About NAWA

Past

Five innovative women, barred from full participation in the male dominated National Academy of Design and the Society of American Artists, founded the Women's Art Club, later renamed The National Association of Women Artists. By 1930, membership had swelled to over 1,000. Early annual exhibitions included the notable Rosa Bonheur, Mary Cassatt, Susanne Valadon and Cecilia Beaux. As the organization grew, Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, Anna Huntington, Louise Nevelson, Cleo Hartwig, Malvina Hoffman, Minna Citron, and more recently Pat Adams, Judy Chicago, Nell Blaine, Janet Fish, Miriam Schapiro, Marisol, Audrey Flack, Dorothy Dehner, Clare Romano, and Ann Chwatsky were added to its membership.

Established in 1994 at the Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Art Museum on the Rutgers University campus in New Brunswick, NJ, the Permanent Collection contains the work of artists dating from the organization's inception in 1889 to the present. Plans are to enlarge the collection, to open it to scholars, and to prepare a traveling show. The inaugural exhibition, A View of One's Own, took place at the museum in 1994.

Present

N.A.W.A., based in New York City, is a source of culture and education through its active exhibition schedule, a permanent museum collection, the historical archives maintained, and the educational programs available to its members and the public. Many current N.A.W.A. members are listed in Who's Who in American Art and are represented in museums, corporate collections, and traveling exhibitions throughout the United States and abroad. A Florida chapter was established in 1994 to better serve members there.

Future

N.A.W.A. looks forward to new challenges for art in the 21st century and is committed to taking advantage of the opportunities ahead both to enrich the American culture and to promote the work of our women artists.

N.A.W.A. makes its historical files, from 1889 to present, and its slide registry available to art curators, historians, and museums.

Regina Stewart, Executive Director