Broad Strokes: The National Museum of Women in the Arts' Blog

According to written records when she died at twenty-seven, Italian artist Elisabetta Sirani (1638-1665) had already produced two hundred paintings, drawings, and etchings. An independent painter by nineteen, Sirani ran her family’s workshop: she supported her parents, three siblings, and herself entirely through her art.
Sirani spent her life in Bologna, a city famous for its [...]

Clara® is NMWA’s unique interactive database containing authoritative information on women visual artists of all time periods and nationalities. The database started as an index for our extensive Archives on Women Artists, but quickly took on a life all its own. We have been working hard to realize the full potential of such a database, [...]

What’s going on in this picture?
What do you see that makes you say that?
What more can we find?
These three questions are at the heart of Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS), a teaching method that is revolutionizing the field of art education. On December 4 and 5, NMWA hosted a VTS practicum led by Oren Slozberg, Executive [...]

The National Museum of Women in the Arts was selected as one of 12 nonprofit organizations to compete in Avon’s 12 Days For Good: The Online Holiday Charity Shopping Event.  Not only will NMWA receive 20% of your purchase total as a cash donation, but we’re also in the running for a 12% bonus [...]

 
“My art, my life experience, and my tribal ties are totally enmeshed. I go from one community with messages to the other, and I try to enlighten people.”
Even in her earliest memories, Jaune Quick-to-See Smith wanted to be an artist. Her father, an amateur artist, drew pictures of animals for his daughter to entertain her. [...]

A few weeks ago, I visited the Pompidou in Paris to see elles@centrepompidou, the major yearlong exhibition of women artists and the largest show of contemporary works by women to date. The exhibition, which runs through May 2010, highlights five hundred works by more then two hundred women artists from the twentieth century to today. [...]

When visitors arrive at NMWA, some of the first people they encounter are the welcoming and knowledgeable docents at the Information Desk. From staffing the desk and guiding visitors on tours to engaging students through special programs and outreach, our docents touch thousands of lives every year. As one of our long-time docents commented, “I [...]