NBMAA to Celebrate Women Artists

The New Britain Museum of American Art (NBMAA) has announced it celebrate 100 years of women’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.

NBMAA’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 America’s evolving national identity. To be truly ‘American’ 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 – not only in the NBMAA’s collection, but in most of the nation’s art museums.

The National Museum of Women in the Arts says that, “A 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.”

“Our initiative,” Kim says, “challenges 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.”

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

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

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

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, “features rare Shaker ‘Gift’ or ‘Spirit’ drawings created by women between 1843–57, which are unique to the Shakers and to American religious culture.”

The Museum says that it, “marks the centennial of American women’s suffrage,” 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, “whose work advocates for social empowerment and change.”

“The 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,” says Kim, adding, “The NBMAA has always been committed to reflecting various American visual expressions.”

The New Britain Museum of American Art, is a world class museum, located at 56 Lexington Street, adjoining New Britain’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 city’s numerous factories. In 1903 John Butler Talcott, former New Britain mayor and chairman of the Institute’s building committee, established the first purchase fund for “original modern oil paintings.”

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 museum’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 nation’s diverse heritage and artistic advancements.