The Women to Watch exhibit program was developed by the National Museum of Women in the Arts to feature underrepresented and emerging women artists from the states and countries in which the museum has outreach committees or affiliates. NMWA curators select the theme and affiliates invite nationally approved local arts professionals to guest curate submissions to the national museum exhibit.
The international Women to Watch curated exhibition in Washington, D.C., affords an Arkansas woman artist national visibility, press and curatorial connections. An invited Arkansas arts professional curates Arkansas submission(s) to national and a state Women to Watch tour of all nominees.
Arkansas Women to Watch 2026:
Words Become Matter
Arkansas Women to Watch 2026: Words Become Matter is the latest exhibit in the Women to Watch exhibition series, conceived by the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, D.C. It is the only major museum worldwide solely dedicated to championing women through the arts.
W2W was created specifically for NMWA’s 29 U.S. regional and international affiliated committees, including the Arkansas Committee of the National Museum of Women in the Arts.
Since 2010, ACNMWA has participated in every W2W exhibition, which, says MaryRoss Taylor, president of the Committee, “provides national and international museum recognition for more women artists including an Arkansas artist every time.”
Curated by Catherine Walworth, the Jackye and Curtis Finch Curator of Drawings at the Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts, the ACNMWA traveling exhibition features art by K. Nelson Harper of Fort Smith, Acadia Kandora of Fayetteville, and Rebecca Resinski of Conway.
A major exhibition at NMWA, including one artist chosen by NMWA curators from the Arkansas exhibition and showcasing the national museum's history of collecting artists' books, will be open from April 11 to August 15, 2027.
2026 Tour Schedule
Opens February 13
CALS Roberts Library of Arkansas History and Art Underground Gallery
401 President Clinton Ave.
Little Rock
Opens May 1
Blytheville Air Force Base Exhibition
3711 Idaho
Blytheville
Opens early July
Arts & Science Center for Southeast Arkansas
701 S. Main St.
Pine Bluff
Opens mid-August
Kresge Gallery of Lyon College
2300 Highland Rd.
Batesville
Opens mid-October
UAFS Gallery of Art and Design
535 N. Waldron Rd.
Fort Smith
Curator Statement – Catherine Walworth, October 2025
The search throughout Arkansas for artists’ books—an underrepresented field of art—has been a winding journey, but also a gift. It has led me to conversations with smart, witty, powerful women. Not every studio visit led to a selected artist for Women to Watch, but all were memorable conversations with people who amazed me. I visited a woman who advocated for herself and her career during an era when it was unimaginable, a woman with a flair for strong language who has built an indomitably creative space for herself and other artists, and an educational leader gracefully tearing down perfectionism and overwork. I encountered deep wells of generosity, openness, bravery in the face of illness, and joy for what matters. In all these conversations, we were surrounded by paper on every surface—each home, office, studio, and classroom became a magical paper cave in which I listened to stories and turned gorgeous pages.
In the end, I selected three women of different generations, living in three different cities, and each with a unique creative project. It was important to me that book arts be shown in their variability. The exhibition includes an artist who uses her background in photography, graphic design, letterpress, and creative writing to humorously complicate traditional book structures; an artist with elegant visual minimalism, and a baroque love of literature, who creates concrete poetry and her own gifting economy through mail art; and an artist whose cheeky love of zines and nature come together as physical sanctuary for her inner world.
Past Exhibits
Of 29 State and National Committees of NMWA, only the Arkansas Committee organizes a statewide traveling exhibition of the nominees for NMWA’s periodic Women to Watch exhibition. We proudly recognize all the artists who have been highlighted in Women to Watch state tours in the past.
2023: NEW WORLDS
Guest curator: Chaney Jewell, then Curator of Collections and Exhibitions, Arts & Science Center for Southeast Arkansas. At NMWA: Aimeé Papazian. Arkansas tour: Anaïs Dassé, Hannah McBroom, Heidi Carlsen-Rogers.
2020: PAPER ROUTES
Guest curator: Allison Glenn, Crystal Bridges Museum. At NMWA: Joli Livaudais. Arkansas tour: Kim Brewer, Joli Livaudais, Linda Nguyen Lopez, Suzannah Schreckhise
Click here to download the exhibit brochure.
2018: HEAVY METAL
Guest curator: Matthew Smith, Arkansas Arts Center, Little Rock. At NMWA: Holly Laws. Arkansas tour: Michele Fox, Amanda Heinbockel, Robyn Horn, Holly Laws.
Click here to download the exhibit brochure.
2015: ORGANIC MATTERS
Guest curator: Courtney Taylor, Arts & Science Center of Southeast Arkansas, Pine Bluff. At NMWA: Dawn Holder. Arkansas tour: Dawn Holder, Sandra Luckett, Katherine Rutter, Melissa Wilkinson.
Click here to download the exhibit brochure.
2012: HIGH FIBER
Guest Curator: Caroline S. Brown. At NMWA: Louise Halsey. Arkansas tour: Barbara Cade, Jennifer Libbey Fay, Louise Halsey, Jane Hartfield, Deborah Kuster
Click here to download the exhibit brochure.
2010: BODY OF WORK
Guest Curator: Les Christensen, Arkansas State University, Jonesboro. At NMWA: Nikki Hemphill. Arkansas tour: Janet Frankovic, Endia Gomez, Nikki Hemphill, Thu Nguyen, Ruth Pasquine, Deborah Warren, Emily M. Wood