NBMAA to Celebrate Women Artists
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NBMAA to Celebrate Women Artists

The New Britain Museum of American Art (NBMAA) has announced it celebrate 100 years of womenโ€™s suffrage with a yearlong exhibition series featuring women artists.

The 2020 series of exhibitions, 2020/20+ Women, coincides with the one hundredth anniversary of the 19th Amendment to the United States Constitution, guaranteeing women the right to vote.

NBMAAโ€™s Director, Min Jung Kim, said that,

The picture of American art of the 21st century is one of a rich and varied diversity, reflecting Americaโ€™s evolving national identity. To be truly โ€˜Americanโ€™ now means to embrace diversity. Yet 100 years after women were granted equal voting rights by the 19th Amendment, women artists are still significantly under-represented โ€“ not only in the NBMAAโ€™s collection, but in most of the nationโ€™s art museums.

The National Museum of Women in the Arts says that, โ€œA recent data survey of the permanent collections of 18 prominent art museums in the U.S. found that out of over 10,000 artists, 87% are male, and 85% are white.โ€

โ€œOur initiative,โ€ Kim says, โ€œchallenges this underrepresentation by celebrating the innovative work and outsized impact of female-identifying artists throughout American history. And we are doing this in one of the oldest museums of American art in this country.โ€

The Museum says that, โ€ The artists selected represent diversity in race, ethnicity, age, experience, multiple perspectives, cultural backgrounds, career, geography, and medium.โ€

The exhibition series, presented from January of 2020 to January of 2021, will, the Museum says, include,

  • Kara Walker, who, โ€œexplores race, gender, violence, and identity in representations of the African American experience.โ€
  • Anni Albers, who, โ€œis considered the most important textile artist of the 20th century, as well as an influential designer, printmaker, and educator.โ€
  • Shantell Martin, whose, โ€œwork is unique in her innovative and multidisciplinary output โ€“ combining art, commerce, and technology.โ€
  • Jennifer Wen Ma, whose, โ€œinterdisciplinary practice bridges installation, public art, performance, and community engagement.โ€
  • Helen Frankenthaler, who, โ€œhas long been recognized as one of the great American artists of the 20th century.โ€

Two thematic exhibitions will be on display during the exhibition series.

Its exhibition, Anything but Simple: Shaker Gift Drawings and the Women Who Made Them, the Museum says, โ€œfeatures rare Shaker โ€˜Giftโ€™ or โ€˜Spiritโ€™ drawings created by women between 1843โ€“57, which are unique to the Shakers and to American religious culture.โ€

The Museum says that it, โ€œmarks the centennial of American womenโ€™s suffrage,โ€ in its exhibition, Some Day is Now: Women, Art, and Social Change. The exhibition is to include works by Yoko Ono, Nancy Spero, Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, Carrie Mae Weems, and the Guerrilla Girls, the Museum say, โ€œwhose work advocates for social empowerment and change.โ€

โ€œThe arts and cultural heritage of our great metropolitan centers and of cities like New Britain as well as other small towns, villages, and rural communities tell a quintessentially American story,โ€ says Kim, adding, โ€œThe NBMAA has always been committed to reflecting various American visual expressions.โ€

The New Britain Museum of American Art, is a world class museum, located at 56 Lexington Street, adjoining New Britainโ€™s historic Walnut Hill Park.

The Museum says that it,

traces its beginnings to the New Britain Institute, which was chartered in 1853 to foster learning by a community of newly arrived immigrants who worked in the cityโ€™s numerous factories. In 1903 John Butler Talcott, former New Britain mayor and chairman of the Instituteโ€™s building committee, established the first purchase fund for โ€œoriginal modern oil paintings.โ€

The NBMAA collection has grown to more than 8,300 works of art dating from 1739 to the present. With particular strengths in colonial portraiture, the Hudson River School, American Impressionism, and the Ash Can School, not to mention the important mural series The Arts of Life in America by Thomas Hart Benton, the collection remains a primary source of inspiration for many of the museumโ€™s exhibitions and programming.

Exhibitions continue to strike a balance between the historic and the contemporary, reflecting an American narrative comprised of a multiplicity of cultures, races, ethnicities, and perspectives. As one of the first institutions dedicated solely to American art, the New Britain Museum of American Art continues to play a vital role in illuminating our nationโ€™s diverse heritage and artistic advancements.