In March, Museums Promote Women Artists Through Social Media Campaign
By Rain Embuscad
Mickalene Thomas, A-E-I-O-U and Sometimes Y, 2009
Gift of Deborah Carstens; © 2009 Mickalene Thomas
Courtesy of the artist and Lehmann Maupin; National Museum of Women in the Arts
Think of an artist off the top of your head. If a man came to mind, the National Museum of Women in the Arts (NWMA) is hoping to change that.
On March 1st, the NWMA will officially launch a social media campaign designed to push women artists to the fore. Organized for this year’s Women’s History Month, the project calls special attention to the gender imbalance in the art world both nationally and globally. This comes shortly after the museum’s launch of Women, Arts and Social Change, a public program dedicated to addressing social and political issues that affect women in the arts.
The NWMA is calling on other arts institutions to join them in sharing quotes, statistics, images, and other pertinent information about women artists both living and past with the hashtag #5womenartists. The tag, which is directly pulled from the campaign’s name, “Can you name five women artists?,” will be shared across their social media accounts, including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and other platforms.
A number of art-world heavyweights have announced plans to participate, including the Solomon Guggenheim Museum and the New Museum, both in New York, and the Los Angeles County Museum, among others. According to NWMA’s press release, these organizations are encouraged to share information about women artists in their respective collections and exhibitions.
“We are so pleased by the tremendous response that we have received from participating museums planning to join us as part of Women’s History Month with the #5womenartists social media campaign,” NMWA director of communications and marketing Amy Mannarino told artnet News in an e-mail.
While prominent women artists are likely to take center stage, a representative of NWMA told artnet News in a phone conversation that the museum plans on promoting the works of emerging and mid-career artists as well.
The campaign runs through the month of March.
