News & Updates

News Release from the National Endowment for the Arts – New data released last month show arts and cultural industries hit an all-time high in 2022, contributing 4.3 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), or $1.1 trillion, to the U.S. economy. However, growth was not sector-wide, with performing arts organizations, non-government museums, and arts-related construction among the arts industries that have yet to reach their pre-pandemic levels of economic value.

The Arkansas Committee of the National Museum of Women in the Arts (ACNMWA) celebrated its 35th anniversary in 2024. Organized in Little Rock on March 21, 1989, by Helen Walton and Ed Dell Wortz, ACNMWA is a non-profit organization dedicated to highlighting the achievements of Arkansas women artists and sharing the groundbreaking work of the National Museum of Women in the Arts (NMWA) with audiences across the state. The Arkansas Committee is one of the first committees established to support the Washington, D.C., museum, which now has 17 state committees and 14 international committees.

The Arkansas Committee of the National Museum of Women in the Arts announces Lisa Krannichfeld, of Little Rock, as the Artist Award recipient for 2024.

The purpose of the award is to assist an accomplished woman artist to realize her vision and help to make her achievements more visible to the art community and the public. “Most art students today are women and 90 percent of museum purchases are art by men,” said ACNMWA President MaryRoss Taylor. “We know women earn less and have myriad obligations, so our award has no conditions attached. We aim to help an established woman artist move to the next level.”

Over the last five months, members of the Arkansas Committee of the National Museum of Women in the Arts (ACNMWA) and the organization’s programs have been showcased in earned and paid coverage in a variety of print and online publications. Following are links to select articles and advertisements.

The Arkansas Arts Council, an agency of the Department of Arkansas Heritage, recently announced the 2024 Governor’s Arts Awards recipients which included two board members of the Arkansas Committee of the National Museum of Women in Arts. The recipients will be honored at a ceremony on March 8, 2024, in Little Rock.

I had lofty dreams when I applied to the Arkansas Committee of the National Museum of Women in the Arts 2023 Artist Award. I was going to start my second wearable sculpture fashion line and rent a larger studio to accommodate my massive vision. Little did I know a week after being awarded the grant I would have unexpected surgery to remove my gallbladder, from which I am still recovering.