One of the world’s most important museums reopens after major upgrade

When it opened in 1987, the National Museum of Women in the Arts (NMWA) in the United States’ capital, Washington DC, was the world’s first major museum solely dedicated to women artists.

Nearly 40 years later, there is still only a handful of its ilk, which makes the institution, housed in a 1908 former Masonic temple, still so very significant.

‘In Bloom’, by Suzanne Coley, 2023.Credit: Jennifer Hughes/NMWA

And now its mission to champion female practitioners has been reinvigorated, having just reopened after a more-than-two-year, $105 million renovation.

NMWA has new exhibition spaces, enlarged public programming areas, enhanced amenities and increased accessibility via a design by Baltimore-based architectural firm Sandra Vicchio & Associates, who aimed to honour the legacy of the classical revival structure while improving its facade, interior spaces and infrastructure.

The NMWA has debuted new exhibition spaces following a $105 million upgrade.Credit: Jennifer Hughes/NMWA

This included restoring the roof and grand brick-and-limestone exterior, updating the Great Hall and mezzanine, and enlarging gallery space by more than 15 per cent, offering curators more opportunities to showcase the museum’s vast and important collection spanning six centuries.

‘Self-Portrait Dedicated to Leon Trotsky’, By Frida Kahlo,1937.Credit: Diego Rivera Frida Kahlo Museums Trust

NMWA’s first major exhibition back, The Sky’s the Limit, features contemporary sculpture and immersive installations by 13 international and US-based artists. Thanks to the inaugural exhibition and remixed installations, nearly 40 per cent of the works currently on view are being exhibited for the first time. Described as “a rare survey of large-scale work by women from the last two decades”, 31 sculptures dating from 2003 to 2023 include works by artists Rina Banerjee, Sonya Clark and Yuriko Yamaguchi.

New strengthening infrastructure has allowed large scale works to dangle from the ceiling and cascade down walls. “The ambitious inaugural exhibition is all about shifting perspectives,” says curator Kathryn Wat. “We want to change conventional thinking about sculpture and share these personal and powerful works by some of the most important artists working today.”

It’s on view until February 25 and there are several other exhibitions running concurrently.

Meanwhile, also in Washington DC, the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s Galleries for Modern and Contemporary Art reopened in September after their own two-year closure, with a more inclusive narrative of American art, including the often-overlooked contributions of Asian American, Black, Indigenous, Latinx, LGBTQ+ and women artists.

See nmwa.org; americanart.si.edu; washington.org