In celebration of the 250th anniversary of the United States, 250 Years: American Women Artists and the Nation's Story traces the nation's artistic history through the remarkable achievements of American women artists. Spanning from the Revolutionary era to the present day, the exhibition highlights artists who worked despite the social, educational, and professional barriers that often limited women's participation in the arts. Through portraiture, landscape, still life, abstraction, sculpture, and contemporary practice, 250 Years reveals the remarkable continuity of artistic achievement that has helped shape American culture since the nation's founding.
Beginning with eighteenth-century decorative arts and early nineteenth-century works by pioneering miniaturists including Mary Way, Anna Claypoole Peale, Sarah Goodridge, Eliza Goodridge, Susannah Paine, and Clarissa Peters, the exhibition traces the emergence of professional women artists in the young republic.