By Women: A Selection from the Permanent Collection

By Women: A Selection from the Permanent Collection takes an in-depth look at works in the Fort Wayne Museum of Art’s collection made by women. This exhibition highlights diverse women artists whose work encompasses topics ranging from identity and beauty to violence and equality. Historically, women artists have been overlooked within the structure of art history, constituting an average of less than 15% of the artists in museum collections nationally.

With By Women, FWMoA presents a selection of artists from its collection to bring awareness to this lack of representation. The exhibition highlights the privileged role of museums in addressing this lack of inclusion by showing the many important women whose art has profoundly affected the story of American art. Further, we intend to share the work of diverse women whose art was marked by their unique identities and often by the social conditions, for better or worse, of their time.

This exhibition has been curated by Lauren Wolfer, Associate Curator of Special Collections and Archives.