The National Museum of Women in the Arts

I introduced The Guerilla Girls, a group of Feminists who travel around the world espousing feminism and their support of women in the arts, in my first journal in this blog.  The arts, which includes not only exhibited artwork, but also in film and other forms of entertainment media.  Art is an area which is frequently overlooked when studying women in the workforce and, by all accounts and statistics, representation of women is truly lacking.  For example, fifty one percent of visual artists today are women, yet only five percent of the art on display in U. S. Museums is by female artists.  In addition, women artists only earn two thirds of what male artists earn for their work.  Is the work of male artists more valuable than that of female artists?  Comparable worth, also known as pay equity, as read in our text Chapter 8, Women's Work Inside and Outside the Home, as well as Gender Wage Gap applies here.


I recently became aware of The National Museum of Women in the Arts [NMWA], whose mission is to recognize women artists around the world by preserving, researching and exhibiting their work. The NMWA is little known, yet about to celebrate its twenty fifth anniversary, and it is the world's first and only museum dedicated to women's contribution in the arts.
  
The National Museum of Women in the Arts opened in Washington, D.C. in 1987 after starting six years prior as a small museum in Wilhelmina Cole Holladay's Georgetown home.  Holladay, along with her husband, both of whom are avid art collectors, founded NMWA after they realized art's missing link, the absence of work by women artists in most of the world's great art museums.  Their personal collection of some 500 works by women artist became the nucleus for the museum. NMWA boasts 20,000 members today, holding rank as one of the largest museums in the world when measured by membership.  The Library and Reserach Center has 185,000 files on women artists; and, NMWA is the only museum doing archival work on women artists.  The collection has grown to an amazing number, more than 4,000 works and which 2.5 million people have visited.


I was excited to learn about this museum and hope it will prove to be an inspiration recognizing women's artistic efforts that will eventually result in economic equality for women.