After two years of renovations, the National Museum of Women in the Arts is back and better, with nearly 2,500 more square feet than before.
When it opened in 1987, the museum, locally nicknamed NMWA, was the first of its kind in the world: a space dedicated to preserving and promoting the work of women artists.
In 2021 the museum underwent a $67.5 million dollar makeover that NMWA unveiled this past October. Not only are the galleries riveting, but the location is a spectacle of irony.
“This stunning 1908 classic revival building was originally a masonic temple and ironically off limits to women,” Winton Holladay, Chair of NMWA Board of Trustees said.
According to the Public Library of Science’s recent study, the permanent collections of 18 prominent art museums in the U.S. were 87% of works completed by men. Still being the only museum of its kind in the country., NMWA sets out to change those numbers.
“This museum stands among the greats in championing women in the arts,” Muriel Bowser, the mayor of Washington D.C. said. “Honoring the legacies of many women who were never recognized in their own time.”
“Women,” Susan Goldberg, president of the NMWA Board remarked, “are so often the passers-on of so much of our culture.“
NMWA hosts “community day” every first Sunday and second Wednesday of each month. Admission is free. For more information, click here.
