Art & Design
Great art and design can decorate, educate, advocate, inspire, and challenge. At its core, art is about expression. Each piece is a personal expression of an artist’s creativity, beliefs, experiences, and point of view. 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 Married Sophistication with Affordability -
Artist Romaine Brooks Challenged Gender Norms
Videos
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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.
Smithsonian American Women
