Celebration of Women Artists

Women Artists: Four Centuries of Creativity

Organized by the Reading Public Museum, Reading, Pennsylvania

October 8 – December 18, 2021
Sara May Love Gallery

Women Artists: Four Centuries of Creativity presents etchings, engravings, lithographs, drawings, watercolors, and photographs – by some of the most important women artists of the last four centuries, all from the collection of the Reading Public Museum.

Included in the exhibition are historical works by some of the great women artists including Rosa Bonheur, Sonia Delaunay, Joan Mitchell, Louise Nevelson, Françoise Gilot, Clara Skinner, Lorna Simpson, and dozens more. The exhibition chronicles the emergence of women as professionals in the field of art and records the extraordinary creative contributions made over the centuries.

Image: Violet Oakley (American, 1874 – 1961), For the Preservation of Italy, Guardian of the World’s Most Precious Heritage of Beauty, 1918, ink on paper, Gift, Captain Roswell C. Williams Jr. Reading Public Museum, Reading, Pennsylvania.

Senga Nengudi

Oct. 8 - Dec. 18, 2021
Sarah K. Newberry Gallery
Gadsden Arts is pleased to share Senga Nengudi’s multi-part A.C.Q (Air Conditioning Queen) sculptures, constructed from found metal refrigerator parts and nylon panty hose, from the esteemed collection of Art Bridges.

Dawn McMillan

Sept. 11 - Dec. 11, 2021
Munroe Family Community Gallery
Captured Moments is a series of paintings and drawings began at the start of the pandemic and continued throughout a year of isolation. Learn more

Renee Lewis

Oct. 8 - Dec. 18, 2021
Zoe Golloway Gallery
Renee Schwardron Lewis works in oil crayons, color pencils, and pastels to produce bold, stunning colors and uses creative themes to capture the nature of women. Learn more

Gadsden Arts

Feb. 13 - Dec. 23, 2021
Bates Permanent Collection Gallery
Gadsden Arts highlights the creativity of eight women artists represented in the museum’s Permanent Collection in thirteen paintings and sculptures. Learn more

Download Celebration of Women Artists information

Presenting Sponsors

Calynne and Lou Hill

Contributing Sponsors

Additional Programming

Art Talk Live! with Dawn McMillan

Thursday September 16, 1:00pm on Zoom

Quincy artist Dawn McMillan discusses the exhibition Captured Moments, on display in the Munroe Family Community Gallery. Topics included McMillan’s childhood art influences, the different series she has created over several decades, and her progression as an artist to where her work is today.

Watch now!

Art Talk Live!

October 28, 5:30 p.m on Zoom
(open to the public, suggested donation $12)

Join us live online as National Museum of Women in the Arts (NMWA) and Gadsden Arts Curator Angie Barry discuss women artists whose work is included in the GACM’s exhibition Women Artists: Four Centuries of Creativity and the NMWA collections. The exhibition covers four centuries of women artists, and the discussion will examine the barriers women artists have experienced across history—and how artists such as Rosa Bonheur, Käthe Kollwitz, Élisabeth Louise Vigée-LeBrun, Françoise Gilot, Joan Mitchell, Adrian Piper, and many more fought for their place in the art world. The conversation will be moderated by Grace Robinson, GACM executive director, and participants will have the opportunity to ask questions via chat.

Registration is required. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about how to join.

Graphic for Virtual Happy Hour featuring image by Mildred Thompspn

Virtual Happy Hour: Florida Artists Celebration

Tuesday November 9, 5:30p.m on Zoom
(open to the public)

Join experts from the National Museum of Women in the Arts for a virtual happy hour to learn more about Florida artists in the Gadsden Arts Center & Museum’s Permanent Collection. We will make a specialty cocktail in honor of the artists’ work, share artworks and stories, and take a deeper look at women artists in Florida: Beth Appleton, Alyne Harris, Marisa Tellería-Díez, Mildred Thompson, and Ruby C. Williams.

Marjorie Harris Carr: Defender of Florida's Environment

Thursday November 18, 1:00pm on ZOOM
(open to the public)
Join us live online as Dr. Peggy Macdonald provides an overview of the life and legacy of the self-described “housewife from Micanopy,” who in reality struggled to balance career and family with her husband, Archie Carr, a pioneering conservation biologist. For 35 years, Carr tirelessly led a coalition of citizen activists in the continuing battle to protect and restore the Ocklawaha River. Also featured will be artworks by Beth Appleton, currently on display in the Bates Permanent Collection Gallery at Gadsden Arts. Appleton takes her inspiration from the Florida landscape, and like Carr, addresses environmental concerns head-on in her watercolor/cut paper assemblages. Funding for this program was provided by Florida Humanities and sponsored in part by State of Florida, Department of State, Division of Arts and Culture, and the Florida Council on Arts and Culture.

Art Talk Live! with Renee Lewis

Thursday December 2, 1:00pm on Zoom

Join artist Renee Schwadron Lewis and Angie Barry, Curator for a virtual Art Talk Live to discuss Lewis’s art making process and decades long artistic career. Lewis will discuss her Post-Impressionist style drawings on display in the Zoe Golloway Gallery this fall, and reflect on her use of a combination oil crayons, colored pencils, and pastels to capture the colorful nature of women.