This season, central Tennessee is the stage to celebrate American women’s art through a special museum exhibition and Symposium for Women in the Arts.
“Of Mark & Meaning: American Women Artists” opened at the Customs House Museum in Clarksville, TN on February 13. This exhibit is American Women Artists’ tenth museum exhibition as part of the 25 in 25 campaign, an initiative to have 25 museum shows for its members over 25 years.
105 works were selected out of 791 impressive entries by professional women artists. World renown artists in this exhibition include Paula B. Holtzclaw, who has a widespread reputation for her ability to capture the drama of nature on canvas; Sherrie McGraw, known as one of America’s foremost painters and instructors; Diana Reuter-Twining, known for her sculptures that capture the beauty of motion; rising Nashville art star Taylor Wiedemann, whose skillfully executed traditional still lifes belie a deeper message about the struggles of womanhood; Star Liana York, whose recent retrospective exhibition of 50 years of her work was an incredible honor for one of the most famous living sculptors of the West; and more.
Selection jurors included women at the top of their field: Vivian Chiu, a national sculptor based in Virginia who is known for her labor-intensive, repetitive processes to create optical sculptures from wood; Marcia Goldenstein, an accomplished landscape painter and fabric artist and Professor Emerita of Painting and Drawing at the University of Tennessee School of Art; and Kirsten Kokkin, an international award-winning sculptor from Norway known for her dancers and equine works in bronze. Award judges include arts administrators from respected institutions in TN and NY: Katie Delmez, Senior Curator at the Frist Art Museum; Sharon Louden, artist, arts leader, author, teacher, and former Director of the Chautauqua Visual Arts at the Chautauqua Institution; and Nandini Makrandi, Chief Curator at the Hunter Museum of American Art.
Artists will compete for over $30,000 in cash awards and in-kind certificates, including a $10,000 Grand Prize sponsored by the Janet and Robert Lee Family Fund. The exhibition is open to the public until April 26, 2026, with a closing reception and awards ceremony on April 24 at the Customs House Museum.
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Announcement prepared for the web by Cherie Dawn Haas, Editor of Fine Art Today
