SYMPOSIUM PRESS RELEASE

‘CHANGING HISTORY’
Founder and Chairman of the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, D.C. to address London Symposium on British Women Collectors

Who: Mrs. Wilhelmina Cole Holladay, Founder and Chairman of the National Museum of Women in the Arts (NMWA) and a noted collector herself, will deliver the keynote address at a unique evening Symposium on British Women Collectors, to be held at the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts in London on 15 November 2007. The symposium will explore how exemplary women overcame the cultural assumptions and restrictions of their times to participate in the art world as active and influential collectors, shaping public taste and building important artistic legacies. The Symposium poses the intriguing question as to why and how women collect and whether distinctive patterns emerge across time and nationalities.

Symposium speakers and topics:
Keynote Address:

The Joy of Changing History

Wilhelmina Cole Holladay, Founder and Chairman, National Museum of Women in the Arts
While traveling in Europe in the 1960’s, Wilhelmina Cole Holladay and her husband, Wallace F. Holladay, admired a 17th-century still life by Flemish painter Clara Peeters. Upon their return to the U.S., the Holladays sought information on Peeters, but, to Mrs. Holladay’s surprise, Peeters’ name could not be found in any of the art history survey texts. In fact, the more she researched, the more she found that these texts did not mention any female artists. Since that startling discovery, Wilhelmina Cole Holladay has made it her mission to bring to the forefront the accomplishments of talented women through collecting, exhibiting and researching women artists of all nationalities and time periods.

Mrs. Holladay founded the award-winning National Museum of Women in the Arts 20 years ago, and it remains the only museum dedicated solely to celebrating the achievements of women in the visual, performing and literary arts. Its permanent collection contains over 3,000 works by more than 800 artists and provides a comprehensive survey of art by women from the 16th century to the present. The Library and Research Center holds 18,500 books and exhibition catalogues, and more than 18,000 files on women artists of all periods and nationalities. The museum is located at 1250 New York Avenue NW, Washington, D.C., in a landmark building near the White House. www.nmwa.org

In 2006 Mrs. Holladay was awarded the National Medal of Arts from the United States and the Ordre national de la Légion d’Honneur from the French government. In 2007 she received the Gold Medal for the Arts from the National Arts Club in New York City.

Symposium Speakers:‘Whatever you have chosen, I am sure is best’. The Rothschild women as artists, collectors and patrons

Melanie Aspey, Director, The Rothschild Archive
Melanie Aspey will discuss the lives, artistic tastes, marriage patterns and inheritance of three generations of Rothschild women (1785-1935), and how these shaped the Rothschild women’s lives and influenced the building up and the distribution of significant art collections. Melanie Aspey joined The Rothschild Archive as Archivist in 1994, succeeding Victor Gray as Director in 2004. She edited The Rothschild Archive: Guide to the Collection, (London, 2000) and has written about aspects of the Archive’s collection and Rothschild history for a number of journals and publications. Prior to joining Rothschild, she was archivist and records manager at News International plc (publisher of The Times and other British daily and weekly newspapers). She began work for the Business Archives Council in 1984 subsequently serving as a trustee and chairman of that organisation for a number of years. She is currently a member of the Academic Advisory Council of the European Association for Banking and Financial History.

The Davies Sisters of Gregynog – artistic education, travel and collecting

Dr. Ann Sumner, Director of the Barber Institute of Fine Arts and formerly Head of Fine Art at the National Museum Wales has published extensively on the pioneering Davies sisters, whose collection of Impressionist paintings is housed in the National Museum of Wales in Cardiff. Her recent research has revealed that these spinster sisters from rural Montgomeryshire, who were strict Calvinistic Methodists and sabatarians, were far more educated with regard to art history and much less reliant on male advisers than had previously been realized. They were extremely well educated and traveled widely in Europe and the Middle East. Dr. Sumner has been given access to the unique Davies family archives and recently contributed a chapter about their art education and early collecting to the book Things of Beauty: What two Sisters did for Wales published in July 2007 to coincide with the groundbreaking and critically well received exhibition Industry to Impressionism which runs until January 2008 at the National Museum Wales.

‘In spite of bombs and broken windows’: Queen Elizabeth and the arts in wartime
Dr. Susan Owens is Curator of Paintings at The Victoria and Albert Museum. Between 2002 and 2007 she was Assistant Curator of the Print Room at Windsor Castle. She has written and lectured on various aspects of British Art. Her publications include Watercolours and Drawings from the Collection of Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother (2005), and Amazing Rare Things: The Art of Natural History in the Age of Discovery (2007) Dr. Owens read English at Oxford, followed by a Master’s degree in art history at the Courtauld. Her Ph.D. (University of London, 2002) was on Aubrey Beardsley and satire.

 

Event Information:

Friends of the National Museum of Women in the Arts, UK

will host
A Symposium:
British Women Collectors

When: Thursday 15 November 2007

Where: Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts
8 John Adam Street
London WC2N 6EZ

Doors open at 6:00pm
The Symposium begins at 6:30pm
Reception to follow in the RSA Vaults 7:45 – 10:00pm

Tickets: £65.00
To reserve a place, send your cheque for £65.00, made out to Friends of the NMWA, UK to: Friends of the NMWA, UK, 72 Portland Road, London W11 4LQ
Be sure to include a name and address, phone or email, so that we can confirm your place. Places are limited.
Please contact us at nmwa.uk@gmail.com

 

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Please, contact us via e-mail at: nmwa.uk@gmail.com