Wilhelmina Cole Holladay
Founder of the National Museum of Women in the Arts

By Sandra Bertrand

Wilhelmina Cole Holladay passed away March 6, 2021 at the age of 98. The entire world of women in the arts, including NAWA’s own membership over the decades, will dearly miss the guiding light for nearly 40 years of the founder of the National Museum of Women in the Arts (NMWA). This is a woman who created a world-renowned museum to address the underrepresentation of women’s art—a revolutionary act only possible through her unflagging dedication.

Wilhelmina, “Billie” as she was known to her friends, was born in Elmira, New York, with an early appreciation of the arts gained from her maternal grandmother.  After her degree from Elmira College, she studied art at Cornell University and completed postgraduate work at the University of Paris. When she and her husband Wallace (an officer in the U.S. Navy whom she met while working as social secretary to Madame Chiang Kai-Shek), visited museums and galleries here and abroad, her passion for art increased.  But it was a 1594 still life by Clara Peeters in Vienna and other works by the artist at the Prado in Madrid that she could not forget.  Yet the standard art textbooks of the day, like H.W. Janson’s History of Art, made no mention of her.  Sadly, no other female artists were mentioned.   It was this discovery that led the Holladays to begin their search in earnest.

By the 1980s, their collection included approximately 500 works by women artists. Nancy Hanks, then head of the National Endowment for the Arts, encouraged Wihelmina to establish a museum for the works. And in 1987, former First Lady Barbara Bush cut the ribbon of the landmark museum, only two blocks from the White House.

Today, NMWA’s collection has grown to over 5,500 works by approximately 1,000 artists. Such luminaries as Louise Bourgeois, Mary Cassatt, Judy Chicago, Georgia O’Keeffe, Faith Ringgold, Eliisabeth Louise Vigee-Lebrun and many, many others. The diversity of creativity has been showcased in American Indian pottery, abstract art by black women artists and such series as Women to Watch. The network of outreach committees is so widespread it’s no exaggeration to say “the sky’s the limit.”

NAWA’s Interview with Director Susan Fisher Sterling

NAWA: The story of Holladay’s discovery of Flemish artist Clara Peeters is very touching. To become fascinated by such work and then discover the artist is practically invisible in the historical records was the inciting incidence for her. What other artist favorites past or present came to light for Holladay? Are there any others that you are aware of that made such an impression on her?
SFS: Mrs. Holladay also appreciated Lavinia Fontana—the first professional woman artist of the Italian Renaissance. She and Mr. Holladay donated three Fontanas to the museum. She also loved 18th-century French art—especially Elisabeth Vigee-LeBrun, court painter to Marie Antoinette—and Anne Vallayer-Coster. In later years, Mrs. Holladay was especially fond of British artist Gwen John.

Re: contemporary art, her great interest was sculpture—including her friend Magdalena Abakanowicz, Louise Bourgeois, and Ursula von Rydingsvard.

NAWA: Holladay had such an extraordinary drive to make the public aware of women’s art. Embarking on such a mission, she must have encountered obstacles along the way. Nancy Hanks was a big support with her own NEA involvement. Were there other political figures that helped in her efforts? Do you have any specific examples of her struggles?
SFS: Mrs. Holladay used the “soft power” of Washington, D.C. to advantage. She was friendly with many political and diplomatic figures, including First Ladies Barbara Bush, Hillary Rodham Clinton, Laura Bush, and Jill Biden (when she was wife of VP). She also regularly visited with the directors of agencies including NEA, NEH, and IMLS. In 2007, she received the National Medal of Arts from George W. Bush.

Mrs. Holladay also had strong relationships with D.C.’s sole House Representative Eleanor Holmes Norton and Mayor Muriel Bowser. In 2017, Mayor Bowser presented Mrs. Holladay with DC’s Lifetime Achievement in the Arts.

NAWA: Holladay’s knowledge of art history was extensive. Did she ever entertain becoming a painter or creator herself?
SFS: No, Mrs. Holladay did not entertain becoming an artist.

NAWA: In recent years, what were some of her major priorities for the future of the museum?
SFS: Her major priorities were making sure that she was filling gaps in the museum’s historical and contemporary collections, so that key artists whose works she appreciated were included at the museum. She also worked to make sure that NMWA was better known nationally and internationally. Most important in recent years, she was concerned with preserving the museum’s landmark building as a home for women artists in the 21st century and beyond. This was her topmost priority.
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