Celebrate Women Artists throughout America250
at the National Museum of Women in the Arts
May Stevens, SoHo Women Artists, 1977-78; Acrylic on canvas, 78 x 142 in.; National Museum of Women in the Arts, Museum purchase: The Lois Pollard Price Acquisition Fund; © May Stevens; Courtesy of the estate of the artist and RYAN LEE Gallery, New York Washington, D.C. — As the United States marks the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the National Museum of Women in the Arts (NMWA) celebrates women who have shaped its art history and cultural life. The year-long opportunity for discovery encompasses a series of exhibitions showcasing the work of American women artists across centuries and disciplines, underscoring women’s vital—yet historically underrecognized—role in the arts.
Coinciding with cultural events nationwide and at landmark destinations across Washington, D.C., NMWA presents a series of exhibitions and installations that offer diverse perspectives on American women’s artistic production across regions, communities, and generations.
“This milestone anniversary invites us to reconsider the story of American art and to recognize the women who have shaped it in essential ways,” said NMWA director Susan Fisher Sterling. “Our mission has always been about expanding the canon of art history and advocating for gender equity. When artists of all genders, identities, and backgrounds are included in the celebration of our nation’s 250th anniversary, we provide a more complete and compelling picture of our shared cultural history that we can be justly proud of.”
Highlights include Ms. Americana, an installation of 10 historical paintings by American women artists from the 18th to 20th centuries; Burnished: Pueblo Pottery at NMWA, an exhibition of Pueblo pottery from the American Southwest; and Routed West: Twentieth-Century African American Quilts in California, which traces the flow and flourishing of quilts in the context of the Second Great Migration. Several solo exhibitions on view throughout the year showcase American artists such as Ruth Orkin (1921–1985), Tawny Chatmon (b.1979), Shirley Gorelick (1924–2000), Marlo Pascual (1972–2020), and Beverly Pepper (1922–2020). Works by many notable American artists are also featured in Making Their Mark: Works from the Shah Collection, a global exhibition of women who shaped abstraction. NMWA’s diverse, thematically arranged collection installation provides even more opportunities for discovery of American women artists. Details on related exhibitions are listed below.
Founded with a dual purpose of exhibition and advocacy, NMWA is committed to confronting historical and contemporary gender equity in the arts. Opportunities for education and action are offered throughout ongoing campaigns such as #5WomenArtists and Random Acts of Art Equity, as well as in programs for all ages. The museum’s beautiful neoclassical building, built in 1908 as a Masonic Temple and transformed into a beacon for art and diversity when NMWA opened to the public in 1987, is a true D.C. landmark.
Clementine Hunter, Call to Church and Flowers, 1970; Oil on canvas, 36 x 48 in,; National Museum of Women in the Arts, Gift of Dr. Robert F. Ryan; © Cane River Art Corporation.
Ms. Americana
April 3–October 31, 2027On view in NMWA’s Great Hall, Ms. Americana features a selection of historical works by American women artists from the collection. The installation features 10 still lifes, portraits, and landscapes spanning the 18th to 20th centuries by nine American women artists: Jennie Augusta Brownscombe, Cecilia Beaux, Ellen Day Hale, Clementine Hunter, Lilla Cabot Perry, Sarah Miriam Peale, Anna Claypoole Peale, Jane Peterson, and Lilly Martin Spencer.
Collectively, these works embody the “Americana” aesthetic, evoking the nation’s history and nostalgia for the past. Yet the women behind the paintings pursued their own independence and personal enlightenment. They traveled the world, ran their own businesses, and actively engaged politicians and heads of state. The installation is an extension of the museum’s thematic collection galleries.
Maria Martinez and Julian Martinez, Jar, ca. 1939; Blackware, 11 1/8 x 13 in.; National Museum of Women in the Arts, Gift of Wallace and Wilhelmina Holladay
Burnished: Pueblo Pottery at NMWA
May 8–September 27, 2026For more than two millennia, Pueblo potters living in the southwestern region of North America have created clay jars and bowls for storage and ceremonial purposes. Women are at the forefront of this work, imparting their knowledge and skills to family members. Burnished presents 24 elegantly shaped clay ollas (vessels historically used for water storage and gardening), seed jars and bowls that are drawn from the museum’s groundbreaking—and growing—collection. These vessels reflect diverse traditions across Pueblo communities.
Featured artists include San Ildefonso potter Maria Martinez (1887–1980); Santa Clara artists Margaret Tafoya (1904–2001) and Stephanie Tafoya (b. 1991); Acoma potters Emma Lewis-Mitchell (1931–2013) and Dorothy Torivio (1946–2011); and Hopi-Tewa artist Iris Youvella Nampeyo (1944–2018), among many others. The show is part of the NMWA’s participation in Handwork: Celebrating American Craft 2026, an initiative of Craft in America.
Marlo Pascual, Untitled, 2013; Digital C-print, 50 1/8 x 40 1/8 in.; National Museum of Women in the Arts, Gift of Heather and Tony Podesta Collection
Marlo Pascual
July 24, 2026–February 28, 2027Visionary artist Marlo Pascual (1972–2020) created objects that amuse, confuse, and provoke viewers by dramatically recontextualizing anonymous vintage photographs and found objects. Featuring seventeen works made between 2009 and 2014, the exhibition demonstrates the artist’s methods of transforming and recontextualizing her thrift-store source material through enlargement, fragmentation, obfuscation, and the addition of external elements.
Pascual's work is held in museum collections across the U.S., including the Aspen Art Museum, Colorado; the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago; the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; the Pérez Art Museum Miami; and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. This is the first solo museum exhibition of Pascual’s work since she died of ovarian cancer at the age of 48.
Alice Neal, Mary Bright Commemorative Quilt (with Dresden Plate, Monkey Wrench, Wild Goose Chase, Fan, Basket of Flowers, Star of Lemoyne, Nine Patch blocks), 1956; Cotton, buttons, woven hat, appliqué, hand-pieced and quilted, 78 1⁄2 x 62 3⁄4 in.; Bequest of the Eli Leon Living Trust, BAMPFA; Photo by Kevin Candland Routed West: Twentieth-Century African American Quilts in California
September 18, 2026–January 17, 2027Routed West: Twentieth-Century African American Quilts in California traces the flow and flourishing of quilts in the context of the Second Great Migration, a mass movement of five million African Americans from the rural South to cities in the North and West between 1940 and 1970 in search of a equitable lives. Many of the hundreds of thousands of migrants who arrived in California carried quilts for warmth and protection, as well as emblems of ancestral memory and cultural survival. Through more than 80 artworks, the show reflects a joyful expression of history, craft, and stories of community, heritage, and resilience.
The exhibition is organized by the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive and curated by Elaine Y. Yau, Associate Curator and Academic Liaison, with Matthew Villar Miranda, Former Curatorial Associate. Routed West is part of NMWA’s participation in Handwork: Celebrating American Craft 2026, an initiative of Craft in America.
Beverly Pepper at work at the factory in Terni, Italy 1970; Courtesy of Beverly Pepper studio, Italy Beverly Pepper: Earthworks
October 24, 2026–April 25, 2027NMWA will present a spotlight exhibition of work by Beverly Pepper, an acclaimed American sculptor known for monumental abstract and geometric works in Cor-ten steel and iron. Cor-ten, a trademarked steel alloy, is a famously dramatic and weather resistant material that Pepper helped pioneer for sculptural use in the early 1970s.
Challenging the perception of such work as the purview only of men, Pepper created bold large-scale works by adapting rugged material into a series of powerfully expressive sculptures. The exhibition will include a film highlighting the global reach of her land and architectural-scale works, paired with several smaller sculptures and maquettes.
Installation view of Making Their Mark: Works from the Shah Garg Collection at the National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, D.C.; February 27 to July 26, 2026; Photo by Kevin Allen
Making Their Mark: Works from the Shah Garg Collection
Through July 26, 2026Making Their Mark: Works from the Shah Garg Collection illustrates women artists’ vital role in abstraction, showcasing work by some of the most important artists of the 20th and 21st centuries. The exhibition considers historical contributions, formal and material breakthroughs, and intergenerational relationships among women artists over the last eight decades. Diverse sculptures, paintings, textiles, ceramics, prints, and mixed-media artworks present a rich and interwoven picture of contemporary art history.
Of the 80 works by the 68 artists featured in the show, many are by artists from or based in the U.S., including Andrea Bowers, Sheila Hicks, Jenny Holzer, Julie Mehretu, Joan Mitchell, Howardena Pindell, Faith Ringgold, Tschabalala Self, Lorna Simpson, Pat Steir, and Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, among many others.
Shirley Gorelick, Untitled (Westchester Gaugin Study), ca. 1974; Acrylic on canvas, 17 7/8 x 24 in. [SG-231]; Private collection; © Shirley Gorelick Foundation; Photo by Karen Mauch Shirley Gorelick: Figuring It Out
Through June 28, 2026Through the 1960s and 1970s, Shirley Gorelick (1924–2000) created soulful portrayals of her circle of close friends. Nearly 40 paintings, drawings, and prints reveal her bold realist style, which combines vigorous brushwork, heightened shadows, and vivid patterns. Gorelick’s partnerships in the 1970s with New York’s pioneering women-run galleries position her as an inspiring feminist role model. The show centers on three large-scale paintings in NMWA’s collection, which are exhibited together for the first time.
National Museum of Women in the Arts
The National Museum of Women in the Arts (NMWA) is the first museum in the world solely dedicated to championing women through the arts. With its collections, exhibitions, programs and online content, the museum inspires dynamic exchanges about art and ideas. NMWA advocates for better representation of women and nonbinary artists and serves as a vital center for thought leadership, community engagement and social change. NMWA addresses the gender imbalance in the presentation of art by bringing to light important women artists of the past while promoting great women artists working today. The collection highlights a wide range of works in a variety of mediums by artists including Rosa Bonheur, Louise Bourgeois, Lalla Essaydi, Lavinia Fontana, Frida Kahlo, Hung Liu, Zanele Muholi, Faith Ringgold, Niki de Saint Phalle, and Amy Sherald.
NMWA is located at 1250 New York Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20005, two blocks north of Metro Center. The museum is open from 10 a.m.–5 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday; closed Mondays and select holidays. Admission is $16 for adults, $13 for D.C. residents, visitors 65 and over, students and educators, active-duty military and veterans, and visitors with a Native/Tribal Affiliation; and free for visitors 21 and under, visitors with disabilities, and SNAP/EBT card holders. Admission is free the first Sunday and second Wednesday of each month. Contact us at 202-783-5000. Stay connected at: nmwa.org, on the museum’s Broad Strokes blog, Facebook or Instagram.
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