Art & Design
Great art and design can decorate, educate, advocate, inspire, and challenge. At its core, art is about expression. Women’s creativity has impacted the art world, and the world at large, by challenging viewers to see the beauty and injustice of the world from their perspective.
Collection Objects
Learn the stories behind these objects or explore more American women artists and their art in the collections.
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Judith Baca's "Las Tres Marías" Includes You -
Alma Thomas, A Hero of Abstract Expressionism -
Helen Keller's Watch -
Self-Portraits Made of Soap and Chocolate -
Industrial Designer Belle Kogan Merged Sophistication with Affordability -
Artist Romaine Brooks Challenged Gender Norms
Videos
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Interview with Amy Sherald, winner of first prize at "The Outwin Boochever 2016" for her painting titled "Miss Everything (Unsuppressed Deliverance)." Michelle Obama selected Sherald, to create her official portrait for the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery.
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The REDress Project, an outdoor art installation by artist Jaime Black (Métis), features empty red dresses. Black hopes to draw attention to the gendered and racialized nature of violent crimes against Native women and to evoke a presence through the marking of absence.
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Mandy Van Heuvelen, a cultural interpreter coordinator at the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian, shares the story of contemporary Native artist Nora Naranjo Morse.
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Maya Lin's lifelong concern for the environment is at the core of her projects and site-specific works, including "Folding the Chesapeake," her installation at the Smithsonian American Art Museum's Renwick Gallery in the Wonder exhibition (November 13, 2015 – July 10, 2016).
Smithsonian American Women
