From staff reports
Six local Lowcountry artists are among the 30 members of the National Association of Women Artists (NAWA) (South Carolina Chapter) on display in The NAWA Sisterhood, on exhibit through April 15 at the Burrough-Chapin Art Museum in Myrtle Beach.
The exhibit features the current work of NAWA’s South Carolina Chapter members in honor of their NAWA contemporaries and predecessors like Mary Cassatt, Judy Chicago and Anna Hyatt Huntington, thereby recognizing the invaluable and abundant support that NAWA has provided and continues to provide for women in the arts for the past 135 years.
Local artists Rose Cofield, Sandy Dimke, Joan Eckhardt, Mary Ann Browning Ford, Sheila Grabarsky and Marianne Stillwagon are among the 30 featured in this exhibit. Browning Ford was awarded Second Place for her oil painting, “Serenity in the Afternoon.”
NAWA was established in 1889 to serve as an organization to promote, educate and support women in the arts. The South Carolina Chapter of NAWA was started in 2018 and today has 50 members. The 55 works in the exhibition range in media and style to include sculpture, painting, photography, fiber art, collage, drawing and installation art.
“This exhibition gives voice to the creative talents of women,” says Patricia Goodwin, Executive Director of the Art Museum, “who for centuries were considered second-class citizens in Western culture generally and in our own nation specifically. We believe this is an important message at a time when the rights and voices of women have frequently come under attack.”
This exhibition is supported by South Carolina Humanities, a not-for-profit organization, inspiring, engaging and enriching South Carolinians with programs on literature, history, culture and heritage. S.C. Humanities receives funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities.
The Art Museum’s hours are Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. until 5 p.m., and Sunday from 1 until 5 p.m.
Admission to the Museum is free at all times, but donations are encouraged. For further information, contact the Art Museum at 843-238-2510 or online at myrtlebeachartmuseum.org or art.nawasc@gmail.com. Learn more about NAWA at www.NAWASC.org.
