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National and International Committees:
Education at the Heart of NMWA's Mandate
All around the country and throughout the world, committee
members organize and conduct a wide variety of educational
events such as seminars, lectures, film events, studio and
exhibition tours, book signings, and distribution of educational
materials to organizations and schools. Committees secure
grants to cover the costs of materials and programs. And they
partner with other arts organizations to develop and strengthen
programming devoted to raising awareness of women’s
contributions to the arts.
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Badges for Artistic Merit
In 1993, NMWA formed a partnership with Girl
Scouts of the USA to create Discovering Art, a curriculum
designed to teach basic concepts and vocabulary for understanding
the visual arts and to highlight the contributions of women
artists. Our committees have been instrumental in making this
program, and other Girl Scout materials developed by the museum,
available and affordable for more than 20,000 Girl Scouts nationwide.
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Making Art Appreciation Elementary
Building on the success of Discovering Art, NMWA developed
Exploring Art,
a similar program designed for use by girls and boys in school
and in after-school programs. The program has been promoted
and supported by state committees from Mississippi, New Mexico
and Rhode Island. The Georgia State Committee, for instance,
has worked in partnership with the Colquitt County Arts Center
to bring the Exploring Art program to some 2,500 school
children in Moultrie, Georgia. The Center's Visual Arts Director
Jane Simpson sees the program as "vitally important to a rural
community like Colquitt because it opens doors to the visual
arts, and gives the students opportunities that they've never
had." The Mississippi State Committee, also strongly committed
to bringing arts education opportunities to students, has distributed
copies of the Exploring Art book to every middle school
on the Gulf Coast during the past two school years. |
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Spotlighting Art by Women
NMWA’s committees play an invaluable role in identifying
women artists in their communities and bringing their works
to the public’s attention through a variety of different
exhibitions. For example, the New Mexico State Committee organizes
a juried/invitational exhibition every two years, which highlights
emerging and established artists. This year, the Southern California
State Committee co-sponsored Multiple Vantage Points: Southern
California Women Artists, 1980-2006. |
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Educating the Public
Beyond exhibitions, committees educate the public about the
works and careers of women artists through a broad range of
different activities and programs. NMWA’s Paris Committee
co-sponsored a panel discussion, “Women Artists: Past
and Present,” in 2001 and in 2003 they sponsored a lecture
on French potters Francine del Pierre and Fance Franck. In October
2003, the Vermont State Committee hosted a slide lecture given
by NMWA’s Curator of Book Arts Krystyna Wasserman, and
in the same year the Georgia State Committee sponsored a lecture,
held at the High Museum of Art, about the photographs of Eudora
Welty. The Mississippi State Committee holds an annual luncheon
at which they honor Mississippi women artists who have made
significant contributions; recipients have included painter
Valerie Jaudon, photographer Maude Schuyler Clay, dancer and
educator Thalia Mara, and writer and photographer Eudora Welty
(posthumously). Other recent popular programs have included
a panel discussion on women photographers, hosted by the UK
Committee; a slide lecture given by museum founder Wilhelmina
Cole Holladay, sponsored by the Massachusetts State Committee;
studio tours of local artists organized by the New Mexico State
Committee; and the Pennsylvania State Committee’s tour
of Philadelphia galleries and private collections, which highlighted
works by women artists including Suzanne Valadon, Rosa Bonheur,
Bettye Saar, Judy Chicago, Elizabeth Catlett and Nancy Spero.
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Expanding Opportunities for Artists
Each year, the Mississippi State Committee organizes an
annual event at which more than 20 women artists exhibit and
discuss their work. The Alabama, New Mexico, Southern California,
and Vermont state committees have presented seminars for artists,
which have included everything from creating a website to developing
an exhibition to grant applications and marketing.
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