The Arkansas State Committee of the National Museum of Women in the Arts is a nonprofit volunteer organization established as an affiliate of the National Museum of Women in the Arts (NMWA), located in Washington, D.C.
The Arkansas State Committee of NMWA was founded in 1989 when, on a visit to Washington, D.C., Ed Dell Wortz and Helen Walton learned of the museum. They called together a group of women interested in the arts to develop a plan for a state committee, dedicated to supporting the museum's mission and promoting awareness of the work of Arkansas women artists.
Les Christensen, Flight from Servitude, Mixed Media, 2000.
Women to Watch is a biennial exhibition program developed specifically for the National Museum of Women in the Art's national and international outreach committees, one of which is the Arkansas State Committee. Every two years an exhibition is held at the National Museum of Women in the Arts that features a curated selection of emerging and underrepresented women artists submitted by the committees. Arkansas's Nikki Hemphill is one of the artists featured this year.
Congratulations to Whitney L. Wasson of Fort Smith, who has been awarded the 2010 Elizabeth J. Pruet Internship! Whitney is a graduate of the University of Arkansas - Fort Smith with a B.A. in Theatre Arts.
This spring, the National Museum of Women in the Arts will unveil the first phase of a bold public art project. Sculptures by renowned women artists will be exhibited in changing installations on New York Avenue--right at NMWA's front door. The first phase of the New York Avenue Sculpture Project features four monumental sculptures by French-born artist Niki de Saint Phalle (1930-2002). Learn more about this project, including details about the April 28 opening celebration, by visiting the National Museum of Women in the Arts website.
Our 2009 scholarship winner is Diana Michelle Hausam of Farmington, AR. Diana owns Diana Michelle Photos and teaches darkroom photography at Nadine Baum Studios in Fayetteville. Diana has said of her fine art photography "I challenge myself to find the beauty that isn't obvious . . . The evidence of time's passage and decay drives my creativity and compels me to capture [the image] in a way where there is no denying its beauty."
Harvey Pekar, the obsessive chronicler of everyday lives, was collaborating at the end of his life on a Web project whose fate in print remains uncertain.
