The National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, D.C. reopened October 21, 2023, following a more than two-year renovation for which it has raised $69 million. NMWA first opened to the public in 1987 as the only major museum in the world dedicated solely to championing women through the arts.

The renovation, completed by female architects and conservators, adds more flexible exhibition space, renovated and enlarged galleries, a renovated and updated performance hall, a new studio and classroom area, a refreshed façade, reworked infrastructure–security, collection storage, lighting, climate control, wireless–and brings the building into full ADA compliance.

Ironically, the museum’s Classical Revival style building was constructed in 1908 as a temple for the Masons, an organization that did not allow women members.

The NMWA’s inaugural major exhibition, “The Sky’s the Limit,” takes full advantage of the building’s expanded and upgraded spaces by featuring 33 large scale sculptures which dangle from the ceiling, cascade down walls and extend far beyond their footprint on the gallery floor.

“Presented in our transformed space, the artworks convey an energy and dynamism that dovetails with the urgency of the museum’s mission to oppose historic and contemporary gender inequality,” Kathryn Wat, Deputy Director for Art, Programs and Public Engagement and Chief Curator at National Museum of Women in the Arts, told Forbes.com. “Each artist revels in materiality and nothing is off limits. They work with an array of found objects including silver-plated vessels, t-shirts, wooden spools, hair combs, faux flowers, ostrich eggs, shells, a wooden chair, glass bottles, parasols and a wooden rhinoceros.”

Other works on view are composed from a mix of organic and industrial materials such as wool, paper, wire, resin, cedar wood, aluminum, wax and blown glass.

“In a world that continues to confront women with so many limitations, these artists are in control of their mediums and work fearlessly,” Wat said. “These artists are intent on inviting visitors to an experience. They don’t want you to stand still and look. They want you to move around, to physically engage with the works, and see new perspectives and—short of touching anything—to directly understand their impact.”

The Work for Equality Continues

NMWA’s Washington, D.C. location serves as an appropriate crucible and metaphor for the “dance” of women’s equality. A female vice president in the White House is followed by the constriction of women’s reproductive rights with the repeal of Roe vs. Wade in the Supreme Court.

So it goes in the art world as well.

“Many of the historic barriers that have faced women for years remain—from gender inequity in the art historical canon and gallery representation, to museum exhibitions and museum leadership–this is one of the reasons that our work is so essential,” Susan Fisher Sterling, Director of National Museum of Women in the Arts, told Forbes.com. “While some progress has been made, women continue to be overlooked by museums and undervalued by the art market.”

Data compiled in the 2022 Burns-Halperin report for 2008–20 finds that only 10.5% of acquisitions at 31 of the most prominent U.S. museums were works by female-identifying artists and only 14.9% of exhibitions were of work by female-identifying artists.

Why, in 2023, does the nation still need a gendered art museum? That’s why.

“Statistically, these disparities are significantly worse when we consider the intersectionality of gender, ethnicity, race and sexuality,” Fisher Sterling adds.

The National Museum of Women in the Arts puts its mission in its name. The countless institutions across the country that for 100 years operated as de facto national museums for men in the arts disguised their biases and then those biases became law.

“I look forward to the day when the ideals we promote at the National Museum of Women in the Arts become fully integrated into mainstream museums, the art market and art events around the world,” Fisher Sterling said. “Until that day, however, and I would venture to say, even thereafter, women artists need support and benefit from venues that specifically champion them and lead the way forward.”

With more than 6,000 artworks by 1,500 artists spanning the 16^th century through today, no one does that better than NMWA.

Aiming to bring recognition to the achievements of women artists from all periods and nationalities by exhibiting, preserving, acquiring, and researching art by women and by teaching the public about their accomplishments, the museum’s renovated building will allow it to do so better than ever with an expanded program of gallery talks, open studios art making activities, tours, art making workshops, after hours events and speaker series.

More than simply a place to look at art, the NMWA is a place to talk about art, hear about art, make art and think about art.

“I want visitors to leave the museum feeling motivated and inspired, not just pleasant or passive,” Wat said. “I want to excite people into seeing the world in new ways and inspire them to act.”

What’s on View

Visitors experience art from the moment they enter the building. The rotunda features a dramatic six-foot-tall hanging sculpture by Portuguese artist Joana Vasconcelos, as well as paintings by self-taught American artist Clementine Hunter (1886/87–1988) and contemporary Indigenous Australian artist Audrey Morton Kngwarreye.

On view in the striking Great Hall are a series of black-and-white prom portrait photographs by Mary Ellen Mark and large-scale architectural photographs by German Candida Höfer. Portraits and self-portraits of women from across the centuries fill the mezzanine, with French Impressionist Eva Gonzalès’s (1849–1883) Portrait d’une jeune femme (Portrait of a Young Woman) (1873–74), Frida Kahlo’s (1907–1954) iconic Self-Portrait Dedicated to Leon Trotsky (1937) and South African Zanele Muholi’s photograph Katlego Mashiloane and Nosipho Lavuta, Ext. 2, Lakeside, Johannesburg (2007), among others.

In addition to “The Sky’s the Limit,” NMWA presents familiar favorites and never-before-exhibited recent acquisitions as part of “Remix: The Collection” upon reopening.

Smaller, focused exhibitions for Chinese American artist Hung Liu (1948–2021), French artist Antoinette Bouzonnet-Stella (1641–1676), and a close-up look into the practices and perspectives of eight contemporary artists via short documentary-style videos greet visitors. Additionally, nine new works by celebrated book artists inaugurate NMWA’s new Learning Commons and its reinvigorated Betty Boyd Dettre Library and Research Center.

Rendered in vivid shades of blue, pink, and orange, Yellena James’s unearthly organisms populate environments brimming with life. The Portland-based artist (previously) uses a mix of acrylic paints, gouaches, and inks to create precisely patterned compositions that take an otherworldly approach to creatures found on land and sea. Buoyant forms evocative of coral, kelp, and flowers overlap and collide on the canvas, adding density and texture to the majestic ecosystems.

The paintings shown here are on view now at Chefas Projects for James’ solo show Weightless, a title that alludes to both the lightness of the organisms and to the artist’s ability to reach a flow state. She explains:

In my work, I always strive to create a sense of levity on the canvas. I focus on environments that exist within alien atmospheres and forms that thrive within a diverse range of external forces… There is a moment that arises while making each piece when I can see the final steps clearly and the artwork begins to reveal itself. In those moments, every hint of pressure dissipates. It lifts. All of it. And I am weightless.

If you’re in Portland, you can see Weightless through November 18. Otherwise, keep up with James on Instagram.

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