Community

Women to Watch

A biennial exhibition program developed specifically for the National Museum of Women in the Arts’ national and international outreach committees, designed to increase the visibility of, and critical response to, promising women artists who are deserving of national and international attention.

An outstanding Massachusetts curator, approved by NMWA, nominates a short list of artists working within the chosen medium. NMWA’s curator selects a single artist from these nominees for the Women to Watch exhibition in Washington.
 
The Massachusetts Committee was represented by artist Daniela Rivera and nominating curator Lisa Tung at the April 2024 opening of the New Worlds exhibit in Washington, DC.

Community Profile

Kate Gilbert
Founding Executive Director, Boston Public Art Triennial
Member, MA-NMWA Advisory Council

"Bold. Open. Sharp." These are the values of the Boston Public Art Triennial, and surely the adjectives also aptly describe the Triennial's Founding Executive Director, Kate Gilbert. Captivated at an early age by her first exposure to pubic art--the James Wines/SITE "Ghost Parking Lot," which presented automobiles covered in asphalt in a Hamden, CT parking lot--Kate pursued studio art as a way, she says, of "understanding my world." She earned an MFA from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, now part of Tufts University.

Kate’s path includes several years in which she worked at design and place-making nonprofits (“they fed my addiction to painting”) before entering graduate school. Upon completion of her degree, she pursued video, sculpture and a curatorial consulting service for public art initiatives, Kate Gilbert Studio. She then founded the nonprofit organization Now + There, in 2015. But, as Kate tells the story, there is much more to this evolution. A family legacy of advocacy and commitment to sustainability led Kate to contemplate how to bring Boston’s diverse communities together to consider bold new ways of making and consuming art. “Everything has changed with technology,” she explains. “We are not collecting stuff to make art anymore.”

Over several exploratory years Now + There morphed and eventually became the Boston Public Art Triennial, the city’s first and only public art organization dedicated to supporting artists and communities in bold, contemporary public art. In partnership with the City of Boston, the Triennial will present its first edition, titled “The Exchange,” from May 22 until October 31, 2025. Fifteen new outdoor public art commissions showcasing local, national and internationally known artists, curated by Artistic Director Pedro Alonzo and Curator Tess Lukey, will reflect sub-themes of equity, climate and biodiversity, indigeneity, shared humanity, and addiction and wellness. In addition to the curated projects there will be three open-call projects on view and five in collaboration with local museums. More than 100 events across the city are planned.

Notwithstanding the high value Bostonians place on the city’s history, the Triennial team has not found much resistance to its proposals and plans for iterative public art. “There are many, many people who want to go beyond ‘male and stale’,” she says, referring to Boston’s many iconic monuments to political and military leaders. [Gaining cooperation was] more of an educational acculturation process.” She is quick to describe the layers of process and benefit from engaging communities and the Triennial’s paid community captains. But Kate is clear: “The artists come first, then community and where to put the work.” She emphasizes that the selection criteria require appropriate, responsive spaces where participation can be measurable.

And given the democratic nature of public art and its potential appeal to artists eager to gain an audience for their work, Kate offers this advice: “Be lockstep in driving toward what you want. Understand what you want someone to see and think about, then extrapolate to where and in what form.”

With heartfelt thanks to Kate and the Triennial team, we look forward to the promise of the first Boston Public Art Triennial—the creation of a public art tradition, a new art history for Boston that is Bold. Open. Sharp.

Photo: Sylvia Stagg-Giuliano

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Education Outreach

Older Adults

Having participated in an arts course focused on the history and techniques of the Boston School (of painting), a group of students led by an MA-NMWA Committee member spent their final class at the Boston Athenaeum enjoying a tour of relevant artworks and the beautiful building itself. MA-NMWA thanks the Athenaeum and is grateful for the partnership with the Creative Aging Programs of Goddard House Community Initiatives. We look forward to enriching future arts courses with similar excursions to Boston's great arts institutions.

K-12 Students

MA-NMWA partners with Artward Bound, the nation's first four-year, arts-centric college prep program, to offer high school students unique programs inspired by local events.

In late 2022 MA-NMWA hosted the students at an interactive workshop, led by an MA-NMWA Committee member, on Surrealist concept and techniques inspired by the “New Worlds: Women to Watch 24" theme. Students then enjoyed a private visit to the Massachusetts exhibition, where the artists were present to discuss their work and answer questions. We hope to continue this tradition with the upcoming 2027 Women to Watch.

This program was made possible with support from Boston Cultural Council and Reopen Creative Boston grants.

Sponsored Tickets

MA-NMWA provides tickets for students based in Massachusetts to attend selected MA-NMWA events free of charge with member registration.

Partnerships and Collaborations

The Massachusetts Committee has sought out alliances with other cultural entities that work with us to support and promote the work of women artists. The list below includes many of these alliances.

Abigail Ogilvy Gallery*
Addison Gallery of American Art*
Krakow Witkin Gallery*
City of Boston Mayor's Office of Arts and Culture
Boston Ballet*
Boston College McMullen Museum of Art*
Boston Cultural Council
Boston Public Art Triennial (formerly Now + There)
Boston Society for Architecture, Women in Design*
Boston Symphony Orchestra
Cape Ann Museum*
Cape Cod Museum of Art*
Childs Gallery*
Concord Museum*
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute Art Collection*
Danforth Art Museum*
Davis Museum at Wellesley College*
deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum*
DeDee Shattuck Gallery*
Fitchburg Art Museum*
Friends of the Public Garden*
Fruitlands Museum*
Fuller Craft Museum*
Gallery Kayafas*
Griffin Museum of Photography
Harvard Art Museums*
Harvard Business School
Huntington Theatre Company*
ICA Watershed*
Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston*
Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum*
Mass Cultural Council
MassArt Art Museum*
MIT Media Lab*
MIT Museum*
Montserrat College of Art*
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston*
National Heritage Museum*
New Bedford Art Museum*
New England Watercolor Society*
Nichols House Museum*
North Bennet Street School*
Northeastern University*
Orchard House*
Peabody Essex Museum*
Praise Shadows Art Gallery*
Rose Art Museum, Brandeis University*
Rose Kennedy Greenway Conservancy*
Schlesinger Library, Harvard Radcliffe Institute*
School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University*
Trustman Art Gallery, Simmons University*
Skinner, Inc.*
Smith College Art Museum*
Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities*
Society of Arts + Crafts Boston*
Tufts University Art Gallery*
Vose Galleries*
Worcester Museum of Art*