climbs in height. The sprawling wall sculpture thread terror (2016) evokes rolled thread or reams of fabric through deep perforated grooves. One of two works on view from NMWA’s collection, Apron (1997), expresses the artist’s abiding interest in common household objects. Clothing and other utilitarian forms are also seen in her bowls, vessels, plates, or Collar with Dots (2008), though the references are ambiguous. Tak (2015, pictured on the cover), a recent gift to the museum from NMWA Founder Wilhelmina Cole Holladay, has a powerful and direct relationship with the viewer through its human-sized scale.
The artist compels audiences to join her soul-searching quest for “answers to questions for which I know there are no answers.”
PHOTO BY ETIENNE FROSSARD
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W I N T E R / S P R I N G 2 0 19
labor-intensive practice means that it may take up to nine months to complete one of her massive sculptures, some of which are over eleven feet high. Von Rydingsvard frequently strays from her original plans and adapts to the movement of the work as it progresses, creating irregular and dramatic patterns. The artist balances her meticulous method of alignment with her intuition and spontaneity. Making no formal sketches or models beforehand, she embraces an organic process to find the form of each sculpture.
Branching Out Von Rydingsvard continues to explore and experiment with unusual materials. Her works often evoke corporeal or beast- like forms, and some incorporate animal entrails and other organic materials. In Ocean Floor (1996), the perimeter of the large wooden vessel-like structure is encircled by pouches that are made of sewn cow intestines and filled with peat moss. Large sheets of intestinal membrane forming Untitled (stacked blankets) (2014) reveal ropy veins branching across the translucent, fragile surface, eliciting a visceral response from the viewer. In her abstract works on handmade linen paper, produced at Dieu Donné papermaking workshop in Brooklyn, the artist incorporates materials such as knotted silk, tangles
of thread, paper pulp, hair, lace, graphite, and pigment into the paper medium itself, yielding graceful, whimsical compositions. The collaged materials extend the boundaries of the paper, giving the delicate two-dimensional works a sculptural presence. Von Rydingsvard has also experimented with leather as a medium. In collaboration with the Fabric Workshop and Museum (FWM), the artist produced a large-scale sculpture of a leather jacket. PODERWAĆ (2017), created from deconstructed leather jackets that she collected from flea markets and secondhand-clothing stores, is the product of nearly nine hundred hours of sewing by FWM studio technicians and the artist’s assistants. For von Rydingsvard, the power of art means that it always beckons, yielding new insights over time, but never offering complete understanding. In this way, the artist compels audiences to join her soul-searching quest for “answers to questions for which I know there are no answers.” \\ Orin Zahra is the assistant curator at the National Museum of Women in the Arts.
Note: 1. All quotes from “Why do I make art?” and “In Ursula’s Own Voice, An Interview with Mark Rosenthal,” in Ursula von Rydingsvard: The Contour of Feeling (Philadelphia and Munich: The Fabric Workshop and Museum and Hirmer Publishers, 2018).
Ursula von Rydingsvard: The Contour of Feeling is organized by The Fabric Workshop and Museum, Philadelphia, and guest curator Mark Rosenthal.
Opposite: Untitled, 2017; Fabric, string, lace, and pigment on linen handmade paper, 31 x 32 in.; © Ursula von Rydingsvard, Courtesy of Galerie Lelong & Co.
Above: Ursula von Rydingsvard [center] surrounded by studio assistants [left to right: Morgan Daly, Sean Weeks-Earp, Ted Wade Springer, and Francisco Ruben Muñoz] in front of Bowl with Folds (1998–9), Detroit, 2017; © Ursula von Rydingsvard, Courtesy Galerie Lelong & Co.
Below: Ocean Floor, 1996; Cedar, graphite, and cow intestines, 3 x 13 x 11 ft.; © Ursula von Rydingsvard, Courtesy of Galerie Lelong & Co.
WO M E N I N T H E A RTS
PHOTO BY CARLOS AVENDAÑO
Presentation of the exhibition at NMWA is made possible by RBC Wealth Management and City National Bank, Share Fund, and Bloomberg Philanthropies.
PHOTO BY KEVIN SILARY
Ursula von Rydingsvard: The Contour of Feeling is supported by the National Endowment for the Arts; Heidi and Tom McWilliams; Agnes Gund; Harvey S. Shipley Miller, the Shipley Miller Foundation; the Arcadia Foundation; Barbara B. and Theodore R. Aronson; the Maxine and Stuart Frankel Foundation; Katie Adams Schaeffer and Tony Schaeffer; Maja Paumgarten and John Parker; The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts; ForGood Fund; Henry S. McNeil; Constance H. Williams; Jill and Sheldon Bonovitz; Tony and Lynn Hitschler; and Anonymous Donors.
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Calendar 16
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EXHIBITIONS
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Daily / Weekly / Monthly
KEY
Gallery Experience: Conversation Pieces MOST DAYS 2–2:30 P.M. // M A O
Ursula von Rydingsvard: The Contour of Feeling March 22–July 28, 2019
F Free
A
Free with admission
Gallery Talks: Lunchtime Talk Series
Ambreen Butt— Mark My Words On view through April 14, 2019
R
Reservation required at https://nmwa.org
WEDNESDAYS 12–12:30 P.M. // F M O
O
No reservations required
M
Free for members
Free for members and one guest
Join us for thirty-minute conversations that spotlight two works on view. Check in at the Information Desk.
Bite-sized talks led by museum staff members encourage visitors to look closely and discuss works on view.
E Exhibition-related program
New York Avenue Sculpture Project: Betsabeé Romero On view through September 20, 2020 Full Bleed: A Decade of Photobooks and Photo Zines by Women On view through March 29, 2019, in the Betty Boyd Dettre Library and Research Center; Open Monday–Friday, 10 a.m.– 12 p.m. and 1–5 p.m.
Free Community Days FIRST SUNDAYS 12–5 P.M. // F M O
The first Sunday of each month, NMWA offers free admission to the public. Enjoy current exhibitions and the collection galleries.
February Ursula von Rydingsvard, SCRATCH II, 2015; On view in Ursula von Rydingsvard: The Contour of Feeling
2 /3
Free Community Day
SUN
12–5 P.M. // F M O
2 / 3
Drop-In Tour: Fierce Women 2.0
SUN 1–2 P.M. // F M O
With a fresh installation of the collection, discover a new squad of fierce women who blazed trails as artists, activists, and innovators. Limited space—check in at the Information Desk.
2/ 6
WED
2 / 13
Gallery Talk: Rodarte 12–12:30 P.M. // F M O E
Gallery Talk: Collection Sampler
WED 12–12:30 P.M. // F M O
2 / 20
Gallery Talk: Collection Sampler
WED 12–12:30 P.M. // F M O
2 / 27
WED
Gallery Talk: Ambreen Butt 12–12:30 P.M. // F M O E
© URSULA VON RYDINGSVARD, COURTESY OF GALERIE LELONG & CO.
WINTER/SPRING 2019
March
3 / 3
Free Community Day
SUN
12–5 P.M. // F M O
3 / 3
Drop-In Tour: Fierce Women 2.0
SUN 1–2 P.M. // F M O
With a fresh installation of the collection, discover a new squad of fierce women who blazed trails as artists, activists, and innovators. Limited space—check in at the Information Desk.
3 / 6
Gallery Talk: #5WomenArtists
WED
12–12:30 P.M. // F M O
Visit https://nmwa.org for reservations, a complete calendar of events, and more information.
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April
4 / 3
Gallery Talk: Ursula von Rydingsvard
WED
12–12:30 P.M. // F M O E
4 / 6
Slow Art Day
SAT
12–2 P.M. // M A R
EMILY HAIGHT, NMWA
Focus on the art of seeing: examine and discuss five works on view as part of international Slow Art Day.
4 / 7
Free Community Day
SUN
12–5 P.M. // F M O
4 / 7
Drop-In Tour: Fierce Women 2.0
SUN 1–2 P.M. // F M O
With a fresh installation of the collection, discover a new squad of fierce women who blazed trails as artists, activists, and innovators. Limited space—check in at the Information Desk.
An attendee at Sylvia Snowden’s artist talk captures a photo; during the month of March, participate in NMWA’s #5WomenArtists social media campaign by liking and sharing work by women artists
3 / 10
Cultural Capital: PEN/Faulkner Foundation presents “Fantastic Women”
4 / 7
SUN 2:15–3:15 P.M. // F M O
Learn about artists whose work is on view in artistfocused films from Art21. This screening features Marina Abramović, Lynda Benglis, Louise Bourgeois, and Graciela Iturbide.
SUN 7–9 P.M. // R
Part of PEN/Faulkner’s Literary Conversations series, “Fantastic Women” celebrates the work of writers Lesley Nneka Arimah, Kelly Link, and Carmen Maria Machado. $25 general; $20 members, seniors, students.
3 / 13
3 / 20
3 / 21
THU
WED
WED
4 / 9
Artists in Conversation: Ambreen Butt
TUE
6:30–8:30 P.M. // R E
Gallery Talk: #5WomenArtists
Artist Ambreen Butt shares stories and discusses the artwork featured in Mark My Words. Includes in-gallery conversation and refreshments. $25 general; $15 members, seniors, students.
12–12:30 P.M. // F M O
Gallery Talk: #5WomenArtists 12–12:30 P.M. // F M 0
Member Preview Day: Ursula von Rydingsvard 11 A.M.–2 P.M. // M + O E
Film Series: Contemporary Women Artists (1 of 3)
4 / 10
WED
Gallery Talk: Collection Sampler 12–12:30 P.M. // F M O
Attend a special preview of Ursula von Rydingsvard: The Contour of Feeling, featuring the artist’s monumental sculpture and recent work.
3 / 21
THU
Exhibition Opening Party: Ursula von Rydingsvard 8–11 P.M. // R E
You’re invited!
Join us to celebrate the opening of Ursula von Rydingsvard: The Contour of Feeling. Ticket includes exhibition access, music, and open bar. $35 general; $25 members.
3 / 23
SAT
Wikipedia Edit-a-thon 2019 10 A.M.–2:30 P.M. // M A R
3 / 23
SAT
Cultural Capital: Environmental Film Festival 1–3 P.M. // F M R
Enjoy a screening presented in partnership with the world’s premier showcase of environmentally themed films.
3 / 27 WED
Gallery Talk: #5WomenArtists 12–12:30 P.M. // F M O
A visitor explores a gallery with Amy Sherald’s It Made Sense...Mostly in Her Mind (2011) and They call me Redbone but I’d rather be Strawberry Shortcake (2009) and Frida Kahlo’s Self-Portrait Dedicated to Leon Trotsky (1937)
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its 6th annual Art+Feminism edit-a-thon focused on improving Wikipedia entries for notable women artists. PHOTO BY MARGOT SCHULMAN
NMWA hosts
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KEVIN ALLEN PHOTOGRAPHY
May
5 / 1
WED 12–12:30 P.M. // F M O E
5 / 1 Film:
WED 6:30–9 P.M. // R E
KEY R Reservation required at
F Free M Free for members
Free for members and one guest
A
Free with admission
https://nmwa.org O No reservations required
WED
4 / 12
FRI
4 / 13
SAT
5 / 5
Free Community Day
SUN
12–5 P.M. // F M O
5 / 5
Drop-In Tour: Fierce Women 2.0
SUN 1–2 P.M. // F M O
With a fresh installation of the collection, discover a new squad of fierce women who blazed trails as artists, activists, and innovators. Limited space—check in at the Information Desk.
5 / 5
SUN 2:15–3:15 P.M. // F M O
Film Series: Contemporary Women Artists (2 of 3) Learn about artists whose work is on view in artistfocused films from Art21. This screening features Kimsooja, Barbara Kruger, Sally Mann, and Zanele Muholi.
7:30–9:30 P.M. // F M R
Artistic Director Gilan Tocco Corn welcomes the Aletheia Piano Trio, which is rising to acclaim for impassioned energy and musical integrity.
5 / 8
Gallery Talk: Collection Sampler
WED
12–12:30 P.M. // F M O
2019 Spring Gala
5 / 8
Shenson Chamber Music Concert: Amaranth Quartet
6:30 P.M. // R
WED
7:30–9:30 P.M. // F M R
Join co-chairs Marcy Cohen, Kristen Lund, Sara O’Keefe, and Kimberly Shiff for the museum’s largest annual fundraising event. Contact fmurray@nmwa.org for tickets, sponsorship, and more.
E Exhibition-related program
4 / 10 Shenson Chamber Music Concert: Aletheia Piano Trio
Ursula von Rydingsvard: Into Her Own
Join us for a special preview of the feature documentary Ursula von Rydingsvard: Into Her Own (2019). Followed by Q&A and reception. $15 general; $10 members, seniors, students.
Attendees enjoy Sunday Supper following a Fresh Talk event
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Gallery Talk: Ursula von Rydingsvard
Artistic Director Gilan Tocco Corn welcomes the Amaranth Quartet for their Washington, D.C., debut and the world premieres of two new commissions.
Firsthand Experience Workshop: Collage 9:30 A.M.-2:30 P.M. // R E
D.C.-based artist and educator Dafna Steinberg teaches students how to repurpose sourced images, magazine pages, fabrics, and more to create new works of art. $25 general; $15 members, seniors, students.
4 / 17
4 / 24
Gallery Talk: Ursula von Rydingsvard 12–12:30 P.M. // F M O E
Gallery Talk: Collection Sampler
WED 12–12:30 P.M. // F M O
4 / 24
WED
Fresh Talk: Writing the Balance 7–9:30 P.M. // R
Join Amy Padnani, creator of the New York Times “Overlooked” series, and Hilary Sample of MOS Architects for a conversation about revising history’s dominant narratives. Ticket includes museum admission and Catalyst cocktail hour. $25 general; $20 members, seniors, students.
PHOTO BY TITILAYO AYANGADE
WINTER/SPRING 2019
WED
Amaranth Quartet plays May 8 in the Shenson Chamber Music Concert Series
A sold-out crowd enjoys a Fresh Talk
YASSINE EL MANSOURI
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5 / 15
Gallery Talk: Ursula von Rydingsvard
WED 12–12:30 P.M. // F M O E
5 / 22
WED
Gallery Talk: Collection Sampler 12–12:30 P.M. // F M O
5 / 25 Firsthand Experience Workshop: Making and Sculpting Paper
5 / 29 Gallery Talk: Library and Research Center Special Exhibition WED
12–12:30 P.M. // F M O
June 6 / 2
Free Community Day
SUN
12–5 P.M. // F M O
6 / 2
Drop-In Tour: Fierce Women 2.0
SUN 1–2 P.M. // F M O
With a fresh installation of the collection, discover a new squad of fierce women who blazed trails as artists, activists, and innovators. Limited space—check in at the Information Desk.
6 / 2
SUN 2:15–3:15 P.M. // F M O
Film Series: Contemporary Women Artists (3 of 3) Learn about artists whose work is on view in artistfocused films from Art21. This screening features Cindy Sherman, Laurie Simmons, Kiki Smith, Valeska Soares, and Ursula von Rydingsvard.
6 / 5
WED 12–12:30 P.M.
6 / 19
6 / 12
Gallery Talk: More is More: Multiples //
FMOE
Gallery Talk: Ursula von Rydingsvard
WED 12–12:30 P.M. // F M O E
Gallery Talk: Ursula von Rydingsvard
WED 12–12:30 P.M. // F M O E
6 / 22 Scout Program: Cadette Girl Scouts’ Book Artist Badge Program
SAT
11 A.M.-2 P.M. // R
Designed for Cadette Girl Scouts, though open to interested students in grades 6–8, this program introduces bookmaking and satisfies all steps of the Cadette Book Artist Badge. $15.
SAT 9:30 A.M.–2:30 P.M. // R E
Local artist, educator, and arts administrator Gretchen Schermerhorn leads students on an exploration of making and sculpting paper, with inspiration from Ursula von Rydingsvard. $25 general; $15 members, seniors, students.
6 / 26
WED
6 / 30
SUN
Gallery Talk: Collection Sampler 12–12:30 P.M. // F M O
Fresh Talk: Accessory to Action—Adorning Wakanda 4:30-6 P.M. // R
Douriean Fletcher, Marvel Comics’ first licensed jewelry designer and creator of the power-packed accessories for Black Panther, discusses gender equity in Wakandan society and our own. Ticket includes museum admission and Catalyst cocktail hour. $25 general; $20 members, seniors, students
// Education programming is made possible by Mrs. Marjorie Rachlin, the Leo Rosner Foundation, SunTrust, the William Randolph Hearst Foundation, and the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, which receives support from the National Endowment for the Arts. Additional support is provided by Wells Fargo, the Harriet E. McNamee Youth Education Fund, William and Christine Leahy, and the Junior League of Washington.
The Women, Arts, and Social Change public programs initiative is made possible through leadership gifts from Denise Littlefield Sobel, the Davis/Dauray Family Fund, and the Susan and Jim Swartz Public Programs Fund. Additional funding is provided by the Bernstein Family Foundation, The Reva and David Logan Foundation, and the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, which receives support from the National Endowment for the Arts. The 2018–2019 Shenson Chamber Music Concert Series is made possible by support from Fred M. Levin and Nancy Livingston, The Shenson Foundation in memory of Drs. Ben and A. Jess Shenson, and The Honorable Mary V. Mochary.
WO M E N I N T H E A RTS
Ambreen Butt
Mark My Words December 7, 2018–April 14, 2019
Ayeesha (3) (from the series “Say My Name”), 2017; Text, collage, and pen on tea-stained paper, 29 x 21 in.; Courtesy of the artist
NMWA’s focus exhibition on Ambreen Butt (b. 1969) reveals the deeply personal connection between the artist’s global consciousness and the physical process that she uses to create each of her works. Born in Lahore, Pakistan, Butt trained in Indian and Persian miniature painting, an art form seen in historical illustrated manuscripts, before relocating in 1993 to Boston. Her practice fuses miniature painting with the conceptualism prevalent in contemporary Western art. In her first solo exhibition in Washington, D.C., Mark My Words highlights thirteen mixed-media works and prints that reflect Butt’s exceptional range of mark-making techniques, as well as her ideas about women making their marks on society. Butt discusses her art practice with NMWA Assistant Curator Orin Zahra.
PHOTO BY KEVIN TODORA
Orin Zahra
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Untitled (Weeping Woman) (from the series “Daughters of the East”), 2008; Etching, aquatint, spit-bite aquatint, drypoint, and hand coloring on paper, 25 x 19 in.; Courtesy of the artist
WINTER/SPRING 2019
PHOTO BY STEPHEN PETEGORSK Y
My protagonist is not an idealized character; she is a mirror in which a million women see their faces.
OZ Ambreen, you have said that you wish to use beauty rather than a sledgehammer to convey your ideas. How does your work reflect that philosophy? AB The work deals with subjects of a difficult nature, yet it uses beauty and aesthetics as a vehicle to make them more accessible to the beholder. It seduces the viewer to enter the symbolic landscape of the work. The pictorial and textual references that I use often come from the traditional Islamic arts of calligraphy and patterning, which are embedded purely in aesthetics. They are then weaved together with contemporary themes of social and political events. OZ You trained in traditional Indian and Persian min-
iature painting. What prompted you to reimagine the genre with contemporary female protagonists in the 2008 series “Dirty Pretty” and related work?
AB My protagonist is inspired by the nayika, or heroine, of
the kangra style seen in Mughal paintings.¹ I am fascinated by her beauty, seductiveness, and ornamental quality. She was imagined by male artists of earlier times, thus her role in this genre is often passive. My heroine, on the other hand, is redefined through the gaze of a female artist. She is beautiful and seductive like the old nayika, but at the same time she confronts the viewer with her vulnerability and strength. My protagonist is not an idealized character; she is a mirror in which a million women see their faces. OZ Text frequently appears in your work. Where does your interest in the written word come from? AB My use of torn text began when I incorporated bits of my own journal into an artwork. The ritual of rejecting the version of myself that was preserved in the journal and processing it
AB Carrying a layered identity can be challenging, as you
are in a constant state of negotiation. I have worked hard to develop a visual language that can reflect the complexities of being a South Asian Muslim woman artist in America. My narratives are layered with juxtaposed elements to reflect these complexities, generating a new vocabulary in Western art, but also recontextualizing traditional miniature painting. It has been a blessing for me and a hell of a lot of work at the same time.
Below right: Untitled 2 (from the series “Dirty Pretty”), 2008; Water- based pigments, white gouache, thread, and gold leaf on Mylar and tea- stained paper, 28 x 20 in.; Sara M. and Michelle Vance Waddell Collection
into a new form—one which had to be read and interpreted in new ways—exposed the vulnerability of the written word and posed new questions about its meaning. I explore ways of transforming text to create images that can be familiar yet untranslatable, the meaning never completely present.
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Orin Zahra is the assistant curator at the National Museum of Women in the Arts. //
Ambreen Butt—Mark My Words is organized by the museum and made possible through the generous support of the Belinda de Gaudemar Curatorial Fund. Additional funding is provided by the members of NMWA.
OZ Your mark-making techniques are incredibly varied, and often painstaking and labor-intensive. Does this approach help you to connect with the issues you address? AB It is through that physical experience that I process the complexities of my thoughts. I call it the labor of love, the bearer of the clarity of my mind. In my latest series, “Say My Name,” each drawing is based on a victim of American drone strikes [in Pakistan and Afghanistan]. For example, I created Ayeesha (3) (2017) by writing and printing the name “Ayeesha” over and over on paper and then shredding it. These torn pieces are then collected and laid on a tea-stained surface one at a time, a very meditative process. I get to create an imagined portrait of Ayeesha, whom I’ve never met or seen. It gives a symbolic life to that person who is no longer part of our collective living, but rather part of a collateral damage.
Note: 1. Kangra painting refers to a style that developed in the eighteenth century, when Kashmiri painters began to incorporate the hilly landscapes and natural elements of the sub-Himalayan state of Himachal Pradesh, India, into works that reflected their training in Mughal illustrated manuscripts.
by press images of female student protesters at the 2007 military siege of the Lal Masjid (Red Mosque) in Islamabad. Can you discuss your representation of these women? AB These young women were highly influenced by the mosque’s conservative teachings and many died as a result of their protests. In the first print, the group of women all wearing black burqas and holding bamboo sticks seem threatening; their individual identities are subsumed by the group, and their strength is dependent on standing together. In the last print from the suite, I celebrate the individual over the group and give a real face to the female under the black veil. The bamboo stick has changed from an image of empowerment into one of vulnerability.
OZ What has your journey been as a Pakistani- American woman artist working today?
WO M E N I N T H E A RTS
OZ The series “Daughters of the East” was inspired
PHOTO BY JOHN HORNER
PHOTO BY KEVIN TODORA
Left: Ambreen Butt
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ON VIEW
Maria Schalcken Boy Offering Grapes to a Woman, ca. 1675–82 // Virginia Treanor
In her 1971 essay “Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists?,” feminist art historian Linda Nochlin (1931–2017) emphasized that women artists in Europe and the U.S. were, until the end of the nineteenth century, discouraged and even barred from the level of training that their male peers enjoyed. This lack of professional training, Nochlin argued, stifled women’s artistic growth and kept them from reaching the same status as men. Off the Record In spite of the hurdles they faced, the historical record contains many examples of accomplished women artists who did receive training—although not entirely identical to that of their male peers—and built professional careers. Because of varying restrictions and social mores, women were prevented from the traditional route of apprenticeship, whereby a student left home to live and train with an established artist. Instead,
WINTER/SPRING 2019
Maria Schalcken, The Artist at Work in Her Studio, ca. 1680; Oil on panel, 15 1/2 x 12 1/2 in.; The Rose-Marie and Eijk van Otterloo Collection; Courtesy of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
women often obtained their training from close relatives, such as a father or brother. This was the case for seventeenth- century Dutch artist Maria Schalcken (ca. 1645/1650–ca. 1700), who was instructed in the art of painting in the city of Dordrecht by her older brother, Godfried Schalcken (1643–1706). Today, little is known about Maria Schalcken’s biographical details; the archival record is often sparse for women of the early modern period (roughly 1400–1800 CE), and scholars have not invested as much time doing archival research on women artists, although this is happily beginning to change. Much more is known about Godfried Schalcken, and the facts of his biography shed light on those of his sister. Godfried completed an apprenticeship in the city of Leiden with painter Gerrit Dou (1613–1675), the most famous pupil of Rembrandt van Rijn (1606–1669). Godfried returned to Dordrecht in about 1665, and Schalcken likely began her instruction with him at this time, when she was
Schalken’s signature was overpainted, either completely, as in the case of her self-portrait, or partially, as in the case of Boy Offering Grapes to a Woman.
between fifteen and twenty years old. Having trained with Dou, Godfried was accomplished in the fijnschilder or “fine painter” style popularized by his teacher. This style is characterized by small-scale paintings executed in a highly finished and detailed manner. Popular subjects among fijnschilder practitioners like Godfried and Maria Schalcken were scenes of everyday life, known as genre scenes. Demand for these paintings was high among members of the region’s robust middle and upper classes, who sought them for their growing art collections. Through the Grapevine Schalcken’s painting Boy Offering Grapes to a Woman (ca. 1675–82), on long-term loan from the Leiden Collection in New York and on view in NMWA’s third-floor galleries, is an example of the subject, scale, and manner of the fijnschilder style. The subject is not a portrait of individuals, but rather an imagined scene. The young woman and the boy—a few years her junior—are dressed in the fashionable manner of contemporary wealthy Dutch citizens. While the relationship
between the two figures is not entirely clear, they are unlikely to be either a romantic couple or a mother and son, given their ages. Most likely the young man is a servant, as he deferentially offers the basket of grapes. The pair are situated on a portico, behind which is a view of a garden fountain, and beyond that a vista of a mountainous landscape. This landscape does not reflect the local (very flat) terrain, but is the artist’s invention. Along with the classical column supporting the portico, these references evoke an Italianate setting, a fashionable trope used by artists of the period. The small size of the painting—just fourteen inches high—encourages viewers to come close to examine the artist’s masterful technique. Many art historians have attempted to decipher meaning behind the imagery in seventeenth-century genre scenes. Some look to contemporary emblem books to gain insight into an artist’s intention. For instance, grapes have been interpreted as relating to womanly virtue and honor, which, it was believed, could be damaged if handled too roughly—just like the fruit.¹ Grapes will not bruise if they are handled by the stem, just as through marriage a woman may retain her virtue and honor. The woman in Schalcken’s painting reaches for the grapes by the stem, perhaps demonstrating her own virtue.² Schalcken signed this painting at the upper left, a mark of pride, accomplishment, and authenticity. She also signed her self-portrait (shown opposite). In both instances, Schalcken’s signature was overpainted in the nineteenth century either
Maria Schalcken, Boy Offering Grapes to a Woman, ca. 1675–82; Oil on panel, 14 x 10 ½ in.; On loan from The Leiden Collection, New York
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Now at NMWA A long-term loan, such as this one from the Leiden Collection, allows NMWA to exhibit and encourage scholarship on works by early modern women whose work is not represented in the museum’s collection. Schalcken’s painting will also be included in a forthcoming focus exhibition at NMWA in fall 2019, which will present the works of other seventeenth- century Dutch and Flemish women artists.
Virginia Treanor is the associate curator at the National Museum of Women in the Arts. Notes: 1. Eddy de Jongh, “Grape Symbolism in Paintings of the 16th and 17th Centuries,” Simiolus: Netherlands Quarterly for the History of Art, Vol. 7, No. 4 (1974), 166–91. 2. Another plausible reference is the prominent role of grapes in the story of ancient Greek painters Zeuxis and Parrhasius, who competed to see who could paint more realistically. Zeuxis
painted grapes that fooled the birds, but Parrhasius painted a curtain that Zeuxis mistook for a real one. As this relates to Dutch painting, see Wayne Franits, Dutch Seventeenth-Century Genre Painting: Its Stylistic and Thematic Evolution (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2008), 122. 3. The signature in Maria Schalcken’s self-portrait was uncovered during restoration in the early 2000s. See Frederik J. Duparc and Femke Diercks, Golden: Dutch and Flemish Masterworks from the Rose-Marie and Ejik Van Otterloo Collection (Salem,
MA: Peabody Essex Museum, 2011), 281. Currently, there is only one other painting aside from the two mentioned here that is attributed to Schalcken: Interior with a Young Lady Seated, Powdering Her Hair, a small panel documented in 1979 in the London art trade. There are a number of other paintings attributed to her in old sale catalogues. See note 4. 4. Guido Jansen, “Boy Offering Grapes to a Woman,” The Leiden Collection Catalogue (Ed. Arthur K. Wheelock Jr., New York), December 6, 2018, https:// www.theleidencollection.com/archive.
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completely, as in the case of her self-portrait, or partially, as in the case of Boy Offering Grapes to a Woman. This was undoubtedly done to obscure their authorship and lead potential buyers to believe the works to be by Schalcken’s better-known brother Godfried, increasing the valuation. Consequently, both were attributed to Godfried until very recently.³ Part of Schalcken’s signature is visible in Boy Offering Grapes to a Woman, between the fold in the red curtain. Not only is it identical to the signature on the self-portrait, a capital “F” appears after the name (“F” stands for “fecit,” which is Latin for “made”), again identical to the inscription on Schalcken’s self-portrait. While Godfried did sometimes use an “F” in his signature, he used a lowercase letter. This evidence, along with the fact that there is enough room for “Maria” to have been written in front of “Schalcken” has led scholars to conclude that her first name was most likely painted over.⁴ This intentional obfuscation—likely repeated on other works—explains why there are presently only three paintings attributed to Schalcken.
Member News Members see Ursula von Rydingsvard First! On March 21, join a special Member Preview Day for the new exhibition Ursula von Rydingsvard: The Contour of Feeling! This landmark exhibition of work by Ursula von Rydingsvard illuminates the process by which the artist gives
PHOTO BY EMILY HAIGHT, NMWA
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A visitor in NMWA’s collection galleries with Ursula von Rydingsvard’s Apron (1997)
will share information about women artists—including biographies, videos, graphics, quotes, and statistics—using the hashtag. This year, NMWA is building the campaign by asking museums, galleries and other cultural institutions to publicly commit to actions that will help advance gender equity in the arts. NMWA members and the public are encouraged to join the conversation by commenting, sharing their favorite artists, and taking their own pledges.
PHOTO BY KEVIN ALLEN
#5WomenArtists: Join the Social Media Conversation In March, NMWA’s award-winning #5WomenArtists social media campaign returns in honor of Women’s History Month. #5WomenArtists increases the awareness of gender inequity in the art world by asking cultural organizations and individual social media users the question, “Can you name five women artists?” The campaign launches on March 1 on the museum’s website and blog, as well as on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Throughout the month, NMWA
outward visual form to her ideas and emotions. Monumental cedar sculptures are accompanied by poetic explorations in paper pulp, leather, linen, and other organic materials. Read more about the exhibition starting on page 10, and mark your calendar today. Members (with current membership card) receive free admission for themselves and one guest, as well as double discounts (20%) in the Museum Shop and Mezzanine Café.
ANGELA CLEXTON, NMWA
WINTER/SPRING 2019
Museum News Celebrating a Special Museum Supporter Representatives of NMWA and Goodwill of Greater Washington joined together to celebrate the ninetieth birthday of Gladys Lisanby. A longtime NMWA Advisory Board member, Lisanby has also long been a supporter of Goodwill. In recent years, the museum has partnered with Goodwill’s Workforce Development Program, recruiting museum security guards through its program supporting students
training in security and protective services. Lisanby’s philanthropic interest in both NMWA and Goodwill has bolstered connections between the two organizations, whose leaders were pleased to toast Lisanby’s milestone birthday.
China Coleman, Marina Masoka, Gladys Lisanby, President and CEO of Goodwill of Greater Washington Catherine Meloy, Derren Richardson, and Richard Moore
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Speakers at the Massachusetts Committee’s talk: Doris Sommer, Adriana Zavala, and Mary Schneider Enriquez
The evening provided a fascinating conversation on the role of women artists in driving social change. Frida Kahlo’s Garden at the New York Botanical Garden, spoke about Frida Kahlo’s social and artistic ideology and the ongoing impact of her life and career. Mary Schneider Enriquez, Houghton Associate Curator of Modern & Contemporary Art at the Harvard Art Museums,
discussed the continuing importance of the influential political and social protest art of Doris Salcedo. U.S. Ambassador to Italy Honors the National Museum of Women in the Arts and its Italian Committee On October 16, 2018, U.S. Ambassador to Italy Lewis Eisenberg and his wife, Mrs. Judy Eisenberg, generously hosted a reception at their private residence in Rome in honor of the members of NMWA and its Italian committee, Gli Amici del NMWA. International supporters of
the museum and members and friends of the committee mingled with notable guests such as Christine Todd Whitman and other politicians, diplomats, and business leaders from both sides of the Atlantic. The elegant reception featured a presentation by Italian artist Serena Porrati, who represented Italy at NMWA in the exhibition Heavy Metal—Women to Watch 2018. Porrati reflected on her artwork, inspiration, artistic process, and the metal sculptures that were included in the exhibition.
Members of the Massachusetts State Committee with NMWA Deputy Director for National and International Outreach Ilene Gutman
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Massachusetts State Committee Holds its first Fresh Talk in Partnership with Harvard Business School Association On September 25, 2018, the Massachusetts State Committee of NMWA, in partnership with the Harvard Business School Association of Boston, presented “Can Women Artists Inspire Social Change?” held on the Harvard Business School campus. The evening provided a fascinating conversation on the role of women artists in driving social change. Professor Doris Sommer, director of the Cultural Agents Initiative and professor of Romance Languages and Literature and African American Studies at Harvard, moderated the conversation, and opened with a discussion of Luisa Capetillo, an early social labor organizer and writer in Puerto Rico, who worked as a reader in a cigar factory and fought for equal rights for women. Adriana Zavala, PhD, associate professor of Art and Art History at Tufts University, and curator of the exhibition
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MakeHER Mart and FRESH TALK: MakeHER—Women in the Creative Economy
2. Stephanie Sale, Dionna Dorsey, Virginia Arrisueño, Grace Bonney, Amy Sturtevant, Anne Gerrety, Mary Lou Dauray, and Rakia Reynolds 3. Sarah Bayot of Kicheko Goods speaking with fellow maker Amina Ahmad of Handmade Habitat
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PHOTOS BY KEVIN ALLEN PHOTOGRAPHY
1. Dionna Dorsey of District of Clothing speaks about women in the creative economy
Community Day: Betsabeé Romero in the New York Avenue Sculpture Project
5. Movilidad y tensión (Mobility and tension), one of Romero’s works on view on New York Avenue outside of NMWA 6. Lauren Glover, DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities; Alberto Fierro Garza, Executive Director, Mexican Cultural Institute, Embassy of Mexico; Betsabeé Romero; NMWA Board Vice-Chair Winton Holladay; Gerónimo Gutiérrez, Ambassador of Mexico; and Irasema Infante
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PHOTOS BY KEVIN ALLEN PHOTOGRAPHY AND BY LEE STALSWORTH
4. Sculptor Betsabeé Romero speaks about her work
Meridian International Center, Diplomacy x Design: Fashion Experts and Diplomatic Leaders Explore the Role of Fashion in Diplomacy 7. Robin Givhan, Meredith Koop, Hildy Kuryk, and Indira Gumarova 8. Gwen Holliday, Stuart Holliday, and NMWA Trustee Cindy Jones 9. Jayne Visser, NMWA Trustee Cindy Jones, Indira Gumarova, and Narges Gheissari
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PHOTOS BY BEN DROZ
WINTER/SPRING 2019
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Opening Celebrations for Rodarte 10. Exhibition patron Christine Suppes (center) with Kate Mulleavy (left) and Laura Mulleavy of Rodarte
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11. Norman Froomer and Julie Jacobson 12. Grace Bender, NMWA Board President Martha Dippell, and NMWA Trustee Nancy Duber 13. NMWA Board Vice-Chair Winton Holladay, NMWA Trustee Ashley Davis; Kate Mulleavy, and Laura Mulleavy 14. Katie Sabo, Associate Curator Ginny Treanor, Odile Gilbert, NMWA Trustee Ashley Davis, NMWA Trustee Cindy Jones, Joel Frushone, Fanny Fraslin, Ayumi Yamamoto, and Dori Sligh
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15. Winston Chang, Rebecca Chang, and Stephanie Bennett
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PHOTOS BY TONY POWELL AND BY KEVIN ALLEN PHOTOGRAPHY
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FRESH TALK: Sarah Lewis— Vision & Justice 16. NMWA Director Susan Fisher Sterling, Sarah Lewis, Dan Logan, Rhea Combs, and NMWA Director of Public Programs Melani N. Douglass 17. Author, curator, and Harvard professor Sarah Lewis speaks about how photography can inspire social change
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PHOTOS BY KEVIN ALLEN PHOTOGRAPHY
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18. An attendee participates in conversation during Sunday Supper
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WITH THANKS
The National Museum of Women in the Arts is deeply grateful to the following donors who made contributions from July 1, 2017, to June 30, 2018. Your support enables NMWA to develop groundbreaking exhibitions, expand its education, library, and outreach programs, and offer other special events to the public. Your contributions are critical to the museum’s success! Please accept our sincere apologies for the unfortunate errors in the lists published in the fall 2018 issue. Although we can only list donations of $500 and above due to space limitations, NMWA is thankful for all of its members and friends. This year’s generous endowment gifts are listed separately on page 32. For more information, please contact the Development Office at 202-783-7989. Individuals $1 million+ Winton and Hap Holladay, Susan Wisherd* $500,000–$999,999 Madeleine Rast*, Rose Bente Lee Ostapenko*, Mildred Weissman $100,000–$499,999 Jacqueline Badger Mars, Marjorie B. Rachlin, Denise Littlefield Sobel, Susan and Jim Swartz $50,000–$99,999 Anonymous, Marcia Myers Carlucci, Betty Boyd and Rexford* Dettre, Clara M. Lovett, Betty Standiford*, MaryRoss Taylor $25,000–$49,999 Gina and Eugene Adams, Susan and Robert Beckman, Belinda de Gaudemar, Elva Ferrari-Graham, Suzanne, Bruce, Sophie, and Ella Glassman, Cindy and Evan Jones, Marlene A. and Frederic V. Malek, The Honorable Mary V. Mochary, Stephanie Sale, Geri Skirkanich, Sarah D. Toney*
WINTER/SPRING 2019
$15,000–$24,999 Gail D. Bassin, Grace and Morton Bender, Ashley Davis, Martha Dippell and Daniel Korengold, Amra and Damir Fazlic, Jamie S. Gorelick and Richard E. Waldhorn, Nancy Livingston and Fred M. Levin, Dee Ann McIntyre, The Honorable Katherine D. Ortega, Amanda and Curtis Polk, Christine P. Rales, Kim and Dirk Visser $10,000–$14,999 Anonymous (2), Sunny Scully Alsup and William Alsup, Lucy Buchanan, Charlotte and Michael Buxton, Deborah G. Carstens, Paul T. Clark, Drs. Bonnie and Todd* Jefferis, Liz Cullen, Alexis Deutsch-Adler, Nancy
and Marc Duber, Faye C. Edwards, Lisa Claudy Fleischman, Rosemarie Forsythe, Bruce A. Gates, Lee Anne F. Geiger, Larry Hayes, Alice D. Kaplan, Selma M. King*, Marcia MacArthur, Lorna Meyer Calas and Dennis Calas, Kristine Morris, Susan and Jay Nussbaum , Kay W. Olson, Elizabeth Robinson, Sheila and Richard Shaffer, Dasha Shenkman OBE, Jack and Dana Snyder, Patti Amanda and Bruce Spivey, Susan and Scott Sterling, Jane Swicegood, Cheryl S. Tague, Marichu Valencia, Betsy Vobach, Paula S. Wallace, Patricia and George White, Linda L. and Douglas C. White $5,000–$9,999 Noreen M. Ackerman, Tracy and Adam Bernstein, Catherine Bert and Arthur Bert, M.D., Margaret C. Boyce Brown, Rose and Paul Carter, Diane Casey-Landry and Brock Landry, Renee Chodur, John and Mai Cleary, Linda L. and John Comstock, Paula Ballo Dailey* and Brian Dailey, Sara Fagen, Elizabeth and Michael Galvin, Julie and Jon Garcia, Narges Gheissari, JoAnne and Benjamin Ginsberg, Susan Goldberg, Sheila and Patrick Gross, Sue J. Henry, W. Bruce Krebs, Carol M. and Climis G. Lascaris, Robin Rosa Laub, Sandy Liotta, Dr. Kathleen A. Maloy and Ms. Heather L. Burns, Adrienne B. Mars, Honey McGrath, Constance C. McPhee, Claudia Pensotti Mosca, Nancy Ann Neal, Jeannette T. Nichols, Marjorie and Philip Odeen, Pamela J. Parizek, Carol Parker, Nellie Partow, Burnley T. Perrin*, Dr. Michael and Mrs. Mahy Polymeropoulos, Dr. Cynthia M. Shewan, Kathy Sierra, Jessica Silverman, Beverly Hall and Kurt Smith, Karen and William Sonneborn, Kimberly Stanley, Sara Steinfeld, Christine Suppes, Kim and Sarah Baldwin Swig, Debra Therit, Deborah Dunklin Tipton, Annie S. Totah, Krystyna Wasserman, Alice W. and Gordon T. West, Jr. $2,000–$4,999 Janice L. and Harold L. Adams, Mark and Kathe Albrecht, Jo Ann Barefoot, June C. Bashkin*, Arlene Begelman, Sue Ann and Ken Berlin, Brenda Bertholf, Susan Borkin, Bertha Soto Braddock, M. A. Ruda* and Peter J. P. Brickfield, Jane Lipton and Calvin Cafritz, Charlotte Anne Cameron, Rebecca Chang, Mary and James Clark, Barbara L. Cohen, Donna Paolino Coia and Arthur Coia, Tammie Collins, Lizette Corro, Byron Croker, Lynn Finesilver Crystal, Kitty de Isola and Max Cambana, Katy Graham Debost, Mr. and Mrs. Scott E. Dreyer, Kenneth P. Dutter, Geraldine E. Ehrlich, Sally and Mark Ein, Barbara L. Elky, Elizabeth and Anthony Enders, Hanna G. Evans,
Mimi Alpert Feldman, Barbara L. Francis and Robert Musser, Sally Mott and John K. Freeman, Anita Friedt, Lisa Garrison, Nancy Gillespie and Sebastian de La Salle, Carol and Henry Goldberg, Barbara S. Goldfarb, Anjali Gupta, Ilene S. and Jeffrey S. Gutman, Fruzsina M. Harsanyi and Raymond Garcia, Lilo A. Hester, Caroline Rose Hunt*, Jan V. Jessup, Sally and Christopher H. Jones, Cheryl L. Keamy, Rita Marie Kepner, Ph.D., Janece S. Kleban, Arlene Fine Klepper and Martin Klepper, Doris Kloster, Anne and Robert Larner, Elissa Leonard, Gladys K. and James W.* Lisanby, Joanne Ludovici, Esq., Cynthia Madden Leitner and Walter Leitner, Maria Teresa Martínez, C. Raymond Marvin, Juliana and Richard E. May, Mr. and Mrs. Clyde S. McCall, Jr., Cynthia McKee, Melanie and Larry Nussdorf, Carol J. Olson, Monica T. O’Neill, Llelanie Orcutt, Lisa Painter*, Anna Marie Parisi and Robert L. Trone, Margaret H. and Jim Perkins, Robin Phillips, Mr. David H. Pincus, Jean Porto, Maddie L. Preston, Jacqueline L. Quillen, Elizabeth S. Ray, Drina Rendic, Dr. Markley Roberts, Jean Hall and Thomas D. Rutherfoord, Jr., Kara Singh, Dot Snyder, Judy W. Soley, Kathleen Elizabeth Springhorn, Nancy N. and Roger Stevenson, Jr., Joanne C. Stringer, George Swygert, Deborah and Diane Szekely, Linda Talbert, Lisa Cannon and Charles Edison Taylor, Patt Trama, Sarah Bucknell Treco, Frances Usher, Sara and Michelle Vance Waddell, Harriet L. Warm, Amy Weiss, Elizabeth B. Welles, Tara Beauregard Whitbeck, Betty Bentsen Winn, Rhett D. Workman $1,000–$1,999 Anonymous (4), Ruth and Sam Alward, Ellen Wren Anderson, Richard Andrus, Joanne Barker, Jane L. Barwis, James and Ginger Bowen, Diana T. and Colin H.* Brown, Jean B. Brown, Katherine and Richard Bruch, Yolanda Bruno, Nancy and Alan Bubes, Melissa and Jason Burnett, Carol Byrne, Susan Carmel, Dr. Mary A. Carnell and Dr. Agnes Guyon, Lisa Chadwick, Meredith Childers and Dimitris C. Varlamis, Kittie B. Clarke, Mary Clutter, Robyn D. Collins, Wylene R. Commander, Ellen and Steve Conley, Amy and Larry Corey, Mr. and Mrs. Ralph F. Cox, Nancy G. Crain, Elizabeth Crane, The Honorable Edith Crutcher, Dr. Linda Daniel, Joan Danziger, Amy and Tripp Donnelly, Christopher J. Donnelly, Ellen Drew, Lindsay and LeRoy Eakin, III, Sarah G. Epstein and, Donald A. Collins, L. B. Ewing, Samia and A. Huda Farouki, Mary M. Free, Tracy Freedman, Sara A. and Michael Friedman, Wendy Frieman and David Johnson, Joyce and Roy Gamse, Reide Garnett, Yolanda S. George, Leslie Gold, Emily B. Grigsby, Pamela Gwaltney, Barton C. Hacker and Margaret S. Vining, Nancy Hackerman, Susan
Hairston, Jay and Robin Hammer, Patricia A. Harcarik and Carlton Nelson, Carla Hay, Marilyn J. and Philip Hayes, Jean E. Hayward, M.D., Pat and Fred Henning, Anna Stapleton Henson, Shelley and Allan Holt, Toney Hopkins, Michelle Howard, Susan M. Hyatt, Margot and Deepak Jain, Dr. Allan Jaworski and Dr. Deborah M. Winn, Madelyn Jennings, Margaret M. Johnston, Rosalyn and Gary* Jonas, Susan and Lawrence Kadish, Keiko and Steven Kaplan, Dolores Karp, Sheldon and Audrey Katz, Ellen Kay, Susan W. Klaveness, Barbara J. Kraft and Peter Winkler, Cynthia M. Krus, Suzanne S. La Pierre, Julia M. Ladner, Mary Lou Laprade, Emmanuelle and Brieuc Le Bigre, Barbara F. Lee, Christina Gungoll Lepore, John Leubsdorf and Lynn Montz, Finlay and Willee Lewis, Claudette S. Leyden, Barbara Liotta, Judy R. Loving, Kristen and George Lund, Joanne Lyman, Maryann Lynch, Cora Sue Mach, Jane C. Mallonee, Pamela W. Massey, Tracy B. McGillivary, Owen McMahon, Jr., Helen McNiell and Antonio Alcalá, Dottie Mergner, Joyce Henderson Mims, Mary Mocas, Sharon Moody and Kenneth Kent, Helen Mulkeen, Deborah E. Myers, Melissa Nabors, Heidi Nitze, Mary B. Olch, Kristen and Nels Olson, John Paradiso and Tom Hill, Susan Parish, Cynthia Paschen, Sarah Perot, Barbara and John Phair, Ginger and Kirby Pickle, Yvonne Pine, Olwen and Don Pongrace, K. Shelly Porges and Rich Wilhelm, Timothy M. Price, Sarah M. Pritchard, Martha A. Prumers, Toni Ratner Miller, Irma and Marc Reshefsky, Jean W. Roach, Bonnie and Thomas Rosse, Irene Roth and Vicken Poochikian, Susan M. Ryan-Deaner, Christopher M. Sargent, Joyce E. Scafe, Mary Schmidt and Russell Libby, Sarah C. Shoaf, D.D.S., Dennis Siegner, Joan Simon, Andrea Roane and Michael Skehan, Sarah S. Slocum, Virginia Smith, Dr. Lera and Steven Smith, Dorothy W. Stapleton, Alice and Ken Starr, Dr. Marjorie L. Stein, Jan W. Stevenson, Andrea Strawn, Micaela A. Trumbull, Jeanne Vander Ploeg, Toni G. Verstandig, Sarah Vradenburg, Valaree Wahler, Candace King Weir, Karen Wilson, Dorothy and Kenneth Woodcock, Dr. Suzanne J. Yoon and Dr. Walter S. von Pechmann II $500–$999 Anonymous, Diane Abeloff, Rachel Abraham, Dharini Agganwal, Shirley Aidekman-Kaye and Ben Kaye, Rob Akins and Mark Berry, Ms. Margery Al-Chalabi, Ruth Altheim, Priscilla Andre-Colton, Robin M. Andrews, Claire Arnold, Mr. Joseph Asin and Ms. Beryl Gilmore, Sylvia A. Azoyan, Diane Azzolin, Jeff and Beverly Backerman, Patricia Baig, Sharon Balzer, Rosamond A. Barber, Rebecca A. Barclay, Kathleen Barclay, Linda C. Barclay, G. Bauer, Danielle C. Beach,
Keith D. Levingston, Sharon I. Lewis, Sandra Lotterman, Carl M. Louck, Anne H. Magoun, Pamela Marron, Marsha Mateyka, Sally Mayer, Janice Mays, Lorraine M. McDonnell and Stephen Weatherford, Dagmar E. McGill, Margaret Tafoya McLaughlin and Wilma Conley Tafoya, Dr. Diane A. Mitchell, Dorothy Kerper Monnelly, Sherrill A. Mulhern, Lola M. Muller, Linda Myers, Ginny and Hartley Neel, Laurel M. Nett, Christie Neuger, Beth Ann and Robert Newton, Bu Nygrens, Jane Olin, Carol and Thomas Olmstead, Madeline and Allan Olson, Lida Orzeck, Ilga I. Ozolins, Rebecca J. Parsons, Lois M. Pausch, Ellen and Anson Peckham, Marta M. Pereyma, Meredith and Burnett Peters, Dede and Tom Petri, Mrs. Leonard Pfeiffer, IV, Nedra Pickler, Carol T. and William Pollak, Amelia Preece, Diana Query, Mary H. Railsback and Joel L. Ekstrom, Jorgen A. Rasmussen, Janis S. Reed, Mary Lynn Reese, Carlyn Ring, Jim Ritter, Diane C. Robertson, Jane Rostov, Daria A. Rothe, Amy Russo, Donna Z. Saffir, Louise S. Sams, Sandra Sanabria and Alexandre Coimbra, Julie and Captain David Sapone, Meghan Scharbauer, Julie Schauer, Timothy P. Schoettle, Karen Schwartz, Jocelyn S. Selig, Mary A. Severson, Shirley Shapiro, Peggy K. Shiffrin, Nancy and Simon, Sidamon-Eristoff, Doris G. Simonis, Rae L. Siporin, Linda Skare, Karen and Michael Smith, Lisa Smith, Wayne and F. Louise Smith, Ruth Karl Snyder, Ann M. Soderquist, Marian S. Sofaer, Linda Watkins Sorkin, Susan Kahn Sovel, Richard E. Stafford, Marsha Steed, Pegge McGuire Steele, Margaret H. Stone, Linda Stonerock, Carol A. S. Straumanis, Douglas K. Struck, M. Elizabeth Swope, Judy Takács, Gail Talbott, Helen Tapper, Marta Kipfmueller and Bernard J. Theisen, Sharen A. Thomas, Linda J. Thompson, Debra Tillery, Irene TrowellHarris, Patricia A. Vaughan, Rosa Ines Vera and Joseph Carey, Anne L. Von Rosenberg, Olivia Weese, Carolyn L. Wheeler, Valerie and John Wheeler, Karen and James Whitman, Kathryn Williams, Lucy and Scott Wilson, Jane Wilson, Richard Winter, Wanda C. Wood, Ret., Mary Lee Wood, Joyce Zaitlin, Corporations & Foundations $100,000+ GRoW @ Annenberg $50,000–$99,999 FedEx/Gina Adams, Davis/Dauray Family Fund, RBC Wealth Management and City National Bank, Walton Family Foundation, Inc. $25,000–$49,999 Bernstein Family Foundation, ClarkWinchcole Foundation, McDermott Will & Emery**, Mississippi State Committee of NMWA, The Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation, Northern Trust, The Ray and Dagmar
Dolby Family Fund, Reva and David Logan Foundation, Share Fund, SunTrust Foundation, Texas State Committee of NMWA $15,000–$24,999 Boies Schiller Flexner LLP, Christian Dior Couture, Embassy of the United Arab Emirates, Leo Rosner Foundation, Inc., Milton and Dorothy Sarnoff Raymond Foundation, Morgan Stanley Wealth Management $10,000–$14,999 Black Women’s Agenda, Inc., Carl M. Freeman Foundation, DMM Strategies, FACE Foundation, Geiger Family Foundation, LaVerna Hahn Charitable Trust, Les Amis du NMWA, Lucas Kaempfer Foundation, Inc., Peru Committee of NMWA, Sachiko Kuno Foundation, Sotheby’s, Southern California State Committee of NMWA, Versace USA, Inc.
Government Supporters D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities, National Endowment for the Arts, U.S. Commission of Fine Arts and the National Capital Arts and Cultural Affairs Program
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* Deceased **In-kind Gifts
NMWA strives to ensure the accuracy of donor information. We apologize for any errors or omissions. Contact 202783-7989 with changes or questions.
$5,000–$9,999 The American Institute of Architects, Arkansas State Committee of NMWA, Bloomberg Philanthropies, Florida Committee of NMWA, Georgia Committee of NMWA, Greater Kansas City Area Committee of NMWA, Marshall B. Coyne Foundation, Inc., Mary Potishman Lard Trust, Massachusetts State Committee of NMWA, The Mill Foundation, LTD, Museum Education Trust of the Jewish Communal Fund, Nancy Peery Marriott Foundation, New Mexico State Committee of NMWA, Ohio Advisory Group of NMWA, PECO Foundation, Wells Fargo Foundation $2,000–$4,999 Bottega Veneta, Inc., Chile Committee of NMWA, Dimick Foundation, Gli Amici del NMWA, Heart of Neiman Marcus Foundation Fund, Louis J. Kuriansky Foundation, Inc., Max Mara, The Rosenstiel Foundation, Spain Committee of NMWA, UK Friends of NMWA, The Van Metre Family Foundation, The Whiting-Turner Contracting Company $500–$1,999 Anonymous, The Coca-Cola Company, DonateWell, McGregor Links Charitable Gift Fund for the Greater Capital Region, Field Holdings, Greater Kansas City Community Foundation, Greater New York Committee of NMWA, Guild of Professional Tour Guides of Washington, DC, The Edward and Ruth Legum Family Fund, James R. Meadows, Jr. Foundation, The Jane Henson Foundation, Junior League of Washington, Inc., The Lemon Foundation, The NAMASTE Foundation, Richard & Peggy Greenfield Foundation, The Roach Foundation, Inc., United Way of Greater Philadelphia and Southern New Jersey, United Way of the National Capital Area, Women’s Committee of the Corcoran Gallery of Art
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Esq., Mary Ellen Bergeron, Dianne Berman, Barbara E. Berner and Rev. Milton T. Berner, Sharon K. Bigot, Regina Bilotta, Frances and Daniel W. Blaylock, Gaylyn N. Boone and James Dorcy, Eva M. Borins, Mary Boylan, Anne E. Branch, Nancy Anne Branton, Bobbe J. Bridge, Margo A. Brinton, Ph.D. and Eldon Park, Barbara and Russell Brown, Beth B. Buehlmann, Rosemarie Buntrock, Abigail S. Burke and Veronica Mallory Stubbs, Hanna Burruss, Catherine and William Cabaniss, Casey and Jack Carsten, Laura and Guy Cecala, Vicki E. Chessin, Karen M. Clewell, Kathryn and Douglas Cochrane, Elinor Coleman and David Sparkman, Myrna Colley-Lee, Ana and Paul Collins, Elizabeth Colton, Susan Combs, Marilue Cook, Molly Cotton, Susan Crippin, Cynthia G. Daniels, Paul Davis, Sara and Philip Davis, Doloras E. Davison, Claudia De Colstoun, Barbara Denrich, Karen Detweiler, Sara Jo Victors Dew, Deborah J. Dorshimer, Barbara Douglas, Cynthia A. Downes, Barbara Dunsmore, Margaret P. and Peter Dzwilewski, Doug and Joyce Eagles, Anne and Augustus Edwards, Margaret M. Ellis, Mary Evans, Loretta Fabricant, Valerie Facey, Shirley B. Familian, Jill Ferrera, Joyce Itkin Figel and Brad Figel, Sandra Filippi and Barré Bull, Denise J. Fiore, Anne-Marie Fitzgerald, Nancy M. Folger, Albert L. Folsom, Helen H. Ford, Constance S. and Joseph P. Franklin, Cary Frieze, Karen L. Friss, Virginia Elkin Fuller, Mary C. Giglio, Sara E. Gillis, Kay and Ian Glenday, Merry Glosband, Marguerite F. Godbold, Jennifer Golden, Jim Goldschmidt, Barbara B. Goodman, Lois Lehrman Grass, Catherine A. Green, Diane M. Gulseth, Lorraine Gyauch, June Hajjar, Alan and Bonnie Hammerschlag, Sandi and Larry Hammonds, Charlotte P. Harrell, Kathy Hart, Mary J. Hayden and Carla J. Tomaso, Dr. Irene W. D. Hecht and Mr. Jerome R. Saroff, Delphine Hedtke, Jo M. Hendrickson, Connie Hershey, Michael H. Hetzner, Ellen Hill-Godfrey and John Godfrey, Nancy Hirshbein and Robert Roche, Jennefer A. Hirschberg, Muna Hishmeh, Steven B. Hopping, M.D., Larry Hothem, Nancy Insprucker, Sarah Cary Iselin, Diane M. Jacobs, Elayne Janiak and Karl C. Voiles, Shirley J. Jenkins, H. Martha Johns, Anne and Clay Johnson, Gretchen W. and James L. Johnson, Sheila C. Johnson, Shaunna Jones, Julie Karcis, Helen J. Kattan, Kay Kendall and Jack Davies, Patricia A. Kenney, Leslie J. Kenyon, Mary S. and Stephen E. Kitchen, Kathleen Knepper, Paul Knight, Lee Kobayashi, Susan A. Kowalski, Lynne S. Kraus, Patricia M. Langan and James Figetakis, Carrie A. Langsam, Julia Lanigan, Kay Larrieu, Joan O. Lautenberger, Dale Leibowitz, and Amy Kaster, Rosalie F. Leigh, Nancy and George Leitmann, Mary K. Leskovac, Ronnie Levin, Bari D. and
BOARD OF TRUSTEES
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Wilhelmina Cole Holladay—Chair, Winton S. Holladay—Vice-Chair, Martha Lyn Dippell—President, Gina F. Adams—First Vice President, Susan Goldberg—Second Vice President (Community Relations), Joanne C. Stringer—Treasurer, Nancy Duber— Secretary, Mary V. Mochary—Finance Chair, Amy Weiss—Nominations Chair, Nancy Nelson Stevenson—Works of Art Chair, Marcia Myers Carlucci—Building Chair, Carol Matthews Lascaris— President Emerita and Endowment Chair, Pamela Parizek—Audit Chair, Cindy Jones—At Large (Immediate Past President), Dana J. Snyder— At Large, Susan Fisher Sterling—The Alice West Director**, Janice Lindhurst Adams, Pamela G. Bailey, Charlotte Clay Buxton, Rose Carter, Diane Casey-Landry, Lizette Corro, Ashley Davis, Betty Boyd Dettre, Deborah I. Dingell, Karen Dixon Fuller, Marian Hopkins, Sally L. Jones, Marlene Malek, Jacqueline Badger Mars, Juliana E.May, Bonnie McElveenHunter, Jackie Quillen, Julie Sapone**, Sheila Shaffer, Kathleen Elizabeth Springhorn, Jessica H. Sterchi, Mahinder Tak, Annie S. Totah, Sarah Bucknell Treco**, Frances Luessenhop Usher, Ruthanna Maxwell Weber, Alice West, Patti White **Ex-Officio
WINTER/SPRING 2019
NMWA ADVISORY BOARD
Sarah Bucknell Treco—Chair, Noreen M. Ackerman, Sunny Scully Alsup, Kathe Hicks Albrecht, Jo Ann Barefoot, Gail D. Bassin, Arlene Begelman, Sue Ann Berlin, Catherine Bert, Brenda Bertholf, Nancy Anne Branton, Margaret C. Boyce Brown, Deborah G. Carstens, Rebecca Chang, Paul T. Clark, Donna Paolino Coia, Elaine Cole, John Comstock, Linda L. Comstock, Beth Crane, Byron Croker, Lynn Finesilver Crystal, Liz Cullen, Verónica de Ferrero, Belinda de Gaudemar, Katy Graham Debost, Betty Boyd Dettre, Alexis DeutschAdler, Kenneth P. Dutter, Geraldine E. Ehrlich, Elva Ferrari-Graham, Lisa Claudy Fleischman, Rosemarie Forsythe, Anita Friedt, Claudia Fritsche, Lisa Garrison, Barbara S. Goldfarb, Sally Gries, Diane Grob, Michelle Guillermin, Anjali Gupta, Pamela Gwaltney, Sue J. Henry, Anna Stapleton Henson, Kitty de Isola, Jan V. Jessup, Alice D. Kaplan, Janece Smoot Kleban, Arlene Fine Klepper, Doris Kloster, Malinda Krantz, Nelleke Langhout-Nix, Cynthia Madden Leitner, Fred M. Levin, Gladys K. Lisanby, Sarah H. Lisanby, M.D., Nancy Livingston, Clara M. Lovett, Joanne Ludovici, Patricia Macintyre, Maria Teresa Martínez, C. Raymond Marvin, Ellen Stirn Mavec, Pat D. McCall, Dee Ann McIntyre, Cynthia McKee, Constance C. McPhee, Suzanne S.
Mellor, Morgan Miller, Milica Mitrovich, Claudia Pensotti Mosca, Deborah E. Myers, Jeannette T. Nichols, Kay W. Olson, Monica T. O’Neill, Katherine D. Ortega, Margaret H. Perkins, Patti Pyle, Drina Rendic, Barbara Richter, Elizabeth Robinson, Elizabeth A. Sackler, Stephanie Sale, Consuelo Salinas de Pareja, Steven Scott, Marsha Brody Shiff, Kathy Sierra, Ann L. Simon, Kathern Ivous Sisk, Geri Skirkanich, Dot Snyder, Denise Littlefield Sobel, Patti Amanda Spivey, Kathleen Elizabeth Springhorn, Sara Steinfeld, Josephine L. Stribling, Susan Swartz, Cheryl S. Tague, MaryRoss Taylor, Lisa Cannon Taylor, Brooke Taylor, Debra Therit, Deborah Dunklin Tipton, Marichu Valencia, Sara M. Vance Waddell, Paula S. Wallace, Harriet L. Warm, Krystyna Wasserman, Island Weiss, Patti White, Betty Bentsen Winn, Rhett D. Workman LEGACY OF WOMEN IN THE ARTS ENDOWMENT CAMPAIGN
We wish to thank all of the supporters of the Legacy of Women in the Arts Endowment Campaign, whose generosity guarantees that NMWA will endure and forever inspire for generations to come. Although we can only list donations of $10,000 and above due to space limitations, NMWA is grateful to all donors to the endowment. Endowment Foundation Trustee ($1 million+) Anonymous, Betty B. and Rexford* Dettre, Estate of Grace A. George, Wilhelmina C. and Wallace F.* Holladay, Sr., Carol and Climis Lascaris, Estate of Evelyn B. Metzger*, The Honorable Mary V. Mochary, Rose Benté Lee Ostapenko*, The Madeleine Rast Charitable Remainder Trust*, The Walton Family Foundation Endowment Foundation Governor ($500,000–$999,999) Noreen M. Ackerman, P. Frederick Albee and Barbara E. Albee*, Catherine L. and Arthur A. Bert, M.D., J.W. Kaempfer, Jr., Nelleke Langhout-Nix, Joe R. and Teresa L. Long, James R. and Suzanne S. Mellor, National Endowment for the Humanities, Drs. A. Jess and Ben Shenson*, MaryRoss Taylor, Alice W. and Gordon T. West, Jr. Endowment Foundation Fellow ($200,000–$499,999) Catharina B. and Livingston L. Biddle, Jr.*, Marcia Myers and Frank* Carlucci, Costa del Sol Cruise, Kenneth P. Dutter, Estate of E. Louise Gaudet, Lorraine G. Grace*, William Randolph Hearst Foundation, Estate of Eleanor Heller*, Fred M. Levin and Nancy Livingston/ The Shenson Foundation, in memory of Drs. Ben and A. Jess Shenson, Dorothy S. Lyddon*/Seven Springs Foundation, Marlene McArthur and Frederic V. Malek, Victoria J.
Mastrobuono*, Sea Goddess I and II Trips, Alejandra and Enrique Segura, Sheila and Richard Shaffer, Clarice Smith Endowment Foundation Counselor ($100,000–$199,999) Gina and Eugene Adams, Janice L. and Harold L. Adams, Nunda and Prakash Ambegaonkar, Carol C. Ballard, Baltic Cruise, Eleanor and Nicholas D. Chabraja, Clark Charitable Foundation, Hilda and William B. Clayman, Julia B. and Michael M. Connors, Martha Lyn Dippell and Daniel Lynn Korengold, Gerry E. and S. Paul* Ehrlich, Jr., Enterprise RentA-Car, FedEx Corporation, The Geiger Family Foundation, Barbara A. Gurwitz and William D. Hall, Caroline Rose Hunt*/The Sands Foundation, Cindy and Evan Jones, Alice D. Kaplan, Dorothy and Raymond LeBlanc, Lucia Woods Lindley, Gladys K. and James W.* Lisanby, Lockheed Martin Corporation, Adrienne B. and John F. Mars, Juliana and Richard E.* May, Bonnie McElveenHunter, Irene Natividad, The Miller and Jeanette Nichols Foundation/ Jeannette T. Nichols, Nancy O’Malley*, Lady Pearman, Reinsch Pierce Family, Foundation/Lola C. Reinsch and J. Almont Pierce, Julia Sevilla Somoza, Marsha Brody Shiff, June Speight*, Kathleen Elizabeth Springhorn, Mahinder K. and Sharad Tak, Sami and Annie Totah Family Foundation, Elzbieta Chlopecka Vande Sande Endowment Circle ($50,000–$99,999) Linda Able Choice*, George* and Ursula Andreas, Arkansas Fifty, Lulu H. Auger*, Virginia Mitchell Bailey*, Sondra D. and Howard M. Bender*/ The Bender Foundation, Inc., Patti Cadby Birch*, Laura Lee and Jack S. Blanton, Sr.*/Scurlock Foundation, Anne R. Bord*, Caroline Boutté, BP Foundation, Inc., M. A. Ruda and Peter J. P. Brickfield, Margaret C. Boyce Brown, Martha Buchanan, Charlotte Clay Buxton, Sandra and Miles Childers, Mary and Armeane Choksi, Donna Paolino Coia and Arthur Coia, Margaret and David Cole/The Cole Family Foundation, Holland H. Coors*, Porter and Lisa Dawson, Courtenay Eversole, Suzy Finesilver*/The Hertzel and Suzy Finesilver Charitable Foundation, Karen Dixon Fuller, Alan Glen Family Trust, Peter and Wendy Gowdey, Laura L. Guarisco, Jolynda H. and David M. Halinski, Janie Hathoot, Hap and Winton Holladay, I. Michael and Beth Kasser, William R. and Christine M. Leahy, Louise C. Mino Trust, Zoe H. and James H. Moshovitis, Joan and Lucio A. Noto, Marjorie H. and Philip Odeen, Nancy Bradford Ordway, Katherine D. Ortega, Margaret H. and Jim Perkins, Ramsay D. Potts*, in honor of Veronica R. Potts, Elizabeth Pruet*, Edward Rawson, Jane S. Schwartz
Trust, Jack and Dana Snyder, Judith Zee Steinberg and Paul J. Hoenmans, Susan and Scott Sterling, Nancy N. and Roger Stevenson, Jr., Jo and Thomas Stribling, Susan and Jim Swartz, Elizabeth Stafford Hutchinson Endowed Internship—Texas State Committee of NMWA, Frances and William* Usher, Stuart and Chancy West, Betty Bentsen Winn and Susan Winn Lowry, Yeni Wong Endowment Patron ($25,000–$49,999) Micheline and Sean Connery, Sheila ffolliott, Georgia State Committee of NMWA, New York Trip, Mississippi State Committee of NMWA, Northern Trust, Estate of Mary Marvin, Breckinridge Patterson, Chris Petteys*, Lisa and Robert Pumphrey*, Elizabeth A. Sackler, Estate of Madoline W. Shreve*, Patti Amanda and Bruce Spivey, Sahil Tak/ST Paper, LLC, In honor of Alice West, Jean and Donald M. Wolf, The Women’s Committee of NMWA Endowment Sponsor ($15,000–$24,999) Deborah G. Carstens, Stephanie Fein, Martha and Homer Gudelsky*, Sally L. Jones, Louise H. Matthews Fund, Lily Y. Tanaka, Liz and Jim Underhill, Elizabeth Welles, Dian Woodner Endowment Friend ($10,000– $14,999) Carol A. Anderson, Julia and George L. Argyros, Mrs. Joseph T. Beardwood, III, Catherine Bennett and Fred Frailey, Susan G. Berk, Mary Kay Blake, Booz Allen Hamilton, Lynne V. and Richard Cheney, Esther Coopersmith, Darby Foundation, Jack J. Dreyfus, Jr.*, Patricia M. and Clifford J. Ehrlich, Mary Page and Thomas B. Evans, Lois Lehrman Grass, Anna Stapleton Henson, Alexine C. and Aaron G.* Jackson, Jan Jessup, Pamela Johnson and Wesley King, Helga and Peter-Hans Keilbach, Howard and Michelle Kessler, Ellen U. and Alfred A. King*, Jacqueline Badger Mars, C. Raymond Marvin, Clyde and Pat Dean McCall, Edwina H. and Charles P. Milner, Evelyn V. and Robert M.* Moore, Harriet Newbill, Estate of Edythe Bates Old, PepsiCo., Inc., Anne and Chris Reyes, Savannah Trip, Mary Anne B. Stewart, Paula Wallace/ Savannah College of Art and Design, Marjorie Nohowel Wasilewski, Jean S. and Gordon T. Wells
Museum Shop
Shop NMWA online at https://shop.nmwa.org or call toll-free 877-226-5294
Skeem Palo Santo Incense Wood Burners This sustainably cultivated wood from South America has natural aromatic properties— it is believed to ward off bad energy, aid in healing, and bring good fortune to those that burn it. Approx. 12 two-inch sticks. $22/Member $19.80 (29820)
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MODERN MAKERS
ADRIANA REGALADO, NMWA
Ursula von Rydingsvard Catalogue Ursula von Rydingsvard: The Contour of Feeling features the sculptor’s renowned large-scale work and focuses on her artistic development since 2000. Hardcover, 128 pages. $39.95/ Member $35.96 (Item #80013)
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Great Modern Artists Mug Enjoy your morning cup with inspiration from artists Georgia O’Keeffe, Frida Kahlo, Yayoi Kusama, Faith Ringgold, and Sonia Delaunay. Fine bone china; 3 ½ in. high. $25/Member $22.50 (Item #30861) Mickalene Thomas Silk Scarf This delicate silk scarf features Thomas’s work A Little Taste Outside of Love (2007), communicating complex notions of femininity, power, and identity. 100% silk with handrolled edges; 51 x 39 ½ in. $140/Member $126 (Item #25250)
What is the inspiration behind the NMWA murals? I want my art to bring color, energy, light, and meaning to a space. The powerful and vibrant women around me inspire my work. By painting larger-than-life portraits of them, I celebrate and honor their existence. You work in a wide array of mediums—how have you become so versatile? I have an insatiable appetite for playing with new materials. I am working on 3D forms now—sculpture, wood, and metal. I love how art can exist in so many mediums, almost like languages, telling the same story.
What drives the strong thread of activism in your work? Art is an amazing conduit for us to build community, create connections, and process and heal trauma. I am passionate about this and am always learning how art can spread messages of social empowerment and change. Can you name a notable visit to NMWA? My most memorable experience was attending a Fresh Talk featuring the artist Swoon. I got to meet her and fangirl a bit. I cannot express how amazing NMWA’s programming is.
WO M E N I N T H E A RTS
Earrings by Ink & Alloy Wood-and-resin circle earrings, available in coral (pictured), white, black, green, blue, and yellow. 1 ½ in. diameter. $26/ Member $23.40 (Item #20613)
Q&A with Rose Jaffe, a D.C.-based artist and native Washingtonian. Her vibrant murals can be found around D.C., and now (pictured) in the Museum Shop, where a selection of her smaller prints is also on sale.
1250 New York Avenue NW Washington, DC 20005-3970
COMING SOON
More is More Multiples May 3–September 15, 2019
Multiples—three-dimensional art objects produced in series of identical editions—find their way from the shelves of retail stores into museum collections and the homes of consumers worldwide. This focus exhibition featuring approximately twenty-five multiples highlights the medium’s sense of whimsy. Textiles, ceramics, clothing, decorative objects, and toys by women artists frequently offer tongue-in-cheek social and
cultural commentary. A number of works in More is More were created to benefit charitable initiatives within the arts. Eyecatching multiples by Cindy Sherman, Mickalene Thomas, Barbara Kruger, Helen Marten, Jiha Moon, and others invite inquiry into the temptation of retail and the allure of fine art. // More is More: Multiples, presented
in the Teresa Lozano Long Gallery of the National Museum of Women in the
Arts, is organized by the museum and generously supported by the members of NMWA.
Mickalene Thomas, Pocket Mirror (front and reverse), 2016; Brushed bronze with epoxy-coated artwork, 2 ⅞ in. diameter; National Museum of Women in the Arts, Gift of Steven Scott, Baltimore, in honor of NMWA Chief Curator Kathryn A. Wat
PHOTOS BY LEE STALSWORTH
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