Who We Are

In 1989, Helen Walton and Ed Dell Wortz established the Arkansas Committee of the National Museum of Women in the Arts to carry out the NMWA’s mission: boosting awareness and appreciation of women artists, who are still underrepresented in museums and undervalued in the market. This year, ACNMWA is celebrating its 35th year. See how the group is celebrating its past, present and future here. Read a history of the Arkansas Committee here.

The Committee is run by volunteers across Arkansas with no staff or headquarters and is online at www.acnmwa.org, Facebook and Instagram. Each year, the Arkansas Committee takes applications for an Artist Award, a $4,000 stipend to a mid-career artist, and a summer internship, which offers a $3,000 stipend. Also, ACNMWA maintains an online juried artist registry, open to applicants biannually.

Exhibitions for free public viewing are the heart of the Arkansas Committee’s program. Women to Watch is the organization’s signature traveling exhibition of Arkansas women artists, guest-curated by invited Arkansas museum professionals in conjunction with NMWA’s triennial Women to Watch thematic exhibitions. We encourage collectors and curators to see Arkansas women artists, and all art lovers to discover and support the National Museum of Women in the Arts.

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Early photos of some of our board members.

Advocate for Women Artists

ACNMWA highlights women artists, internationally through the national museum and locally across the state. Learn ways to join this effort through national and state memberships that are open to all and are tax-deductible to the extent allowed by law.

Advocacy for Arkansas women artists is accomplished through our programs:

Artist Award

The Artist Award grant provides for artist expenses related to professional development or pursuit of new creative work: workshop training, research, travel, and/or essential equipment or supplies.

College Internship

The College Internship provides a stipend for an Arkansas woman student attending an Arkansas university or college to complete a summer collaborative project with a mentor in an Arkansas museum, gallery or arts or cultural institution.

Juried Artist Registry

The Artist Registry features work by Arkansas women artists selected by an Arkansas arts professional serving as juror. Artists’ images, artist statements and website links are featured on our website and social media for two years.

Women to Watch Exhibits

The international Women to Watch curated exhibition at NMWA in Washington, D.C., affords an Arkansas woman artist national visibility, press and curatorial connections. An invited Arkansas arts professional curates Arkansas submission(s) to national and a state Women to Watch tour of all nominees that travels the year after the national exhibition.

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Recent photos of some of our board members.

Board of Directors

ACNMWA Board of Directors April 2024

SEATED: Garbo Hearne, Kate Faust Franks, Martha Hendrix, Mary Ross Taylor, Mary Harding Talbot
STANDING: Demara Titzer, Sarah Shell Teague, Jena Roberts, Debra Bennett Jackson, Kate Maurras, Virmarie DePoyster, Margorie Williams-Smith, Marilynn Porter, Jeanne Parham, Mary Lynn Reese
Not Pictured: Sandy Alstadt, Deborah Baldwin, Kinya Christian, Ashley Kemp Wimberly, Ann Jennings Shackelford, Anna Landers Swaim
(Picture taken April 22, 2024)