National Museum of Women in the Arts
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Masonic Temple
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National Museum of Women in the Arts
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| Location | 1250 New York Ave NW, Washington, District of Columbia |
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| Coordinates | 38°54′0″N 77°1′46″W / 38.90000°N 77.02944°WCoordinates: 38°54′0″N 77°1′46″W / 38.90000°N 77.02944°W |
| Area | 0.3 acres (0.12 ha) |
| Built | 1903 |
| Architect | Wood,Donn & Deming |
| Architectural style | Classical Revival |
| NRHP Reference # | 86002920 |
| Added to NRHP | February 18, 1987 |
The National Museum of Women in the Arts (NMWA), located in Washington, D.C., is "the only major museum in the world solely dedicated" to celebrating women’s achievements in the visual, performing, and literary arts. NMWA was incorporated in 1981 by Wallace and Wilhelmina Holladay. Since opening its doors in 1987, the museum has acquired a collection of more than 4,500 paintings, sculptures, works on paper, and decorative art. Highlights of the collection include works by Mary Cassatt, Frida Kahlo, and Élisabeth Louise Vigée-Le Brun. The museum occupies the old Masonic Temple, a building listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places.
The museum was founded to reform traditional histories of art. It is dedicated to discovering and making known women artists who have been overlooked or unacknowledged, and assuring the place of women in contemporary art. The museum’s founder, Wilhelmina Cole Holladay, and her husband Wallace F. Holladay began collecting art in the 1960s, just as scholars were beginning to discuss the under-representation of women in museum collections and major art exhibitions. Impressed by a 17th-century Flemish still life painting by Clara Peeters that they saw in Europe, they sought out information on Peeters and found that the definitive art history texts referenced neither her nor any other woman artist. They became committed to collecting artwork by women and eventually to creating a museum and research center.
The National Museum of Women in the Arts was incorporated in December 1981 as a private, non-profit museum, and the Holladay donation became the core of the institution’s permanent collection. After purchasing and extensively renovating a former Masonic Temple, NMWA opened in April 1987 with the inaugural exhibition American Women Artists, 1830–1930. To underscore its commitment to increasing the attention given to women in all disciplines, NMWA commissioned Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Ellen Taaffe Zwilich to write Concerto for Two Pianos and Orchestra inspired by five paintings from the permanent collection, for an opening concert. In November 1997, the Elisabeth A. Kasser Wing was opened, adding two new galleries, a larger museum shop, and a reception room. Currently, Director Susan Fisher Sterling heads a staff of more than 30 people.
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