Massachusetts Committee of the National Museum of Women in the Arts upcoming events

The Immortal Magu & The Worlds of Ilse Bing (14 Apr 2026)

Tue, 14 Apr 2026 15:00:00 GMT

Join MA-NMWA for a curator led-tour with Dr. Yuhua Ding, Kemper Assistant Curator of Collections and Academic Affairs, of The Immortal Magu: A Sixteenth Century Painting Up Close. The painted scroll was donated to Wellesley in 1983 by Lois Levin, Class of 1942. It depicts Magu 麻姑, a legendary Taoist immortal deity associated with longevity and beauty. In 2023 the Davis Museum launched a 2-year project to preserve this unique painting for generations to come, an effort led by world-renowned paintings conservator Jing Gao, which combined traditional and innovative approaches to the restoration and the new mounting.

Dr. Ding will also walk us through the exhibition of The Worlds of Ilse Bing. Featuring a recent gift of vintage photographs by the groundbreaking photographer Ilse Bing (1899-1998), this exhibition explores the development of the photographic medium in the mid-twentieth century. The era in which Bing came to prominence saw the birth of the journalistic photo-essay, the launch of the 35-mm Leica camera, and experiments with abstract photograms and solarization. Artists led critical debates over how photography should remain true to itself as a medium of and for the modern world. From Frankfurt to Paris to New York City, Bing was at the center of it all, carving out a place for herself as “Queen of the Leica” in a male-dominated world of image making.

SOLD OUT: The 50th Anniversary of Art in Bloom! (1 May 2026)

Fri, 01 May 2026 17:30:00 GMT

Join our MA-NMWA private tour on May 1, and celebrate the 50th anniversary of Art in Bloom at the MFA! This beloved annual event marks the beginning of spring in Boston and showcases the expertise of New England garden clubs, professional designers, and MFA floral volunteers, who create interpretive arrangements inspired by artworks from the collection. We will enjoy bold arrangements throughout the building on our tour, and you are welcome to stay afterward the tour to see additional arrangements, as well as shop or dine.

Edmonia Lewis: Said in Stone (21 May 2026)

Thu, 21 May 2026 15:30:00 GMT

Join MA-NMWA for a special tour of Edmonia Lewis: Said in Stone with Jeffrey Richmond-Moll, the George Putnam Curator of American Art, and view the first retrospective of acclaimed 19th-centurt Black and Indigenous sculptor Edmonia Lewis, in an exhibition co-organized by the Peabody Essex Museum and the Georgia Museum of Art at the University of Georgia.

Born in Greenbush, New York in 1844, Lewis became the first sculptor of Black and Indigenous (Mississauga) descent to achieve international recognition. Beginning her career in Boston in 1863, she traveled to Rome in 1866 to join the leading American sculptors of her generation, breaking international, racial and gender barriers. "Sometimes the times were dark and the outlook was lonesome, but where there is a will, there is a way,” Lewis recalled in 1878. “That is what I tell my people whenever I meet them, that they must not be discouraged, but work ahead until the world is bound to respect them for what they have accomplished.”

More event details to follow.

Both Sides of the Line: Carmen Herrera & Leon Polk Smith (11 Jun 2026)

Thu, 11 Jun 2026 18:00:00 GMT

Join MA-NMWA for a curator-led tour of Both Sides of the Line with curator Rachel Vogel. This exhibition, organized by the University of Michigan Museum of Art, explores how artists Carmen Herrera and Leon Polk Smith redefined the visual language of modern art. Their perspectives intersect, diverge, and resonate, offering new ways to understand abstraction, identity, and the power of friendship.