by Jennifer Jean Okumura
President, NAWA-Massachusetts

The creative community brings the world to life, offers new perspectives, and celebrates the power of transformation in 2025. In 2025, the essential things are the conversations held, strengthening relationships, our connections with new and familiar faces, love and care for the year and beyond, and welcoming new creative adventures. Below are a few energizing updates to read, share, and enjoy. Momentum and collaborations continue, and our hearts smile on our upcoming in-person shows, which include:

• “Windchill Factor,” Karen and Ted Koskores Gallery, March 23 – April 19, 2026
• “We are not women; we are gods V2,” Cultural Center of Cape Cod, April 1-26, 2025
• “About Face,” Dartmouth Cultural Center, July 18 – August 16, 2025
• “Breakthrough,” John Joseph Moakley US Courthouse, Seaport, July 2025 – October 2025
• “Of Two Minds: Adapt or Die means Dancing between Art and Coexist on Earth,”
• Piano Craft Gallery, Boston, September 12-28, 2025
• “Power Surge: Ignite the Future,” Galatea Fine Arts in SoWa Art & Design District, Boston, juried by Juniper Rag founders Payal Thiffault and Michelle, May through December 2025
• The White Room Social – late Fall 2025
• “Chance Moments,” John Joseph Moakley US Courthouse, Seaport, July 2026 – October 2026

OUTREACH

The Chapter will enjoy visibility from full-page ads in our sponsor’s publication, Artscope Magazine’s for its 19th Anniversary and Art Basel 2025 issues to be displayed during Art Basel Magazine sector.

We also are gaining visibility through an Artscope bi-weekly eblast, Art Salon/Social/Art Chat, social media platforms, TransCultural Exchange TCE TV, ongoing Hello World, An Art Affair Around the Globe and collaboration, SEBA. We are involved in supporting, strengthening, and unifying us as an artists community, through in-person events, an ongoing rotating gallery on Newbury Street, marketing workshops, and sponsoring three scholarships ($1500/$1500/$1000 recipients) in 2025.

By Denise Cormier Mahoney, Chapter President

The foundation of our work as volunteers is and should always be gratitude. As the Florida chapter of a professional art organization of women artists, we operate as smoothly as we do because of our member volunteers. We all benefit from the hard work they do, but it’s imperative to remind them how important they really are.

Thank you, Muffy Clark Gill, for the consistent work you do in finding new venues for future exhibitions for our chapter, for keeping our exhibition coordinators organized, for all the prospectus details, the jurors, and the amazing number of minutiae that creep up when you’re at your busiest.

Thank you, Joanna Coke for your hours of keeping our books straight with incoming and outgoing monies. We appreciate your balance sheets and your patience. Your organizational charts are making everything run so much smoother.

Thank you, Beth Scher for putting our minutes together so that we have accurate records of the discussions we have had and the decisions we have made.

Thank you, Patrice Boyes for looking over our contracts and artist prospectuses to make sure we are in line with our national office and to protect the rights of our artists.

Thank you, Judy Kirtley for keeping our membership on track with paid members and new members added to our group’s roster. This is your busy season and we appreciate your organizational skills.

Thank you, Jill Baratta, Jackie Lorieo & Christie Devereaux, for coming to our meetings and supporting us every month from our National office.

Thank you, Anabel Rub Peicher & Roberta Millman-Ide for the work you do in coordinating our monthly zoom artist workshops which are such a gift in professional development.

Thank you, Katherine Coakley, Pat Zalisko, Annette Crosby, Ann Kozeliski, Patricia Richards, Roberta Millman-Ide, Muffy Clark Gill and Janet Gold for approaching and pursuing new venues to give our group the opportunity for future exhibitions.

Thank you, Annette Margulies, for keeping our website up to date for us. It looks so great!

Thank you, Helene Kleiner for all your work on our graphics when needed.

Thank you, Shirley Goldblat for keeping our physical historical information organized and archived for us.

Thank you, Fran Mann Goodman for helping us navigate a new direction for our scholarship program and for volunteering to be the coordinator for our east coast team.

Thank you, Jane Baldridge, for creating one page artist statements/BIOS for our exhibitions when a booklet of our artists can be kept on site. They make us look like the professionals that we are.

Thank you, Janice Carragher Charles for being our juror for the Miami Library exhibition and for your generosity in supporting our chapter’s work.

I appreciate you all and know in my heart that I would not be able to do the work I do, nor would I want to, without each and every one of my sisterhood of artists.

You make my job as president of the Florida Chapter a pleasure. Thank you.

by Jen Haefeli, First Vice-President

The Pennsylvania Chapter of the National Association of Women Artists has been steadily growing since its inception on August 14, 2024. Thank you to all Signature Members who have recently joined us. We are excited to report that we are now twenty-two members strong. Our officers for 2024-26 are:

Lolly Owens, President
Jennifer J. Haefeli, First Vice President
Belle Manes, Second Vice President
Jennifer Kish, Treasurer
Marilyn Lowney Johnson, Recording Secretary

[Editor’s Note: President Lolly Owens is profiled by NAWA Historian Susan Rostan in this issue of NOW].

If you are considering becoming a member of the Pennsylvania Chapter, please don’t hesitate. To join, please visit our website: https://www.thenawapa.org/

We are temporarily hosting our site on a blog platform. We are cost-savvy but creative, and this platform is free and helps keep our expenses low while we grow. Please note that you will need to utilize the full address for our domain to find our website, including www.

Our website is secure and is protected with an SSL certificate (Secure Sockets Layer Certificate – which is a digital file that authenticates a website’s identity and allows for encrypted connections between a website and a user’s browser). This is particularly important when processing payments for membership and maintaining your privacy, which we take very seriously. If you hold your cursor next to our domain name in your browser, you will see the lock illuminated next to our domain name. This lock indicates the presence of our SSL certificate, and that our site is safe for you to use.

Once you arrive on our home page, scroll down below our logo to the title, “The National Association of Women Artists, Pennsylvania Chapter – Click Here.” This will lead you to an information page, which we utilize as a “Home Page.” This is where you will find helpful information available on our chapter.

Our Home Page can be directly accessed here: https://www.thenawapa.org/2024/10/blog-post.html

We would love to have any current, dues-paying, Signature Members of NAWA join the NAWA Pennsylvania Chapter. You may join by contacting us here: theNAWAPA@gmail.com

Our Exhibition Committee is working hard to plan events for 2025 and 2026. Our goal is to plan exhibitions in areas throughout the state, and in different types of venues, meeting the variety of goals of our member artists. We encourage our members to participate in our active discussions and lend their voices. We are all valuable members with resources and talents to contribute to the success of this organization and chapter.

If you have ideas to aid in the success of NAWA Pennsylvania Chapter, we would love to hear from you. We meet virtually on the first Monday of each month at 6 pm via Zoom. Please reach out if you have any questions.

The leadership of NAWA Pennsylvania Chapter extends its gratitude to all of the members of the Pennsylvania Chapter. We look forward to our continued growth and success.

Communications for the NAWA PA Chapter are as follows:

theNAWAPA.org
theNAWAPA@gmail.com
Follow our FB group: https://www.facebook.com/theNAWAPA.org
Follow us on IG: https://www.instagram.com/thenawapa

by Meyriel Edge, Chapter President

Meyriel Edge

To increase Chapter membership, our Membership Chair in November spoke to the Greater Augusta Arts Council, her focus being, “Celebrating Women Artists.” She introduced the group to NAWA and the South Carolina Chapter. Chapter Secretary Deirdre Hayes spoke about NAWA and our Chapter to the Aiken Artists Guild.

We recently welcomed to the Board Exhibit Co-Chair Flavia Lovatelli, who will assist Staci Swider with the Chapter’s exhibits. She has extensive volunteer experience supporting artists, and we are fortunate to have her expertise. Our thanks also to Lillie Morris, who also will assist with exhibits. These volunteers allow us to offer more opportunities to our members.

At our December Board Meeting, we agreed to seek corporate and individual sponsorships to increase awards offered at the Brookgreen Garden Exhibit. Augmenting our traditional awards, the Chapter received NAWA’s $500 rotating grant to Chapters and we raised $1300 through sponsorships for additional awards.

Our Chapter is proud to be a part of NAWA and to further the national mission in our state of South Carolina: To promote awareness of, and interest in, visual art created by women in the US. Contact art.nawasc@gmail.com if you have comments or news to share. Please put “newsletter” in the subject line. To join the NAWASC Chapter and become part of our active membership, visit https://nawasc.org.

EXHIBITS

We are looking forward to our Brookgreen Garden exhibit this May, and our Chapter’s Fall online exhibit, Threads of Labor: Women’s Work.

Brookgreen Inspires – Women Create

Anna Hyatt Huntington sculpture at entrance to Brookgreen Gardens. Photo by Melinda Welker

The NAWA “sisterhood” theme continues with our next exhibit titled Brookgreen Inspires -Women Create, which will open May 3 and continue through July 20, 2025. Anna Hyatt Huntington, a NAWA member in the early 1900s, and Archer Huntington were the visionaries for the renowned Brookgreen Gardens in Murrells Inlet, South Carolina. Brookgreen Gardens originally was planned as a location to exhibit Anna’s sculptures, against a backdrop of abundant South Carolina flora and fauna. It is now one of the most prominent sculpture gardens in the United States, exhibiting American sculpture from the 19th century to the present. It is meaningful to our members to have the opportunity to continue the NAWA sisterhood through Anna Hyatt Huntington’s legacy at Brookgreen Gardens.

Threads of Labor: Women’s Work

This online exhibit, opening September 1 and continuing through October 15, 2025, will explore the overlooked contributions of women from 1774 to 1781 during a pivotal period in American history, including the period immediately prior to the American Revolution. Through a diverse range of mediums, including textiles, painting, sculpture, photography, and multi-media works, contemporary artists will reflect on the concept of so-called “Women’s Work,” connecting historical narratives with modern artistic interpretations. This exhibit reclaims and reimagines the labor, creativity, and resilience of women who shaped the cultural and economic landscape in the American colonial period.

SATELLITE GALLERY

Cinnabar Study (left), acrylic on canvas, (36” x 36”) by Lillie Morris,
on display at the Department of Commerce Gallery.

Kudos to Susan Irish, Membership Chair, for developing a relationship with and organizing quarterly exhibits at the Department of Commerce in the State House Building in Columbia, South Carolina. South Carolina resident members of our Chapter have an opportunity to exhibit their work at the Department’s new offices at 1201 Main Street, Suite 1600, Columbia, South Carolina. Ten large two-dimensional, abstract, still life, or landscape art pieces are required for exhibits, which change quarterly.