1925/2025 NEW YORK SOCIETY OF WOMEN ARTISTS UPCOMING CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION

"Congratulations on approaching 100 (...) of nurturing individuals with diverse backgrounds and experiences. It’s truly a great accomplishment" - Robert Rodriguez (2022), New York Secretary of State. NYSWA “Work is stimulating” whose “breath of freshness and vitality seems to blow through the (ACA) gallery” - Margaret Breuning, for the New York Evening Post. A "battalion of Amazons that is surely unbeatable" - Art News (1987)

The collective challenges that women face recur over time. Are they ever fully overcome? As the New York Society of Women Artists approaches Its 100th year, the organization, which has increased threefold, reflects vast diversity in the backgrounds and experiences of its artists similar to those of its founding mavericks. Though inhabiting a very different contemporary world, the present-day multigenerational, multiethnic society still finds itself championing causes and concerns comparable to those of its 1920’s Suffragette predecessors. In March 2022 in honor of Women’s History Month, the New York Society of Women Artists launched its Centennial theme by presenting the exhibition Evolution Revolution at the prestigious Taller Boricua. In this exhibition, NYSWA illustrated the power of art to underscore the statement framed by the question “Are equalities earned once and for all, or will the continuous erosion of rights obtained require constant vigilance and fortification?”

HISTORY

The New York Society of Women Artists (NYSWA) was founded in 1925 and devoted itself to avant-garde women artists. The organization had 23 painters and sculptors, all recognized as professionals. Four of the original members participated in the Armory Show, some were members of the Whitney Studio Club and the Society of Independent Artists. We can boast of members' Guggenheim Fellowships, Prix de Rome, and engagement with the Federal Arts Project during the New Deal. As a Society, artists had more support and exhibition opportunities.

The union of women artists in a largely male profession gave the individuals more clout. In 1987, ACA gallery commemorated the organization with an exhibition and catalogue. The mavericks of the 1920's inhabited a different world than our newest members. "Painting Professionals", a book by Kirsten Swinth describes NYSWA and the lives of young women artists.

Looking to the future while honoring our past...

Social change starts in the realm of ideas as contemporary artists with diverse histories consider the challenges of immigrant rights, basic human rights, the “me too” movement, gender equality, environmental concerns, and racism.

A century later, NYSWA remains in action within a politically charged landscape. Coming from ethnic and cultural diversity, a wide spectrum of economic strata and educational experience, the artists engage in a dialogue as independent beings facing their life experience, their time, political views, and the future of the planet. NYSWA artists search, seek, and find communicative means to address their ideas and their personal power in the present world through the artistic process. As it approaches its centennial anniversary, the New York Society of Women Artists remains an engaged creative force, rich in its diversity, re-birthing once again its role as activist, looking to the future while honoring its past.

Art is powerful - NYsWA’s art speaks volumes

NYSWA persists in strength as it nears its centennial and reflects the voices of its intergenerational, multi-ethnic members. The organization has tripled in size and limits itself by charter to 60 active members who continue to garner acclaim as they prevail with fortitude, making art in solidarity.