Arkansas Committee for the National Museum of Women in the Arts is proud to announce that Acadia Kandora has been selected to represent Arkansas in the 8th edition of the Women to Watch series, a global initiative led by the National Museum of Women in the Arts (NMWA).
Women to Watch 2027: A Book Arts Revolution, on view in Washington, D.C. from April 9 to August 15, 2027, will be a dynamic exploration of contemporary artists’ books: works of art in book form, encompassing innovative uses of paper and print, sculptural works, and much more. Acadia Kandora is one of 16 artists selected from among 62 global nominees. The selection follows a five-city statewide tour, curated by Catherine Walworth, Jackye and Curtis Finch, Jr., Curator of Drawings at the Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts. Women to Watch 2027: A Book Arts Revolution encourages audiences to rethink the nature of book arts by challenging assumptions about the medium and featuring works that combine approaches and techniques. This is the eighth edition of the acclaimed Women to Watch series, a global initiative led by the museum.
“These artists reimagine, interrogate, dissect, and even erase the book,” said NMWA guest curator Tia Blassingame. “The topics they explore encompass personal histories, cultural identities, language, the man-made and natural environment, immigration/migration, and women’s rights. In artistic practices that unfold through individual, collaborative, and community participation, they masterfully wield varied book arts techniques like bookbinding, publishing, letterpress and risograph printing, and paper cutting, with researched and creative writing, printmaking, sewing, weaving, and ceramics. Together, they truly represent the book arts revolution occurring across the globe.”
“I appreciate that the through line is her homage to nature and her emotional relationship to it. There were many works of Acadia’s that dealt with some traumatic issues in her life, but what I took away was that nature was a healing place for her, so I focused on those works as a unifying theme between her zines and sculptures. I liked that she brought the performance element, as well, with her shopping cart and pop-up community zine garden project,” ACNMWA guest curator Catherine Walworth.
Women to Watch is the National Museum of Women in the Arts’ hallmark exhibition series featuring national and international artists whose work is underrepresented on the global stage. Presented every two to three years, the series is a unique collaboration between NMWA and its global outreach committees and is designed to support the careers of women and nonbinary artists across regional and international art scenes. The committee network works closely with local curators to create shortlists of artists, from which finalists are selected to exhibit at NMWA. For the 2027 edition, the Arkansas Committee for the National Museum of Women in the Arts, ACNMWA is one of sixteen participating national and international committees. The ACNMWA has participated in all 8 exhibitions.
Words Become Matter is the latest installment of the ACNMWA Women to Watch Arkansas exhibitions. The exhibition centers on artists’ books, a genre that embraces forms ranging from pressed and painted to folded and sculptural. Words Become Matter honors three nationally recognized Arkansas artists whose practices transform text into physical form—objects that carry language through structure, material, and gesture.
“The three Arkansas artists featured in the Words Become Matter 2026 five-city statewide tour were selected for their innovative approaches to the book as art. Their work pushes beyond traditional bindings and printed pages, re-imagining words as material that can be folded, stitched, carved, and constructed into new dimensions. Each artist demonstrates how language can be embodied, and how words themselves become matter.” ACNMWA President Demara Titzer.
The full list of selected artists and their corresponding regions is as follows: Golnar Adili (New York; Consulting Curator Jennifer Farrell), Indu Antony (South Asia; Consulting Curator Vidya Shivadas), Karen Beckwith (Ohio; Consulting Curator Sienna Brown), Eliza Bentz (Georgia; Consulting Curator Cynthia Nourse Thompson), Letizia “Letia” Cariello (Italy; Consulting Curator Iolanda Ratti), Kayla Clark (Wyoming; Consulting Curator Beth Venn), Candace Hicks (Texas; Consulting Curator Hannah Klemm), Sarah Hulsey (Massachusetts; Consulting Curator John Buchtel), Saya Irie (Japan; Consulting Curator Yukie Kamiya), Acadia Kandora (Arkansas; Consulting Curator Catherine Walworth), Yoonmi Nam (Greater Kansas City Area; Consulting Curator Leesa Fanning), Larissa Nowicki (United Kingdom; Consulting Curator Welmoet Wartena), Elizabeth Pineda (Arizona; Consulting Curator Heather Sealy Lineberry), Vivian Sming (San Francisco/Northern California; Consulting Curator Anthea Black), Janelle Washington (Mid-Atlantic Region; Consulting Curator Elizabeth Ajunwa), and Suze Woolf (Washington; Consulting Curator Catherine Alice Michaelis).
Women to Watch 2027: A Book Arts Revolution coincides with the museum’s 40th anniversary and the 20th anniversary of the Women to Watch series. In honor of these milestones, a dynamic slate of programming will celebrate past and current Women to Watch participants.
Bios
The Arkansas Women to Watch guest curator, Dr. Catherine Walworth, is the Jackye and Curtis Finch, Jr., Curator of Drawings at the Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts in Little Rock, Arkansas. A specialist in modern art and material culture, Walworth is also a former contemporary arts writer. Since being at AMFA, Walworth's original AMFA exhibitions have centered on women artists from around the country, including Risa Hricovsky: Then is Now (2023-2024), Tricia Wright: The Naturalist (2024), and Lori Larusso: A Paradox of Plenty (2025-2026). Walworth's exhibition, Architects of Being: Louise Nevelson and Esphyr Slobodkina, is currently on its national tour.
The Women to Watch selected artist from Arkansas, Acadia Kandora, is a printmaker, educator, & zinester, from the mountains of Appalachia. She holds an MFA in Printmaking from the University of Arkansas and a BFA with concentrations in Graphic Design and Sculpture from Shepherd University. She has been an artist in residence at the Archipelago Artist Residency in Korpo, Finland, and the Chroma Print Residency in Albuquerque, NM. She has exhibited nationally in cities such as Baltimore, MD, Indianapolis, IN, Tulsa, OK, and Kent, OH. Her collaborative Publications have been included in collections such as The Library of Congress, Center for Book Arts in New York City, The Ohio State University’s Riot Grrrl Zine Collection, and The State University of New York, New Paltz Zine Library. She currently resides in Arkansas alongside her cat, teaching printmaking as an Assistant Professor.
Women to Watch 2027: A Book Arts Revolution guest curator Tia Blassingame, founder of Primrose Press, is a book artist, print maker, and scholar whose work examines the intersection of race, history, and material culture through artists’ books and print media. She is an associate professor of art at Scripps College (Claremont, California), where she teaches letterpress printing and book arts and serves as director of Scripps College Press. Blassingame is the founder of the Book/Print Artist/Scholar of Color Collective, an initiative that fosters collaboration and engagement among BIPOC artists and scholars of book history and print culture.
Women to Watch 2027: A Book Arts Revolution liaison curator, Elizabeth Ajunwa, is director of NMWA’s Betty Boyd Dettre Library and Research Center. Since joining the institution in 2022, she has served as curator for the museum’s book arts acquisitions.
Arkansas Committee for the National Museum of Women in the Arts
Founded in 1989 and celebrating its 37th year, ACNMWA is a nonprofit volunteer organization that highlights the accomplishments of Arkansas women artists and shares the groundbreaking work of the National Museum of Women in the Arts (NMWA) in Washington, D.C., with a statewide audience. For more information, visit acnmwa.org.
National Museum of Women in the Arts
The National Museum of Women in the Arts (NMWA) is the first museum in the world solely dedicated to championing women through the arts. With its collections, exhibitions, programs, and online content, the museum inspires dynamic exchanges about art and ideas. NMWA advocates for better representation of women and nonbinary artists and serves as a vital center for thought leadership, community engagement, and social change. NMWA addresses the gender imbalance in the presentation of art by bringing to light important women artists of the past while promoting great women artists working today. The collection highlights a wide range of works in a variety of mediums by artists including Rosa Bonheur, Louise Bourgeois, Lalla Essaydi, Lavinia Fontana, Frida Kahlo, Hung Liu, Zanele Muholi, Faith Ringgold, Niki de Saint Phalle, and Amy Sherald.
NMWA is located at 1250 New York Avenue, NW, Washington, D.C. It is open Tues.–Sun., 10 a.m.–5 p.m., and closed on Mondays and select holidays. Admission is $16 for adults; $13 for D.C. residents, visitors 65 and over, students and educators, active-duty military and veterans, and visitors with a Native/Tribal Affiliation; and free for visitors 21 and under, visitors with disabilities, and SNAP/EBT card holders. Admission is free on the first Sunday and second Wednesday of each month. For information, call 202-783-5000, visit nmwa.org, Broad Strokes blog, Facebook or Instagram.