The Springfield Museums are excited to announce the opening of As They Saw It: Women Artists Then & Now on Saturday, October 14 in the Michele and Donald D’Amour Museum of Fine Arts.
About women, by women, and curated by women, As They Saw It celebrates the vision and creativity of American women artists working across three centuries. The exhibition emphasizes varied experiences and approaches to artmaking, while pushing back against the underrepresentation of women in the arts. The 60+ works showcase how women—despite social, economic, and cultural barriers—express their identities and shape their “herstories” through artistic expression.
“Women have always contributed to the history of art, but they remain underrepresented in museum collections,” explains co-curator Maggie North. “As They Saw It is part of a larger effort to tell more inclusive stories at the Springfield Museums.”
Drawn from the collections of three partner museums—the Springfield Museums; the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; and the Fenimore Art Museum—and organized by an all-women curatorial team, As They Saw It tells a story of collaboration and connection among women artists from the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries. Many of the works were pulled from storage and can be seen, in this unique arrangement, for the first time.
The paintings, drawings, photographs, textiles, and sculptures are in dialogue across three thematic sections. The first features self-portraits and explorations of identity by artists including Kyra Hicks. In the second, the powerful bonds of sisterhood and community are conveyed through artworks such as “Dancing on the George Washington Bridge II” by Faith Ringgold. The third section calls attention to the importance of multi-generational relationships and highlights women’s roles as stewards of knowledge, creative practices, and artistic techniques; a 19th-century Diné Women’s Dress with a contemporary Sash by D. Y. Begay is an excellent representation of this theme.
Showcasing how women artists have defined, supported, and sustained one another, As They Saw It: Women Artists Then & Now sheds light on the essential contributions of American women artists. In an era of debate about women’s rights and when museums, including the Springfield Museums, are striving to increase representation in their collections, the exhibition embraces conversations about contemporary issues related to the arts, advocacy, and gender.
“It encourages us, as all art does, to see the world in new ways,” says North. The exhibit will be on view until January 14, 2024.
As They Saw It is one in a series of American art exhibitions organized through a multi-year, multi-institutional partnership led by the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, as part of the Art Bridges Initiative.
