Women in the Arts Winter/Spring 2020

Winter/Spring 2020

CHAMPION WOMEN THROUGH THE ARTS dear members and friends, For more than three decades, our museum has played a major role in reinserting women into the history of art and introducing great art by contemporary women artists. We work diligently to correct centuries of imbalance in the art world and positively impact the careers of many up-and-coming women.

We are elated to see new commitments from museums around the world to acquire and exhibit work by women artists. Many are in honor of the U.S. centenary of women’s suffrage this year, while others are in response to initiatives like our #5WomenArtists campaign, which encourages concrete action. While there is cause for optimism, we all know that changing the system is slow and will continue to require bold directives from museums, galleries, collectors, and individuals like you. We also hope that institutions are inspired to be introspective about their evolving roles in addressing gender parity in the arts. We all have work to do!

As we continue our work at NMWA, our second-floor exhibition galleries this spring will feature Graciela Iturbide’s Mexico. I am proud that this project continues a NMWA tradition of championing women artists over the course of their careers. Now renowned as Mexico’s most important living photographer, Iturbide was the subject of a 2007 exhibition at our museum, where we presented her images from the Casa Azul, the home of iconic artist Frida Kahlo. We look forward to celebrating her achievements along with those of an emerging talent, Delita Martin, whose layered, largescale prints are on view in the Teresa Lozano Long Gallery.

I hope you will enjoy reading about both artists’ inspirations and accomplishments in this issue of Women in the Arts. Thank you for your continued support, which makes these exhibitions and all our programs possible.

MUSEUM INFORMATION

WOMEN IN THE ARTS

1250 New York Avenue, NW Washington, DC 20005

Winter/Spring 2020 Volume 38, no. 1

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Women in the Arts is a publication of the National Museum of Women in the Arts® DIRECTOR

Susan Fisher Sterling EDITOR

Elizabeth Lynch ASSISTANT EDITOR

https://blog.nmwa.org

Alicia Gregory

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Hannah Southern

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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 © 2020 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: Graciela Iturbide, Cayó del cielo (Fallen from Heaven) (detail), Chalma, 1989; Gelatin silver print, 12 ¼ x 18 in.; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Museum purchase with funds donated by John and Cynthia Reed, Charles H. Bayley Picture and Painting Fund, Barbara M. Marshall Fund, Lucy Dalbiac Luard Fund, Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation Fund for Photography, Francis Welch Fund, and Jane M. Rabb Fund for Film and Photography; © Graciela Iturbide; Courtesy Museum of Fine Arts, Boston Director’s photo: © Michele Mattei

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Contents

“Iturbide’s work embodies her deep connection with her subjects and her empathetic approach to photography.”

PAGE 10

↑ 20

Delita Martin: Calling Down the Spirits

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FEATURES

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Building Community Around a Mission

The museum’s historic building is a hub for community, engaging audiences with the mission. winton smoot holladay

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Graciela Iturbide's Mexico

Iturbide, widely regarded as Latin America’s greatest living photographer, captures lyrical and personal blackand-white photographs of everyday life, cultures, and rituals in Mexico. kristen gresh

In an interview, Martin describes her process for creating large-scale prints that evoke the spiritual realm. virginia treanor ↓ 24

DMV Color

The Library and Research Center features artists’ books by women artists of color with connections to the D.C. region. lynora williams

// DEPARTMENTS

2 Arts News 4 Culture Watch 6 Education Report 7 Dedicated Donors: Dan and Gloria Logan 16 Calendar 26 Recent Acquisitions: Charlotte Charbonnel 28 Museum News and Events 32 Supporting Roles 33 Museum Shop

Arts News

WINTER/SPRING 2020

PHOTO BY LEE STALSWORTH ; © MAY STEVENS AND RYAN LEE GALLERY, NEW YORK

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it depicts critic Lucy Lippard and fellow artists Harmony Hammond, Joyce Kozloff, Marty Pottenger, Louise Bourgeois, Miriam Schapiro, and Sarah Charlesworth. A group of her later works appeared at NMWA in the 2005 solo exhibition The Water Remembers: Paintings and Works on Paper by May Stevens, 1990–2005.

Her numerous honors included a Women’s Caucus for Art Lifetime Achievement Award, a Guggenheim Fellowship, a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, and the Distinguished Artist Award for Lifetime Achievement by the College Art Association. She passed away in Santa Fe, where she had lived since 1996.

Above: May Stevens, SoHo Women Artists, 1978; Acrylic on canvas, 78 x 142 in.; NMWA, Museum purchase: The Lois Pollard Price Acquisition Fund

WIENER STAATSOPER/MICHAEL PÖHN

In Memoriam Artist and activist May Stevens died December 9, at age 95.

Born in Quincy, Massachusetts, Stevens studied at the Massachusetts College of Art, the Art Students League of New York, and the Académie Julian in Paris. She settled in New York City, where she became an active supporter of the Civil Rights, anti-war, and Feminist Art Movements while building a celebrated career as an artist and teacher. In 1976, she helped found the magazine Heresies: A Feminist Publication on Art and Politics.

Stevens created several bodies of work inspired by her concerns as an activist.

She portrayed a circle of her neighbors and artist friends in the monumental painting SoHo Women Artists (1978), part of NMWA’s collection. Nearly twelve feet wide, the work is part of a series that Stevens created to bring recognition to women artists—in addition to a self-portrait of the artist,

Left: Orlando at the Vienna State Opera

A Composer Makes History In December, Olga Neuwirth became the first woman to stage an opera at the 150-yearold Vienna State Opera. The Austrian composer adapted Virginia Woolf’s gender-fluid novel Orlando for the stage, filling all key creative and production roles with women.

Opera has been seen as a misogynistic art form—the traditional high-drama repertoire features countless female characters suffering terrible fates—but Neuwirth’s Orlando reflects progress in presenting a new narrative.

Crunching the Numbers A major fall 2019 research project published by Artnet News and In Other Words examined the presence of women artists in museums and the art market. Looking at twenty-six museums over the last decade, they found that just 11 percent of museum acquisitions and 14 percent of exhibitions were of work by women artists.

They added, “There have been few advances made—even as museums signal publicly that they are embracing alternative histories and working to expand the canon.”

Visit Museums . . .

Live Longer?

A new study from the University College London found that adults aged 50 or older who visited museums or other cultural spaces every few months had a 31 percent lower risk of early death. The statistic is based on responses and data from 6,710 adults.

The study accounted for socioeconomic status, recognizing that longevity may be linked to the higher status of the demographic of these audiences, and found that the correlation remained. Arts engagement was found to help alleviate stress and depression, reduce loneliness, support cognitive function, and promote empathy, social perception, and emotional intelligence.

This study is part of a growing body of research that links the arts to positive health outcomes. Artwork in hospitals is now linked to improved patient experience; in Canada, doctors can prescribe free, health-enhancing visits to the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts.

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NOMURA

Their auction findings were even more stark. The market for work by women at auction has doubled over the past decade.

In the first five months of 2019, however, sales of work by Pablo Picasso alone (about $4.8 billion) exceeded the total spent on art by every single woman artist—almost 6,000 artists (for about $4 billion), whose work garnered about 2 percent of total sales.

Doris Salcedo and Hajime Ikeda, Senior Managing Director of Nomura

Winner’s Circle In November, Colombian artist Doris Salcedo was awarded the inaugural $1 million dollar Nomura Art Award—the largest monetary prize in contemporary visual arts. The award aims to help artists who have created a body of work of major cultural significance take on a new project that they previously did not have the means to fund.

The award will enable Salcedo to continue, and grow, Acts of Mourning, a major series of large-scale works started in the 1990s. Her installations and sculptures are intended to give the Colombian people symbolic tools to cope with the pain, trauma, and loss resulting from violent conflict in their country.

Smithsonian Craft Show

APRIL 2 2–2 6 2020

SmithsonianCraftShow.org

Champion women through the arts with NMWA membership

WO M E N I N T H E A RTS

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TOR AND ROBERT ERICKSON: FURNITURE

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Culture Watch EXHIBITIONS

CALIFORNIA

Hella Feminist: An Exhibition Oakland Museum of California RM April 25–August 23, 2020 Organized around themes of mind, body, and spirit, this exhibition reconsiders the concept of feminism through historical artifacts, contemporary artwork, and interactive elements.

WASHINGTON, D.C.

Pat Steir: Color Wheel Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden On view through September 7, 2020

COURTESY OF THE ARTIST AND METRO PICTURES, NEW YORK

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Steir’s largest installation to date creates an immense color wheel, with thirty new large-scale paintings spanning the perimeter of the Hirshhorn’s second-floor inner-circle galleries.

FLORIDA

CANADA // Cindy Sherman, Untitled Film Still no. 62, 1977–2003; Carol and David Appel Collection; On view at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts

Haegue Yang: In The Cone of Uncertainty The Bass Museum of Art, Miami Beach RM On view through April 5, 2020

KENTUCKY

Mariam Ghani + Erin Ellen Kelly: When the Spirits Moved Them, They Moved

Yang interweaves narratives of climate change, overpopulation, and resource scarcity in this atmospheric survey including window blind installations, light sculptures, and mural-like wallpaper.

Speed Art Museum, Louisville RM On view through June 14, 2020 Shown alongside related photography, this video installation condenses a daylong dance performance into a meditation on Shaker landscaping, architecture, song, and dance.

MASSACHUSETTS

Tschabalala Self: Out of Body

COURTESY OF THE ARTIST AND PILAR CORRIAS GALLERY, LONDON ; © TSCHABALALA SELF

WINTER/SPRING 2020

Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston On view through July 5, 2020

MASSACHUSETTS // Tschabalala Self, Loner, 2016; Collection of Craig Robins; On view at the ICA Boston

PHOTO COURTESY OF THE KALAMAZOO INSTITUTE OF ARTS

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Self’s large-scale paintings and sculptures tell stories of urban life, the body, and humanity, depicting figures whose grace is grounded in reality.

MICHIGAN // Fukumoto Fuku, Moonlight, 2012; Collection of Carol and Jeffrey Horvitz

MICHIGAN

Natural Forms: Contemporary Art by Japanese Women Kalamazoo Institute of Arts RM On view through March 15, 2020 This exhibition presents diverse and innovative ceramic practices by Japanese women artists, many of whom tackle themes of nature and humanity’s environmental impact.

PENNSYLVANIA

Marie Cuttoli: The Modern Thread from Miró to Man Ray Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia February 23–May 10, 2020 Cuttoli commissioned artworks

by Pablo Picasso, Joan Miró, and others as designs for her tapestry workshop—the art and textiles reveal modernism’s dialogue with the decorative arts.

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BOOKS

International

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CANADA

About Face: Photographs

by Cindy Sherman, Laurie Simmons, and Rachel Harrison Montreal Museum of Fine Arts On view through March 29, 2020

UNITED KINGDOM

Artemisia National Gallery, London April 4–July 26, 2020 This overview of Gentileschi’s career combines a selection of her best-known paintings and self-portraits with recently discovered works for a new examination.

UNITED KINGDOM // Artemisia Gentileschi, Self Portrait as Saint Catherine of Alexandria, ca. 1615–17; On view at the National Gallery, London

Hito Steyerl: The City of Broken Windows

Bridget Riley: A Very Very Person

“I . . . propose that Hito Steyerl’s writing is ‘word-work,’ like art-work,” writes Griselda Pollock in Hito Steyerl: The City of Broken Windows (Skira, 2018). That is exactly what this first monograph of the German artist, theorist, and filmmaker is: word-work. The graphic design beautifully mimics Steyerl’s own use of text in her installations, thus extending her artwork—and word-work—onto the printed page. Designed to accompany an installation of the same name at the Castello di Rivoli, Turin, the monograph anthologizes Steyerl’s artwork and writing and includes essays by Pollock, Marianna Vecellio, and Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev. The first half of the book is dedicated to The City of Broken Windows installation, which explores the interplay of digital information, artificial intelligence, and windows. The second half chronologically documents Steyerl’s career and fascination with information mutation. “The poor image is no longer about the real thing—the originary original,” writes Steyerl in her essay “In Defense of the Poor Image.” “It is about defiance and appropriation just as it is about conformism and exploitation. In short: it is about reality.”

Bridget Riley’s well-known abstract art—which evokes motion through black-andwhite shapes or subtly shifting color patterns—reflects more than just her observations about human perception. Paul Moorhouse’s biography Bridget Riley: A Very Very Person (Ridinghouse, 2019), based on extensive interviews with the artist, builds a narrative of Riley’s life from her birth in 1931 through the mid-1960s, as she began to receive accolades for her mature work. Formative experiences included relocation to rural Cornwall during the Second World War, when her powers of observation grew with exposure to the natural world. After studying at Goldsmiths and the Royal College of Art, she was unsure of how to advance her work; she found her answer by searching out artistic influences.

While copying a painting by Georges Seurat, she plumbed the Pointillist work’s “dynamic connection between discrete elements”; later on a trip to Venice, she studied Futurist works that captured “elusive sensations of motion and light.” Just as methodically, Moorhouse demonstrates Riley’s commitment to generating her own original and rigorous creative pathways.

// Hannah Southern

RM North American Reciprocal Museum benefits for NMWA members at the Friend level and above

// Elizabeth Lynch

Know My Name Chanel Miller is a writer and artist. She is half Chinese. She holds a degree in literature.

She worked for a tech startup.

She is shy and funny. She has done stand-up comedy and spent a summer learning printmaking. She is certified in scuba diving and has fostered dogs. In 2015, she was sexually assaulted behind a dumpster at Stanford University and became Emily Doe—an unconscious, intoxicated woman at a frat party. “For a while I believed that was all I was,” Miller wrote in her victim impact statement, which was published by BuzzFeed in 2016 and read by eleven million people. In Know My Name (Viking, 2019), Miller reclaims her identity in a commanding, poetic memoir that will change the way our culture views sexual assault.

Miller’s account is devastating, written with such honesty and detail that readers will live her experiences alongside her. But it is also triumphant, a work that demonstrates a path to healing, critiques the shortcomings of our legal system and storied institutions, and offers a hand to victims everywhere. // Alicia Gregory

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American contemporary photographers Harrison, Sherman, and Simmons explore the history of representation and the relationship between fiction and reality in their photographs.

Education Report 6

Volunteers: Championing Women in the Arts Since 1982 We wouldn’t be able to do the work that we do without our volunteers. Last year, they assisted 133,448 visitors, contributed over 4,500 hours of service, distributed 10,000 See for Yourself self-guide packets, and, along with staff, led 230 guided tours for 4,290 guests!

Whether welcoming visitors as they walk through our doors or helping staff behind the scenes, NMWA volunteers have an invaluable impact today, just as they have throughout the museum’s history.

Docent Ruth Herman leads a school tour in the museum’s galleries, with Judy Chicago’s Through the Flower 2 (1973)

hire its first volunteer coordinator. Today, including the JLW committee, eighty individuals donate their time to support the museum and its mission.

PHOTO BY ALICIA GREGORY, NMWA

WINTER/SPRING 2020

In the Beginning: Junior League of Washington The partnership between NMWA and the Junior League of Washington (JLW) began in 1982, soon after the museum’s incorporation. Even before our building opened in 1987, JLW awarded the museum a grant to establish a committee—

originally comprising twelve JLW members serving on an annual basis. They helped to create a docent program, undertake collection research, and volunteer in a variety of departments before full-time staff were hired.

The affiliation has grown substantially since its inception. Today, more than twenty members fulfill two-year commitments, staffing our Information Desk and supporting programs. Some JLW participants continue volunteering even after completing their formal requirements. Ashton KunkleMates, current committee chair, appreciates the two organizations’ shared goal of improving cultural literacy. Kunkle-Mates says, “JLW and NMWA are both organizations that seek to empower women in different, but complementary, ways.”

That 1982 grant also allowed NMWA to develop an institutional volunteer program and

Volunteers and Junior League of Washington members Kate Seno Bradshaw, Fay Arrington, Colli McKiernan, and Onika Williams enjoy the 2019 Volunteer Appreciation Party

Next Up: Docents 1986 marked the completion of NMWA’s inaugural docent training class. This dedicated group began leading tours of the collection while it was still displayed at the residence of founders Wilhelmina and Wallace Holladay. Once the museum opened to the public, these devoted docents began greeting and orienting visitors as well as assisting with museum events.

Docents facilitate highquality, visitor-centered tours of the collection and special exhibitions for groups of all ages.

Before leading their first tour for the public, docents-intraining commit to a six-month course, which includes a survey of women artists from the Renaissance to today. It provides the necessary tools and techniques to facilitate meaningful experiences for our diverse visitors.

New in Town: Visitor Experience Volunteers In 2013, the museum added to the corps and filled a need for

individuals who were excited to introduce NMWA to the public without undertaking the intensive docent training. For the first time in more than a quarter century, a new volunteer position emerged.

Visitor Experience Volunteers (VEVs) greet guests at the Information Desk and orient them to the museum, sharing information about our history, collection, and special exhibitions. Often some of the first people a visitor encounters, they provide excellent customer service at the museum’s front line. Additionally, VEVs assist with NMWA’s programs and facilitate daily gallery experiences, Conversation Pieces.

But Wait, There’s More: Department Volunteers NMWA’s Information Desk in the Great Hall is not the only place to find our volunteers. Any office is a potential site for their helping hands. At this time, the second most likely space to spot one of their friendly faces is the Betty Boyd Dettre Library and Research Center. Whether greeting guests at the circulation desk, assisting with cataloging and archival processing, or communicating with researchers, this enthusiastic group supports library staff and programs.

Dedicated Donors 7

DAN AND GLORIA LOGAN

GLORIA AND DAN LOGAN

build on their family tradition of philanthropy with fresh ideas and deep enthusiasm for the arts. These interests have led them to support NMWA, where they have made a particular impact on the museum’s Women, Arts, and Social Change (WASC) public programs initiative. “One of the things we focus on in our foundation is that the arts are for everyone,” says Dan. “We want to expand the traditional circles of the arts community.”

The Logans are originally from Chicago, where their family has long supported the arts, investigative journalism, and social justice through the Reva & David Logan Foundation, named for and started by Dan’s late parents.

Among the family’s most notable projects is the Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts at the University of Chicago, an arts hub featuring exhibition, performance,

“Fresh Talks provide an opportunity to hear about something on the leading edge of social change.”

Dan Logan

and screening spaces. In the field of journalism, they provided substantial funding for the University of California Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism Investigative Reporting Program and the Center for Investigative Reporting. Also interested in artist-illustrated books, David and Reva Logan assembled and donated a significant collection of these volumes to the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco.

Since their move to the Washington, D.C., area in 1977, Dan and Gloria Logan have maintained many of the same interests, while tailoring their philanthropy to distinctive aspects of this region. “We’ve been avid museum-goers from the beginning,” says Gloria, in addition to their support for the performing arts and social justice. “We were very excited about what was going on in theater here,” adds Dan, noting that the D.C. region now has ninety theaters—reflecting a huge increase over the last several decades. Among other projects, they have supported the Capital Fringe and sponsored new works at Signature Theatre, and Dan cofounded the social-justice-oriented Mosaic Theater Company.

Their interest in NMWA was piqued by the museum’s unique focus on celebrating and featuring art by women— particularly resonant for Gloria, a former high-school art teacher and working artist who maintained a studio at the Torpedo Factory Art Center in Alexandria for twenty-six years. She says, “My main passion and interest in life is art education.” They enjoyed

the museum’s collection of sculptural artists’ books, which connected with their longstanding interest in book arts, as well as performing arts programming such as the Shenson Chamber Music Concerts.

When the Logans heard about the launch of the museum’s WASC initiative in 2015, they immediately felt an affinity and wanted to get involved. Through the Revada Foundation, Dan and Gloria’s foundation, they have been significant supporters, helping to bring together the dynamic speakers that make these events unforgettable. “Fresh Talks provide an opportunity to hear about something on the leading edge of social change,” says Dan. Gloria also has high praise for the Sunday Suppers and activity-filled cocktail hours that take place after events to engage attendees. They elevated their own engagement this season by helping to produce the fall 2019 premiere of 19: The Musical, which debuted for three sold-out performances at NMWA. For Dan, who has a background in politics, the chance to help with this musical about the leaders of the women’s suffrage movement was especially meaningful.

NMWA Director Susan Fisher Sterling says, “We are so grateful for Gloria and Dan’s support. We share their passion for the arts and positive social change, and we are energized by the clear-eyed sense of purpose that they bring to their involvement with the museum.”

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PHOTO CREDIT

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Building Community Around a Mission

WINTER/SPRING 2020

Winton Smoot Holladay

“This museum is an eye-opener to the world about the power of women,” wrote a recent NMWA visitor. An attendee at one of our Women, Arts, and Social Change programs told us, “Fresh Talks demonstrate that museums are locations for raising consciousness and motivating social action.” Our museum is also treasured in Washington as an elegant and unique venue for special occasions. A woman whose wedding took place at the museum said, “The National Museum of Women in the Arts is stunning. . . .

Our guests got to see some of the museum’s spectacular collection of work by women artists.”

These reactions—just a sample of recent inspirational messages—underscore the importance of the museum as a hub for community. When people step inside our historic building, they discover great artists, learn about issues affecting women and girls, and support the museum’s innovative curatorial and education programming. They also help spread the museum’s mission to a wider circle and a larger world.

Development and Debut When museum founders Wilhelmina and Wallace Holladay discovered and purchased the building in 1983 as the museum’s home, they knew it would require extensive restoration.

A former Masonic Temple, the 1908 structure featured a heroic exterior and grand interior spaces. It had fallen into disrepair, though, throughout the twentieth century.

Opposite: Audience members participate and learn at a recent performance by Step Afrika!

Supporting Women in the Arts and Extending a Welcome This dynamic and versatile space has brought the museum great success. From the earliest planning stages, Wilhelmina Cole Holladay envisioned the splendid Great Hall serving several purposes: it would provide stature and elegance, elevate art by women, and host special events to support the museum and its mission. Over the last thirty-three years, the Great Hall has been the site of unforgettable galas, exhibition openings, social events, community open houses, and workshops and tours that reach audiences from pre-kindergarten onward.

These events have introduced NMWA to innumerable new supporters, including dignitaries from around the globe.

In recent years, following the debut of our Women, Arts, and Social Change public programs initiative, the public programs and special events teams have joined forces to

make the space available for partnerships—making NMWA a welcoming space for community groups and likeminded nonprofit organizations. Recent partnerships have introduced the museum to new and diverse audiences. A performance by Step Afrika!, part of a program in which the dance company performed in a public space in each of D.C.’s eight wards, attracted 160 attendees to NMWA. Many of them were children and families who bounded up to the dance floor to participate, learning dance steps and history from the company. Another 278 visitors came to sit in the Great Hall for The Big Quiet and engage in a memorable group meditation.

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From Far and Wide The museum is a special place of connection for NMWA’s

national and international committees, which currently include twenty-two groups in the U.S. and regions around the globe. The committees spread the museum’s message to their communities and advocate for women artists in their areas.

They also convene in Washington for annual conferences, and one of their signature programs is the Women to Watch exhibition series. This summer, Paper Routes—Women to Watch 2020 will showcase women artists who work in the medium of paper, from intricate cut paper art to large-scale sculptural installations. Committee members and artists will gather in D.C. for the exhibition. Women to Watch provides a unique opportunity for the museum to build lasting relationships with curators, galleries, artists, and members around the world, and to bring these partners together in our historic home.

A Process of Renewal As you may already know from this magazine, we have undertaken a lengthy and holistic process of assessments and planning to secure the building’s future. It has been a generation since NMWA opened its doors, and we are approaching the time when it will need another once-in-a-generation renewal to remain stable, growing, and vibrant.

As stewards of this remarkable building, we recognize its significance to our programs and community, as well as to the art world at large, which has now begun to make strides to address the historic hurdles faced by women in the arts. Our museum has truly made an impact—through its presence in Washington, D.C., its exhibitions of under-recognized women artists, and its powerful and innovative programming. We thank you for your partnership and support on this journey, which will continue for generations to come. Please continue to read this section for upcoming announcements. We will have exciting news to share soon. // Winton Smoot Holladay is Vice-Chair of NMWA’s Board of Trustees.

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In fall 1987, after NMWA’s successful opening, the museum’s newsletter quoted David Ricks, project architect for the restoration, on the prior state of the building: “You could squint and see the potential of the space, but it was hard.”

Through the work of a team led by Keyes Condon Florance Architects, the entrance and majestic ground floor and mezzanine spaces were renewed and re-envisioned. The gallery spaces were newly created on floors two and three, a Library and Research Center was added on the fourth floor, and the fifth-floor Performance Hall was renovated to include terraced seating for lectures, screenings, and other programs. Through their efforts, Keyes Condon Florance won recognition from the Washington Chapter of the American Institute of Architects for Excellence in Preservation of Historic Buildings. This renovation gave our museum a place to grow; more than three decades later, we continue our commitment to its stewardship.

Below: The Great Hall and Mezzanine more than thirty years ago during the building’s 1980s renovation

Graciela Iturbide, Nuestra Señora de las Iguanas (Our Lady of the Iguanas), Juchitán, 1979; Gelatin silver print, 10 x 8 in.; Collection of Daniel Greenberg and Susan Steinhauser

GRACIELA ITURBIDE’S

MEXICO Graciela Iturbide’s photographs go beyond documentary, anthropological, and ethnographic photography and express intense personal and poetic lyricism about her country. They capture everyday life and its cultures, rituals, and religion.

They also raise questions about Mexican culture and inequality in telling a visual story of Mexico since the late 1960s, a country in constant transition, defined by tensions between urban and rural life and indigenous and modern life.

Iturbide’s emphasis on indigenous populations serves as a reminder of the paradox of Mexico, a nation extremely rich in natural resources and yet one where half of the population lives in poverty. Iturbide focuses on the dualities of human presence and nature, the real and the unreal, and death and dreams.

© GRACIELA ITURBIDE; COURTESY MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS, BOSTON

Kristen Gresh

Graciela Iturbide, Mujer Ángel (Angel Woman), Sonoran Desert, 1979; Gelatin silver print, 13 x 18 ⅜ in.; Collection of Elizabeth and Michael Marcus

WINTER/SPRING 2020

© GRACIELA ITURBIDE; COURTESY MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS, BOSTON

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iturbide’s decision to follow her dreams and begin a life as a photographer took a great deal of courage. She had to reinvent herself, and to do that she resisted the traditional expectations for women in the bourgeois society in which she was raised. Born in 1942 in Mexico City, Iturbide was the eldest of thirteen siblings. Although she was given her own camera at age eleven, almost two decades would pass before she began to seriously pursue photography. First, at age twenty, she married the architect Manuel Rocha Díaz in 1962, and in the following years she became the mother of three children.

It was not until 1969 that Iturbide, then twenty-seven, began her formal education in the arts. She enrolled in Mexico City’s prestigious University Center for Film Studies at the National Autonomous University of Mexico with the goal of becoming a film director. Once there, while studying with the modernist master photographer Manuel Álvarez Bravo (1902–2002), she changed her focus to still photography.

Her pursuit of a degree in photography radically shaped her future, as did personal tragedy in 1970, when her daughter, Claudia, died at the age of six. Photography became a form of therapy for Iturbide, offering her a way to seek comfort and understanding.

Soon thereafter, Álvarez Bravo asked Iturbide to be his assistant, or achichincle (a term equivalent to a bricklayer’s or carpenter’s helper), and she began to accompany him on

photographic journeys throughout Mexico. Álvarez Bravo’s interest in the indigenous populations of Mexico, and his connections with members of Mexico’s artistic circles from the 1930s, influenced Iturbide. Through their relationship, she gained a deeper knowledge of Mexico, the world, and herself. As a keen observer of Álvarez Bravo’s creative process, Iturbide learned how to see, how to be patient and wait for a photograph, and above all, how to develop what is known as a poetic Mexican tempo—a particularly Mexican philosophy of life and living that indicates both being present and having taken the time to be present.

Iturbide chooses to photograph the Other—or those who are distinctly individual—without emphasizing the “exotic.” Her photographs, particularly those of indigenous communities, do not exoticize her subjects because she seeks, through them, to understand a culture that is also her own.

Mexico’s pluricultural society, the foundation of which is its indigenous peoples, counts more than ninety indigenous spoken languages and a population of more than twenty-six million indigenous peoples. Iturbide sees her country from a different vantage point from that of many who have contributed to Mexico’s visual heritage, a heritage complicated by foreigners who have influenced Mexicans’ perception of their own country.

Today, Graciela Iturbide is widely regarded as Latin America’s greatest living photographer, an esteem once

Graciela Iturbide; Courtesy of Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

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Iturbide learns through and seeks to see with other people’s eyes; this is key to her empathetic approach to photography.

Luis Barjau, and together they lived with a Seri community, staying a month and a half on their first trip, and another month on their second trip. The result of their work was the book Los que viven en la arena (Those who live in the sand).

In the process of putting together Los que viven en la arena, fellow photographer and book editor Pablo Ortiz Monasterio discovered what has become one of Iturbide’s best-known photographs, Mujer Ángel (Angel Woman). Iturbide recounts that she had selected the final photographs and the book was already laid out when Ortiz Monasterio noticed on her contact sheets the image of the ethereal woman. The picture presents a seemingly contradictory image of a Seri woman in traditional dress walking into the desert landscape carrying a boom box, a reminder of the technological and material influence of the United States on her indigenous culture. The experience of living with and documenting the Seri community marked the beginning of a significant part of Iturbide’s career: photographing indigenous peoples. In her work, Iturbide learns through and seeks to see with other people’s eyes; this is key to her empathetic approach to photography.

In 1979, artist Francisco Toledo invited Iturbide to Juchitán to take photographs for a local cultural center that he had founded. It was the beginning of an important relationship Graciela Iturbide, Magnolia con sombrero (Magnolia with Sombrero), Juchitán, 1986; Gelatin silver print, 12 x 8 in.; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Museum purchase with funds donated by John and Cynthia Reed, Charles H. Bayley Picture and Painting Fund, Barbara M. Marshall Fund, Lucy Dalbiac Luard Fund, Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation Fund for Photography, Francis Welch Fund, and Jane M. Rabb Fund for Film and Photography

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© GRACIELA ITURBIDE; COURTESY MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS, BOSTON

enjoyed by her mentor Álvarez Bravo. Although she avoids making overtly political photographs, Iturbide uses photography to learn, to acknowledge, and to understand what she sees. She also explores notions of personal and collective identity in a larger Latin American context, in which photography cannot be divorced from politics. She insists, “My photographs are not political or feminist, but I am when I need to be.”

Iturbide’s photography does not fall into one specific category or genre. Her documentary work goes beyond bearing witness to provide a poetic vision of contemporary culture, informed by a sense of life’s surprises and mysteries.

One of her early projects was a 1978 commission from the Ethnographic Archive of the National Indigenous Institute of Mexico to photograph Mexico’s indigenous population.

Iturbide documented and recorded the way of life of the Seri Indians, a group of formerly nomadic fisherfolk living in the Sonoran Desert of northwestern Mexico, along the Gulf of California. She worked and traveled with anthropologist

and creative partnership between Toledo and Iturbide, as well as the beginning of Iturbide’s immersion in the community of Juchitán. Juchitán is a small city in the state of Oaxaca, with one of the most purely indigenous populations in Mexico—predominantly people of the Zapotec culture, in which women are known for their economic, political, and sexual independence. Women in Juchitán exclude men from certain activities and places, except for the muxes, men in Oaxaca who identify as women—a Zapotec gender status that is reputed to have existed for centuries. Muxes, who are close to women, are featured in many of Iturbide’s photographs.

WINTER/SPRING 2020

Below: Graciela Iturbide, Pájaros en el poste, Carretera (Birds on the Post, Highway), Guanajuato, 1990; Gelatin silver print, 11 ⅝ x 17 ½ in.; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Below and opposite left: Museum purchase with funds donated by John and Cynthia Reed, Charles H. Bayley Picture and Painting Fund, Barbara M. Marshall Fund, Lucy Dalbiac Luard Fund, Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation Fund for Photography, Francis Welch Fund, and Jane M. Rabb Fund for Film and Photography

Iturbide’s cover image for the first edition of her book Juchitán de las mujeres (Juchitán of women), the photograph Nuestra Señora de las Iguanas (Our Lady of the Iguanas) (page 11), has taken on an almost legendary status. The unforgettable image of a woman wearing a wreath of iguanas on her head has since been appropriated by Juchitecans, Chicanos, artists, critics, and even Hollywood. Iturbide embraces the fact that her image of the iguana seller has become a symbol for the community of Juchitán and for Zapotec womanhood.

Continuing her practice of seeking rituals and immersing herself in diverse cultures, Iturbide photographed the annual slaughtering of goats in the Mixteca region of the state of Oaxaca in the early 1990s. The tradition dates back to colonial times and continues today. It began when Spanish landowners contracted Mixtec Indians to butcher their animals for sale, paying them only in goat entrails and hooves. The experience was transformational for Iturbide, and it was also the last time she lived for an extended period in an indigenous community.

The presence of death in Iturbide’s work echoes her country’s fascination with death, which dates to pre-Hispanic times. Iturbide refers to it as “Mexico’s death fantasy” and

© GRACIELA ITURBIDE; COURTESY MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS, BOSTON

14

Even Iturbide's most realistic photographs are dreamlike and questioning.

Graciela Iturbide, Jardín botaníco (Botanical Garden), Oaxaca, 1998–99; Gelatin silver print, 14 ⅝ x 14 ½ in.; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Graciela Iturbide, El Baño de Frida, Coyoacán, Ciudad de México (Frida’s Bathroom, Coyoacán, Mexico City), 2005; Gelatin silver print, 14 ½ x 14 ¼ in.; Courtesy of the artist

© GRACIELA ITURBIDE

© GRACIELA ITURBIDE; COURTESY MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS, BOSTON

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Iturbide’s work embodies her deep connection with her subjects and her empathetic approach to photography.

Even her most realistic photographs are dreamlike and questioning, reflecting her immersive process and resulting in a sense of suspense. Iturbide explains, “Perhaps finally, photography for me is a ritual. To go out with the camera, to observe, to photograph the most mythological aspects of people, then to go into the darkness, to develop, to select the most symbolic images. . . . I don’t believe in anything, but I seek the rituals of religion, the heroes of religion, the gods.” // Adapted

from Kristen Gresh, “Dreams on Paper,” in Graciela Iturbide’s Mexico (Boston: MFA Publications, 2018). Copyright © 2018 by Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Gresh is the Estrellita and Yousuf Karsh Senior Curator of Photographs at the MFA, Boston.

Graciela Iturbide’s Mexico is organized by the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

Presentation of the exhibition at NMWA is made possible by RBC Wealth Management and City National Bank, with additional support provided by the Sue J. Henry and Carter G. Phillips Exhibition Fund and Agnes Gund. The museum extends appreciation to the Embassy of Mexico and the Mexican Cultural Institute in Washington, D.C.

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sees its presence in everyday life, whether in the street, at a festival, or in the cemetery. The sequence of images published in Sueños de papel (Paper dreams) presents a visual narrative of the arc of life, ending with suggestive images of death, including the expressive photographs Duelo (Mourning) and Peregrinación (Procession). They are followed by the dreamlike, ethereal Mujer Ángel from the Seri series, almost an image of life after death.

Beyond her interest in the diverse cultures of Mexico, Iturbide is drawn to the mystery and beauty of nature. In the same way that her photographs of fiestas and rituals combine the sacred and the secular, her photographs of birds, such as Pájaros en el poste, carretera (Birds on the Post, Highway), do the same, conveying a sense of the heavenly and the spiritual in nature.

Iturbide’s photographs from the Oaxaca Ethnobotanical Garden show how she plunged into the world of the cactus, which in Mexico is used as a source of food and alcohol and as a medicinal plant. Her powerful, sometimes abstract portraits of the plants show Mexico’s national symbol receiving medical care, with IVs, splints, and other treatments. Iturbide has come to see the cactus series as complementary to her 2005 series El baño de Frida (Frida’s Bathroom) because they are both about being “in therapy,” or healing. For Iturbide, her photographs of Kahlo’s corsets, prosthetic leg, and other medical objects pair conceptually with her images of healing cacti, and perhaps with her personal feelings about suffering and healing.

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

Graciela Iturbide’s Mexico February 28–May 25, 2020

F Free 

Free for members and one guest

Delita Martin: Calling Down the Spirits On view through April 19, 2020

A

Free with admission

R

Reservation required at https://nmwa.org

O

No reservations required

DMV Color On view through March 4, 2020, in the Betty Boyd Dettre Library and Research Center; Open Monday–Friday, 10 a.m.– 12 p.m. and 1 p.m.–5 p.m.

E Exhibition-related program

Join us for thirty-minute conversations that spotlight two works on view. Check in at the Information Desk.

M Free for members

Gallery Talks: Lunchtime Talk Series WEDNESDAYS 12–12:30 P.M. // F M O

Bite-sized, staff-led talks encourage visitors to look closely and discuss works on view.

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.

Linda Nochlin: The Maverick She March 8–July 31, 2020, in the Betty Boyd Dettre Library and Research Center; Open Monday–Friday, 10 a.m.–12 p.m. and 1 p.m.–5 p.m.

February

Young Learners Tour: Color-Full Fun

SAT 10–11 A.M. // F M R

In this tour designed for children ages 3 to 6 accompanied by an adult, participants become “Color Detectives” as they explore the galleries. Sold out.

New York Avenue Sculpture Project: Betsabeé Romero On view through September 20, 2020 `

2/19

Gallery Talk: Collection Sampler

WED 12–12:30 P.M. // F M O

2/21

Artist Talk: Delita Martin

FRI 12–12:30 P.M. AND 2:30–3 P.M. // F M O E

Join us for an in-gallery discussion with Delita Martin, who will discuss work featured in Delita Martin: Calling Down the Spirits.

Right: Graciela Iturbide, Cayó del cielo (Fallen from Heaven), Chalma, 1989; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; On view in Graciela Iturbide’s Mexico

2/26

Gallery Talk: Collection Sampler

WED 12–12:30 P.M. // F M O

© GRACIELA ITURBIDE; COURTESY OF MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS, BOSTON

WINTER/SPRING 2020

2/15

Visit https://nmwa.org for reservations, a complete calendar of events, and more information.

3/14

Wikipedia Edit-a-thon: Art+Feminism

17

SAT 10 A.M.–3 P.M // F M R O

Join us for the museum’s 7th annual Art+Feminism edita-thon, which aims to improve Wikipedia entries related to notable women artists and art world figures. This year’s event will focus on women artists of Latin America.

Gallery Talk: #5WomenArtists

3/18

WED 12–12:30 P.M. // F M O

3/20

Tour: Spring Fever

FRI 1–2 P.M. // R

PHOTO BY KEVIN ALLEN

In honor of the Spring Equinox and Earth Day, explore and discuss artworks in the collection that highlight the natural world. $12 general; $10 seniors, students; $6 members; free for visitors younger than 18.

2/27

Member Preview Day: Graciela Iturbide’s Mexico

THU 11 A.M.–2 P.M. // M



OE

Join us for a special preview of Graciela Iturbide’s Mexico.

Iturbide’s signature black-and-white photographs transform ordinary observation into personal and lyrical art.

3/1 SUN

Enjoy a screening presented in partnership with the world’s premier showcase of environmentally themed films.

3/25

Gallery Talk: #5WomenArtists

WED 12–12:30 P.M. // F M O

Free Community Day

WED 7:30–9:30 P.M. // F M R

Artistic Director Gilan Tocco Corn welcomes the McDermott Trio, recognized for their “dazzling virtuosity,” appearing with violist Paul Neubauer.

12–5 P.M. // F M O

3/1

SUN 1–2 P.M. // F M O

Drop-In Tour: Fierce Women 2.0 Discover a squad of fierce women who blazed trails as artists, activists, and innovators. Limited space—check in at the Information Desk.

3/4

Cultural Capital: Environmental Film Festival

SAT 1–3 P.M. // F M R

3/25 Shenson Chamber Music Concert: McDermott Trio with Paul Neubauer

3/21

March

Artist Lecture: Delita Martin

FRI 5:30–7:30 P.M. // R E

Delita Martin discusses her large-scale, multimedia works on view in Delita Martin: Calling Down the Spirits. Concludes with book sale and signing. $15 general; $12 members, seniors, students.

3/20

3/26

NMWA Late Hours

THU 5–8 P.M. // M

A

O

Visit during special late hours for docent-led talks on the collection and Graciela Iturbide’s Mexico.

Gallery Talk: #5WomenArtists

WED 12–12:30 P.M. // F M O

3/8

SUN 12–5 P.M. // F M O

April

International Women’s Day Celebrate International Women’s Day at NMWA with free admission, thirty-minute Conversation Pieces, and more!

3/11

WED 12–12:30 P.M. // F M O

Gallery Talk: #5WomenArtists

3/11

WED 7–9 P.M. // R

4/1

4/2–3

Teacher Program: VTS Beginner Practicum

THU–FRI 9 A.M.–4 P.M. // R

Learn how to facilitate conversations about artwork during this two-day Beginner Practicum on Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS). $435 registration fee.

Cultural Capital: Motherhood Redux In partnership with the Folger Shakespeare Library, NMWA welcomes poets Camille Dungy, Tina Chang, and Beth Ann Fennelly, who will read their work about motherhood. Includes a wine reception and book signing. $15 general; $12 members, seniors, students.

Gallery Talk: Graciela Iturbide’s Mexico

WED 12–12:30 P.M. // F M O E

4/4

SAT 10 A.M.–5 P.M. // F R

Museum Day Enjoy free admission for Smithsonian magazine’s annual Museum Day.

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Left: Delita Martin, New Beginnings, 2017; Collection of Sheila C. Johnson; On view in Delita Martin: Calling Down the Spirits

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4/15

Gallery Talk: Graciela Iturbide’s Mexico

WED

12–12:30 P.M. // F M O E

4/17

2020 Spring Gala

FRI 6:30 P.M. // R

Join co-chairs Grace Bender, Rose Carter, Ashley Davis, Marlene Malek, and Lauren Talarico-Cohen for the museum’s largest annual fundraiser. Contact fmcnally@nmwa.org for tickets and sponsorship.

4/18

Young Learners Tour: Portrait Party

SAT 10–11 A.M. // R

In this tour designed for children ages 3 to 6 accompanied by an adult, participants step into the shoes of portrait subjects in art and create their own self-portraits!

4/22

Gallery Talk: Collection Sampler

WED 12–12:30 P.M. // F M O

PHOTO BY JOSHUA ASANTE

4/27

NMWA Late Hours

MON 5–8 P.M. // M

A

O

Visit during

special late hours for docent-led talks on the collection and Graciela Iturbide’s Mexico.

4/29

Gallery Talk: Graciela Iturbide’s Mexico

WED 12–12:30 P.M. // F M O E

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KEY

May

F Free

R

M Free for members

Reservation required at https://nmwa.org



Free for members and one guest

O

A

Free with admission

E Exhibition-related program

5/3

Free Community Day

SUN 12–5 P.M. // F M O

No reservations required

5/3

Drop-In Tour: Fierce Women 2.0

SUN 1–2 P.M. // F M O

4/4 Slow

Discover a squad of fierce women who blazed trails as artists, activists, and innovators. Limited space—check in at the Information Desk.

Art Day

SAT 12–2 P.M. // M A R E

Focus on the art of seeing: examine and discuss five works on view as part of Slow Art Day. 4/5

Violinist Jennifer Koh closes the 2019–2020 Shenson Chamber Music Series on May 27

Free Community Day

SUN 12–5 P.M. // F M O

4/5

Drop-In Tour: Fierce Women 2.0

SUN 1–2 P.M. // F M O

Discover a squad of fierce women who blazed trails as artists, activists, and innovators. Limited space—check in at the Information Desk.

4/5 Cultural

Capital: Radical Empathy

In partnership with PEN/Faulkner, NMWA welcomes three authors who will discuss fiction as a tool for radical social change. $25 general; $20 members, seniors, students.

4/8

Gallery Talk: Delita Martin

WED 12–12:30 P.M. // F M O E

PHOTO BY JUERGEN FRANK

WINTER/SPRING 2020

SUN 7–9:30 P.M. // R

19

PHOTO BY KEVIN ALLEN

Visitors enjoy a Fierce Women 2.0 tour in a gallery with Niki de Saint Phalle’s Pregnant Nana (1993)

5/3 Cultural

Capital: Contact High— Screening & Conversation

5/6

WED 12–12:30 P.M. // F M O E

5/13

Gallery Talk: Graciela Iturbide’s Mexico NMWA Late Hours

TUE 5–8 P.M. // M

A

O

Visit during special late hours for docent-led talks on the collection and Graciela Iturbide’s Mexico.

5/20

5/27

Gallery Talk: Collection Sampler

WED 12–12:30 P.M. // F M O

5/27

Gallery Talk: Collection Sampler

WED 12–12:30 P.M. // F M O

Shenson Chamber Music Concert: Jennifer Koh

Tour: Fierce Women 2.0

SUN 1–2 P.M. // F M O

Discover a squad of fierce women who blazed trails as artists, activists, and innovators. Limited space—check in at the Information Desk.

6/7 Book

Arts Lecture: Audrey Niffenegger— A Life in Libraries

SUN 4–5:30 P.M. // F M R

Book artist, painter, and author Audrey Niffenegger presents NMWA’s annual Book Arts Lecture, examining ways that libraries have influenced her art and writing.

Gallery Talk: Graciela Iturbide’s Mexico

WED 12–12:30 P.M. // F M O E

5/19

SUN 7–9 P.M. // R

Journalist and producer Vikki Tobak and music historian, DJ, and producer Adrian Loving present a film screening and a conversation with women photographers from Tobak’s book Contact High: A Visual History of Hip-Hop (2018). $20 general; $15 members, seniors, students.

6/7 Drop-In

Gallery Talk: Collection Sampler

6/10

WED 12–12:30 P.M. // F M O

6/17 Gallery

6/24

Gallery Talk: Collection Sampler

WED 12–12:30 P.M. // F M O

6/27

Talk: Collection Sampler

WED 12–12:30 P.M. // F M O

Young Learners Tour: Animal Adventure

SAT 10–11 A.M. // R

In this tour for children ages 3 to 6 accompanied by an adult, participants adventure through the galleries to explore animals in art and create their own artwork.

WED 7:30–9:30 P.M. // F M R

Artistic Director Gilan Tocco Corn welcomes violinist Jennifer Koh, recognized for her commanding performances, dazzling virtuosity, and technical assurance.

June

Gallery Talk: Linda Nochlin: The Maverick She

WED 12–12:30 P.M.

6/7 Free

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FMOE

Community Day

SUN 12–5 P.M. // F M O

6/7

SUN 12–5 P.M. // F M O

DC Art Book Fair Organized by the DC Art Book Collective, this curated event features small presses, artists, and makers who sell zines, books, comics, and prints.

Carlucci Charitable Foundation, the Laurie Nakamoto Trust, Mrs. Marjorie Rachlin, the Leo Rosner Foundation, 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 the Harriet E. McNamee Youth Education Fund, William and Christine Leahy, the Nora Roberts Foundation, Sylvan C. Coleman Trust, 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 Revada Foundation of the Logan Family, and Stephanie Sale.

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6/3

// Education programming is made possible by the Marcia and Frank

January 17–April 19, 2020

Calling Down the Spirits

Delita Martin, Soul Keeper, 2016; Gelatin printing, acrylic, conté, hand-stitching, and decorative papers on paper, 52 x 41 in.; Private collection

Texas-based artist Delita Martin (b. 1972) combines her printmaking expertise and her drawing skills to create life-size images in which she claims space for her subjects, particularly black women. Her vibrant works—embellished with collage, embroidery, and gold leaf—include colorful patterns and specific iconography that indicate the connection between our world and the spiritual realm. The interconnectedness between generations is a common theme in Martin’s art.

NMWA Associate Curator Virginia Treanor asked Martin to discuss motifs and techniques that appear throughout her work.

PHOTO BY JOSHUA ASANTE

Virginia Treanor

Delita Martin, Believing In Kings, 2018; Acrylic, charcoal, relief printing, decorative papers, hand-stitching, and liquid gold leaf on paper, 71 1/2 x 51 in.; Courtesy of the artist and Galerie Myrtis

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“There is something powerful about walking into a room filled with a six-foot woman meeting your gaze.”

DELITA MARTIN

PHOTO BY JOSHUA ASANTE

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Virginia Treanor: The pieces featured at NMWA exemplify the large scale of your work—the largest is more than eight feet wide. What do you achieve through this scale that you couldn’t at a smaller size?

Delita Martin: Scale is important in my work for three reasons. First, it allows me to connect with the work on a more intimate level. The processes that I layer in my work are generally very labor intensive. It calls for the entire body to be involved, and there is an intimacy when every part of your being is involved in creating a work. Second, African American women have historically been marginalized and often overlooked. I use scale as a way to make their presence not only seen but also felt. There is something powerful about walking into a room filled with a six-foot woman meeting your gaze. Third, I use it to change the conversation, to ask the viewer, “Are you the viewer or are you being viewed?”

W I N T E R / S P R I N G 2020

VT: Some of the iconographical elements you use include

circles, masks, and significant colors. What is the source of these elements, and what is their meaning?

DM: The iconographical elements appeared very early in my work. I think I owe this to my maternal grandmother. She was a quiltmaker and a storyteller, and as a child I would help her make quilts. While we worked, she would tell me stories about the fabrics she used. She kept mason jars filled

with objects like brooches, safety pins, small perfume bottles, rings, and more. Every so often she would take the contents of these jars and pour them out on her bed, and she had a story for each object. So, at an early age I began to associate objects with people, places, and things.

Much later, I was looking at some of my works and noticed there were objects in the work. I soon realized that I had created a visual language. It is this language that I use to tell the stories of my subjects.

– Circle: The circle represents the moon, which is a symbol of the female. The circle can be seen in patterns throughout my work, sometimes in the backgrounds as well as on the clothing draping the figures. This pattern represents the female presence in my work; it is also present in the male portraits.

– Mask: The masks in my work are conduits for transition.

They allow the women I portray to transition into the spirit world, achieving a higher self. The masks are inspired by the Sowei mask and the Ife heads and masks of West Africa.

– Bird: The birds in my work represent the human spirit. The placement of the birds and the state of the bird (some are alive; some are lifeless with their feet bound) comment on the state of the spirit.

– Hoop Earring: My ears were pierced when I was six months

old with tiny gold hoops. I still wear hoop earrings. This style of earring has become a symbol of inclusion in my work. Not only is it a circle, thus symbolizing the female, but it represents notions of totality, wholeness, the infinite, eternity, timelessness, and all cyclic movement.

VT: Two of the works in the exhibition, The Moon and

the Little Bird and New Beginnings, depict two female figures, one older and one younger. Can you describe that dynamic?

DM: These two works are about transition. How do you transition into the spiritual other? What does that transition visually look like? Who aids in this transition? How do we, in the waking world, interact with the spirit world?

The Moon and the Little Bird depicts a mother and daughter in a transitional space, or what I call the “veilscape.” The background patterns found in my work represent the veil made visible—the space between the waking life and the spirit life. I wanted to use pattern and color to make this space tangible. The daughter is being shown her spiritual self by her mother, who has taken this journey, and the spirit of her ancestors—hence the bird and the circular patterns found throughout the work.

New Beginnings is a self-portrait (I am the figure holding the mask). In this work I am in dialogue with a spirit figure.

I have been offered transition into the veilscape.

23

VT: Your subjects are predominantly women, but you’ve

recently started making images of men. Why? DM: I have been asked countless times over the years why I didn’t depict men in my work. The simple answer is that my work was a conversation that I felt they were not a part of. At the time the men appeared in the work, the work itself was about transitioning and what spiritual transitioning looks like. My nephew passed away during this time, and it made sense to make him and others a part of the conversation. I think this took a while because, like many elements in my work, I don’t choose them, they choose me. // Virginia Treanor is the associate curator at the National Museum

of Women in the Arts.

Delita Martin: Calling Down the Spirits, presented in the Teresa Lozano Long Gallery of the National Museum of Women in the Arts, 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.

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PHOTO BY JOSHUA ASANTE

Delita Martin, The Moon and the Little Bird, 2018; Acrylic, charcoal, gelatin printing, collagraph printing, relief printing, decorative papers, handstitching, and liquid gold leaf on paper, 79 x 102 in.; Courtesy of the artist and Galerie Myrtis

PHOTO BY EMILY SHAW, COURTESY OF THE BET TY BOYD DET TRE LIBRARY AND RESEARCH CENTER

24

DMV Color On view through March 4, 2020

WINTER/SPRING 2020

Lynora Williams

DMV Color, on view in the museum’s Betty Boyd Dettre Library and Research Center, features twenty-two works of book arts by nineteen women of African American, Asian American, and Latina heritage. The artists have all lived in the District of Columbia, Maryland, or Virginia— known locally as the DMV.

The artists’ books, graphic novels, photobooks, and zines in the exhibition depict intimacies of family life, legacies of enslavement, effects of rampant development, dislocation and newfound freedoms tied to immigration, and other personal topics.

The District of Columbia and its extended surroundings— from Baltimore, Maryland, to Richmond, Virginia—have long welcomed artists of African, Asian, Native, and Latinx heritage.

This history stretches from the 1700s and earlier, and it was boosted by the influx of formerly enslaved African Americans who flocked to D.C. during the Civil War and Reconstruction.

More recently, immigrants from throughout Africa, Central and South America, Central and Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and other regions have settled in the DMV as they flee armed conflicts, repressive governments, and economic crises.

Some featured DMV Color artists lived in the region for only a short time, but that experience produced lasting effects on their creative endeavors.

Suzanne Coley, who lives near Baltimore, has deployed her skills and creative vision to create textile archives in book form. A skilled embroiderer and textile embellisher, she uses abundant historical textiles such as vintage wedding dresses, antique bed coverings, and African textiles in her artists’ books. Coley created All I Have (2018) in response to the thousands of Africans who lost their lives attempting to cross the Mediterranean seeking asylum and better lives in Europe.

Textiles are also central to the work of Washingtonian Ibé Crawley, whose work My Cotton Book (2010) includes cotton scraps and raw cotton, along with photographs of African American children. Crawley’s book is a meditation on the fraught relationship of African Americans to cotton agriculture and processing.

DMV Color celebrates the often unsung creative impulse of the region’s women of color Malaka Gharib’s graphic memoir, I Was Their American Dream (2019), has garnered national praise for its engaging coming-of-age story. The artist depicts her challenges as a young woman coming to terms with being an American born of Filipino-Egyptian heritage.

D.C. became home to a sizable Chilean population during their homeland’s nearly two-decade military rule beginning in 1973. Two artists’ books in the exhibition were created by women of Chilean heritage. Magdalena Cordero’s Long Chilean Gaia (2016) highlights the poetry of Nobel-winning poet Gabriela Mistral. Maria Verónica San Martín created the highly structured book In Their Memory (2012) while she was a student at the Corcoran College of Art and Design, in honor of the thousands of Chileans who disappeared under the dictatorship.

“My goal was to create something powerful—something that could create a response commensurate with the horror of the injustices perpetrated in Chile,” San Martín says.

DMV Color includes photographic work by Jennifer White-Johnson and Carolyn Toye. White-Johnson’s photo zine Knox Roxs (2018) features images of her son, Knox, a child with autism. Toye’s photographs express her response to the unabashed drive of Washington-area developers to do away with neighborhood landscapes treasured by longtime community members but seen as eyesores by many newer residents.

DMV Color celebrates the often unsung creative impulse of the region’s women of color, many of whom are unable to devote themselves to the pursuit of visual artmaking full time.

Although no topic—from environmental crisis to romantic love—is out of bounds for the exhibition’s artists, many share a common theme in their work: the embrace of cultural identity. Here these identities are conveyed in varied mediums, but signifiers such as food, textiles, childhood memories, and the admonitions of grandmothers can be found across the boundaries of culture and form. Throughout the DMV, women of diverse heritages and experiences, often united by a desire to be freed of restrictive social norms, have learned from and inspired one other in their creative endeavors.

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// Lynora Williams is the director of the Betty Boyd Dettre Library

and Research Center at the National Museum of Women in the Arts.

Opposite: Maria Verónica San Martín, In Their Memory, 2012; Artist’s book; Courtesy of the artist

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PHOTO BY EMILY SHAW, COURTESY OF THE BETTY BOYD DETTRE LIBRARY AND RESEARCH CENTER

Left: Suzanne Coley, All I Have, 2018; Artist’s book; Courtesy of the artist

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RECENT ACQUISITIONS

Charlotte Charbonnel mille cents millimètres (Lucy) (2019)

WINTER/SPRING 2020

// Hannah Shambroom

Charlotte Charbonnel (b. 1980, Maubeuge, France) translates sounds and scientific phenomena into shimmering, threedimensional forms. Thanks to a new donation from Les Amis du NMWA, the France-based chapter of the museum’s extensive network of national and international outreach committees, NMWA brings the distinctive vision of this compelling mixed-media artist to its collection. The brass, stainless steel, nickel, silver, and copper sculpture, titled mille cents millimètres (Lucy) (2019), is the first by Charbonnel to be acquired by the museum, though three works by the artist were featured in the recent exhibition Heavy Metal—Women to Watch 2018. Charbonnel’s

artwork enhances NMWA’s holdings of modern and contemporary sculpture, particularly in metal, a medium traditionally dominated by men.

Visualizing Phonic Forms Using a variety of metals and techniques, Charbonnel blends scientific observation with visual form. She says, “I work with physical forces such as gravity and magnetism in order to make visible the energies that surround us.” Her interest in metal is rooted in its transformative qualities. In some sculptures, she defies gravity by suspending iron filings in space using magnetism, revealing the medium’s physical mutability.

“Because metal can transform from one state to another, it seems almost alive, organic,” the artist explains. In other works,

“This work is the result of research on sound visualization and synesthesia . . . as if sound became form.”

Charlotte Charbonnel

such as mille cents millimètres (Lucy), the artist focuses on the acoustic properties of elements as well as their physical traits; she cuts, fuses, melts, bends, and magnetizes various metals, giving visual form to sound and seismic waves. mille cents millimètres (Lucy) For mille cents millimètres (Lucy), Charbonnel was inspired

by Lucy, the approximately 3.2-million-year-old early human ancestor, whose discovery shed light on important aspects of human evolution. Unearthed in Hadar, Ethiopia, in 1974 by paleontologist Donald C. Johanson, Lucy’s fossilized remains comprise hundreds of pieces of bone fossils that together represent 40 percent of an early female Australopithecus afarensis skeleton—at the time, the most

Charlotte Charbonnel, mille cents millimètres (Lucy), 2019; Brass, stainless steel, nickel, silver, and copper, 12 1/4 x 43 1/4 x 1 1/2 in.; National Museum of Women in the Arts, Gift of Les Amis du NMWA

ancient early hominin ever found.

The fossils measure 1,100 millimeters, also the length of Charbonnel’s piece.

The sculpture is a visualization of the soundwaves produced by the artist’s voice as she pronounces the work’s title, the measurement 1,100 millimeters (in French). Composed of a horizontal brass band intersected by 1,100 vertical stainless steel, nickel, silver, and copper rods, the work transcribes sound into expressive physical form. “I wanted to pay tribute to the first woman of humanity, Lucy, and represent her like a spectrum, a vibratory body in a horizontal position, like a recumbent statue,” Charbonnel says. “This work is the result of research on sound visualization and synesthesia . . . as if sound became form.”

A Woman to Watch Charbonnel was selected to represent the French committee in Heavy Metal, the fifth installment of NMWA’s Women to Watch exhibition series, in 2018. Women to Watch exhibitions result from a collaboration between the museum and its supporting committees around the world.

For Heavy Metal, Les Amis du NMWA worked with Alicia Knock, a curator at the Centre Pompidou in Paris, to create a shortlist of contemporary artists in France working in metal. From these nominations, NMWA Associate Curator Virginia Treanor chose three works by Charbonnel; the exhibition marked the first time the artist’s work was exhibited in the United States. Treanor was intrigued by Charbonnel’s visualization of concepts that combine art and science. For one piece

shown in the exhibition, Train End (2016), Charbonnel transcribed the soundwave of an unidentified deep-sea tone by fusing together stainless steel rods and a contour gauge (a tool used to measure and record the cross-sectional shape of a surface). She used a similar approach in mille cents millimètres (Lucy), balancing consideration of visual composition and abstract auditory elements.

The gift from Les Amis du NMWA continues the committee’s generous history of donating works by Women to Watch artists to the museum’s collection. The committee has also gifted works by Laure Tixier and François Pétrovitch, whose art was featured in Women to Watch exhibitions in 2013 and 2015, respectively.

NMWA’s robust collection of metalwork includes historic

silver—serving platters, utensils, salvers, and more, dating as far back as the late seventeenth century—as well as modern and contemporary sculptures by standout artists such as Louise Bourgeois, Lynda Benglis, Frida Baranek, Dorothy Dehner, and others. This vibrant variety of historic and contemporary work dispels the traditional perception of metalworking as the purview of men and gives museum visitors more to discover. The acquisition of Charbonnel’s work highlights a new aspect of the versatility and ingenuity of women working in this medium, who demonstrate their mastery of metal in all its transformative states. // Hannah Shambroom is the exhibition coordinator at the National Museum of Women in the Arts.

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PHOTO BY LEE STALSWORTH

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Committee News

Above: Artist Mary Evans (center) with UK Friends of NMWA board members Beth Colocci and Claire Mander Right: Jae Ko speaking about her work at NMWA

WINTER/SPRING 2020

UK Friends of NMWA Present Paper Work In September, the UK Friends of NMWA presented the special exhibition Women to Watch UK—Paper Work at Sotheby’s in London. Members of the committee worked with curator Natasha Howes of Manchester Art Gallery to present works by five exceptional contemporary artists—Sophie Bouvier Ausländer, Mary Evans, Ludovica Gioscia, Charlotte McGowanGriffin, and Abigail Reynolds.

In addition to her participation in Paper Work, Evans will be included in the group exhibition Paper Routes—Women to Watch 2020.

Mid-Atlantic Committee Hosts Women to Watch Panel At the museum on September 13, the Mid-Atlantic Committee of NMWA held a panel discussion with Women to Watch 2020 nominees Rachel Farbiarz, Jae Ko, and Julie Wolfe. Following opening remarks from NMWA’s Alice West Director Susan Fisher Sterling, committee leader Anjali Gupta introduced each artist for a brief presentation on their work. The D.C.-area artists were then joined by NMWA curators Orin Zahra and Virginia

Treanor for a conversation about the innovative and unexpected ways each artist employs paper as a medium.

San Francisco Advocacy Group Presents Surfacing Histories Sculpting Memories In anticipation of Paper Routes, San Francisco Advocacy for NMWA partnered with Hubbell Street Gallery on the campus of the California College of the Arts to present Surfacing Histories Sculpting Memories.

On view from September 3 to October 4, 2019, the exhibition featured works by five artists based in Northern California who were selected by Claudia Schmuckli, curator at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco.

Exhibited artists—nominated for inclusion in Women to Watch 2020—are Sofía Córdova, Julia Goodman, Sandra Ono,

Massachusetts Committee Celebrates Artists with Exhibition at Gallery Kayafas On October 18, the Massachusetts Committee celebrated their Women to Watch 2020 nominees with an exhibition and reception at Gallery Kayafas in Boston.

This exhibition included work by four Massachusetts-based artists selected by Lisa Tung, executive director of the MassArt Art Museum, Tung nominated Elizabeth Alexander, Carly Glovinski, Tomashi Jackson, and Youjin Moon for inclusion in NMWA’s upcoming group exhibition. In collaboration with Tung and Boston-based curator Hadley Powell, the Massachusetts Committee organized this regional event to celebrate and promote these talented artists.

Many of NMWA’s outreach committees are holding talks, exhibitions, and programs in preparation for Paper Routes— Women to Watch 2020, presented at the museum from June 26 to September 7, 2020.

Left: Curator Hadley Powell; artists Elizabeth Alexander, Youjin Moon, and Carly Glovinski; MassArt Art Museum Executive Director Lisa Tung, and NMWA Assistant Curator Orin Zahra Below: San Francisco Advocacy for NMWA members Carol Parker (co-chair), Mary Mocas, Lorna Meyer Calas (co-chair), Robin Laub, and Ellen Drew

IAN CHIN FOR DREW ALTIZER PHOTOGRAPHY

Amy Tavern, and Lava Thomas.

On September 12, the committee held a reception to honor these artists, organized by members Lorna Meyer Calas and Robin Laub.

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29 PHOTO BY CHA GONZALEZ, COURTESY WIDE OPEN ARTS

Les Amis du NMWA participate in Outsider Art Fair Paris Danielle Grall, the president of Les Amis du NMWA, served in October as a juror for the Art Absolument Prize for Outsider Art, which is awarded annually during the Outsider Art Fair in Paris. This was the first edition of the prize exclusively dedicated to recognizing women of the genre Art Brut.

Artists Susan Te Kahurangi King and Momoko Nakagawa received the prize and were exhibited alongside celebrated artist Helen Rae at Espace Art Absolument in Paris.

Greater Kansas City Area Committee Visits Denver The Greater Kansas City Area Committee of NMWA made an art trip to Denver, November 1–4.

A highlight of the tour was a visit to the Madden Museum of Art in the Greenwood Village area of

Denver. NMWA Advisory Board member Cynthia Madden Leitner, daughter of museum founder John Madden, graciously hosted the group, showing off the Madden Outdoor Art collection of 150 statues, sculptures, and other works of art.

Above left: Les Amis du NMWA President Danielle Grall (left) serves as a juror for the Art Absolument Prize for Outsider Art

Members Power Our Mission NMWA depends on friends like you who embrace our vision to champion the creative contributions of women artists— past, present, and future. Your support helps us carry out

our essential work, whether growing our unique collection, exhibiting work by emerging artists, presenting Fresh Talk programs, or launching national campaigns for parity in the arts.

Thank you for helping us champion women through the arts!

Visit https://nmwa.org/support or call 866-875-4627 to give a gift today.

Above right: NMWA Advisory Board member Cynthia Madden Leitner and Greater Kansas City Area Committee members Sandy Fund and Jan Leonard

#5WomenArtists Returns Join NMWA in highlighting art and activism during the popular, award-winning #5WomenArtists social media campaign. Since 2016, the campaign has launched each March

for Women’s History Month, challenging the public with the question, “Can you name five women artists?” The 2020 campaign highlights causedriven art and artists starting March 1.

Go Green with Automatic Renewals Members go green! We are now offering an automatic renewal program. The museum will renew your membership on an annual basis using the credit card you provide and eliminate future renewal notices. You may opt out of the program at any time. Visit https://engage.nmwa.org/2020 to renew your membership and enroll, or call 866-875-4627 if you have any questions.

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Member News

Museum Events 30

Opening reception for Judy Chicago—The End: A Meditation on Death and Extinction 1. Jeanne Greenberg Rohatyn, NMWA Director Susan Fisher Sterling, Diane Gelon, Susan Dunlevy, Sarah Thornton, Judy Chicago, and Claudia Schmuckli in the exhibition galleries 2. NMWA Board Vice-Chair Winton Holladay welcomes attendees

4. Judy Chicago signs a copy of the new NMWA-published monograph Judy Chicago: New Views 5. Patricia Langan and NMWA Trustee Frances Usher

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PHOTOS BY KEA TAYLOR

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3. Samia Farouki, Judy Chicago, Jan Greenberg, and NMWA Trustee Marlene Malek

FRESH TALK—Judy Chicago: New Views 6. Exhibition patron and NAB member MaryRoss Taylor, Judy Chicago, and Martha Nussbaum 7.–9. Attendees visit the exhibition and wait to meet the artist as Chicago signs copies of Judy Chicago: New Views 10. Judy Chicago and philosopher Martha Nussbaum discuss Chicago’s “Extinction” series

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PHOTOS BY SANCHA MCBURNIE

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11. Nearly 300 participants filled NMWA’s Great Hall for group meditation with the organization The Big Quiet 12. Jenavieve Varga, violinist and music director for The Big Quiet, guides participants out of their meditation 11.

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PHOTOS BY FOSTER WHITE

WINTER/SPRING 2020

Cultural Capital: The Big Quiet

2019 MakeHER Summit: FRESH TALK, MakeHER Mart, and Workshops 13. Attendees with featured speaker Zita Cobb (second from left), founder of the Shorefast Foundation and Fogo Island Inn

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14. Fresh Talk speakers Sheldon Scott, Monique Greenwood, and Zita Cobb

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16. Workshop participants gather at the Eaton Hotel, where they learned from creative entrepreneurs 15.

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PHOTOS BY SANCHA MCBURNIE

15. A visitor browses handmade leather goods from Stitch & Rivet at the MakeHER Mart

17. The winner of the women-artistthemed costume contest dressed as Joana Vasconcelos’s sculptural chandelier A Noiva (The Bride) (2001–05) 18. Guests appeared as Frida Kahlo and Leon Trotsky, in homage to Kahlo’s Self-Portrait Dedicated to Leon Trotsky (1937) in NMWA’s collection

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PHOTOS BY MIKE OLLIVER

Live Dangerously After-Hours Halloween Party

FRESH TALK: Art, Power, and the Vote—100 Years After Suffrage 19. NMWA Director of Public Programs Melani N. Douglass; Fresh Talk speakers Jackie Payne, Cara Ober, Alexandra Bell, Kim Loper, and Adjoa B. Asamoah; and NMWA Director Susan Fisher Sterling 20. Fresh Talk speakers discuss how artists, political organizers, and activists work together for social change 21. An attendee participates in the conversation at Sunday Supper 19.

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PHOTOS BY SANCHA MCBURNIE

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World Premiere of 19: The Musical

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PHOTOS BY SANCHA MCBURNIE

22.–23. NMWA hosted three sold-out shows of 19: The Musical, which tells the story of the suffragists who fought to get women the right to vote

Supporting Roles 32

BOARD OF TRUSTEES

Wilhelmina Cole Holladay—Chair of the Board, Winton S. Holladay—ViceChair of the Board, Martha Dippell— President, Gina F. Adams—First Vice President, Susan Goldberg—Second Vice President, Sheila Shaffer— Acting Treasurer and Finance Chair, Rose Carter—Secretary, Pamela Parizek—Audit Chair, Marcia Myers Carlucci—Building Chair, Amy Weiss—Communications Chair, Carol Matthews Lascaris—President Emerita and Endowment Chair, Ashley Davis—Government Relations Chair, Nancy Duber—Nominations Chair, Nancy Nelson Stevenson—Works of Art Chair, Susan Fisher Sterling—Alice West Director**, Janice Lindhurst Adams, Charlotte Clay Buxton, Diane Casey-Landry, Lizette Corro, Betty Boyd Dettre, Deborah I. Dingell, Anjali Gupta, Cindy Jones, Sally L. Jones, Marlene Malek, Jacqueline Badger Mars, Juliana E. May, Bonnie McElveen-Hunter, Mary V. Mochary, Jackie Quillen, Stephanie Sale, Julie Sapone**, Kathleen Elizabeth Springhorn, Jessica H. Sterchi, Joanne Stringer, Mahinder Tak, Annie S. Totah, Sarah Bucknell Treco**, Frances Luessenhop Usher, Ruthanna Maxwell Weber, Alice West, Patti White ** Ex-Officio

WINTER/SPRING 2020

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, Susan A. Block, Margaret C. Boyce Brown, Deborah G. Carstens, Rebecca Chang, Paul T. Clark, Marcella Cohen, Marian Cohen, Donna Paolino Coia, 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 Deutsch-Adler, Kenneth P. Dutter, Anne N. Edwards, Christine Edwards, Geraldine E. Ehrlich, Elva Ferrari-Graham, Lisa Claudy Fleischman, Anita Forsyth, Lucretia Forsyth, Rosemarie Forsythe, Anita Friedt, Claudia Fritsche, Barbara S. Goldfarb, Sally Gries, Diane Grob, Michelle Guillermin, Anjali Gupta, Pamela Gwaltney, Florence Helbling, 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., Bonnie

Loeb, Clara M. Lovett, Joanne Ludovici, Patricia Macintyre, Linda Mann, Maria Teresa Martínez, C. Raymond Marvin, Ellen Stirn Mavec, Pat D. McCall, Dee Ann McIntyre, Cynthia McKee, Fatima McKinley, 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, Helena Ribe, Barbara Richter, Elizabeth Robinson, Tara Rudman, Elizabeth A. Sackler, Stephanie Sale, Consuelo Salinas de Pareja, Steven Scott, Marsha Brody Shiff, Kathy Sierra, Ann L. Simon, Geri Skirkanich, Dot Snyder, Denise Littlefield Sobel, Patti Amanda Spivey, Kathleen Elizabeth Springhorn, Sara Steinfeld, Josephine L. Stribling, Susan Swartz, Judy Spence Tate, 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, Patti White, Betty Bentsen Winn, Rhett D. Workman

LEGACY OF WOMEN IN THE ARTS ENDOWMENT CAMPAIGN

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 LanghoutNix, 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 and Frank* Carlucci Charitable Foundation, 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 Rent-A-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, Juliet De Laricheliere*, 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 * Deceased (all lists as of December 20, 2019)

Museum Shop

Shop NMWA online at https://shop.nmwa.org or call 202-783-7994

Graciela Iturbide’s Mexico Exhibition Catalogue This volume features more than 100 of the artist’s black-andwhite photographs of her native Mexico, accompanied by essays that invite readers to share in Iturbide’s artistic journey.

Hardcover, 240 pages. $49.95/ Member $44.95 (Item #1335)

Luz Collection Handmade Tote Take this versatile striped tote to work or the playa—your call. 100% cotton, handwoven in Mexico. 15 x 15 in. bag, 10 in. strap. $48/Member $43.20 (Item #27234)

Fruit Lady Puzzle Artist Holly Maguire created the illustration on this fun, vibrant jigsaw puzzle based on her love of travel and Mexico.

500 pieces; 18 x 24 in. complete. $22/Member $19.80 (Item #29893)

“Together We Can Help Her” T-Shirt Part of Dazey LA’s Force for Good Collection, this ecofriendly T-shirt encourages collective action to help preserve our planet. 100% organic cotton; available in sizes S–XL (loose fit). $50/ Member $45 (Item #27251) Frijoles Print Inspired by her Central American heritage, Washington, D.C.-based visual artist Veronica Melendez creates illustrations of iconic symbols and products commonly found in Latinx homes. 8.5 x 11 in. Printed on matte paper with archival inks. $24/Member $21.60 (Item # 31006)

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Cactus Keychain Add this eye-catching cactus to your keyring for desert-themed whimsy. Brass and enamel; approx. 1 x 2 ¾ in. $16/Member $14.40 (Item #29733)

Tulum Huipil Blouse A common traditional garment worn by indigenous women from Mexico and Central America, the huipil can be worn on its own or cinched with a belt for a fitted look. Measured flat: 27 in. long x 24 in. wide. Hand wash cold and line dry; or dry clean. $34/ Member $30.60 (Item #27258)

WO M E N I N T H E A RTS

PhotoWork: Forty Photographers on Process and Practice Published by Aperture, this collection of interviews with photographers explores diverse approaches to creating a sustained body of work.

Paperback, 256 pages. $24.95/ Member $22.46 (Item #3422)

1250 New York Avenue NW Washington, DC 20005-3970

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COMING SOON

Paper Routes Women to Watch 2020

PHOTO @ CALIPSOPHOTOGRAPHY

June 26–September 7, 2020

Paper Routes, the sixth installment of NMWA’s exhibition series Women to Watch, showcases objects made from paper—from intimate and minutely detailed works to immersive installations. The featured artists demonstrate that paper is not always merely a support for drawings, prints, and photographs, but instead a medium in and of itself.

Recurring themes in paper art

include deeply personal and political reflection, emphasis on process, and the mutability of paper. Some works in the exhibition highlight the delicate properties of paper through thousands of meticulous cuts, resulting in intricate and elaborate forms, patterns, and designs. Others compact and consolidate the material, forming surprisingly dense and monumental sculptures.

Whether cut, folded, glued, stacked, burned, or embossed, paper works comprise a wide variety of objects. Paper Routes highlights and celebrates this diversity of approaches and the transformation of this ubiquitous and eclectic material into complex works of art. // Paper Routes—Women to Watch 2020

is organized by the National Museum of Women in the Arts. The Women

to Watch exhibition series features emerging and underrepresented artists from the states and countries in which NMWA has outreach committees.

Consulting curators in their respective regions created shortlists of artists working with paper; from these proposals NMWA selected the final artists to be featured in Paper Routes.

Paola Podestá Martí, Vergara Palace Cornice (detail), 2010; Foam core, aquarelle paper, anti-UV paint, and stainless steel pins, 78 x 118 in.; Courtesy of the artist