Community

The Committee creates, supports, and actively participates in programs to advance women in the arts and arts education.

Women to Watch

Developed specifically for the National Museum of Women in the Arts’ national and international outreach committees, the Women to Watch exhibition program is designed to increase the visibility of, and critical response to, promising women artists who are deserving of national and international attention. 

For the program an outstanding Massachusetts curator approved by NMWA nominates a short list of artists working within the chosen medium. NMWA’s curator selects a single artist from these nominees for the Women to Watch exhibition in Washington. 

Women to Watch is presented every two to three years. The Massachusetts Committee was represented at the April opening of the 2024 New Worlds exhibit by artist Daniela Rivera and nominating curator Lisa Tung. 

The 2027 exhibit is titled "A Book Arts Revolution." MA-NMWA's curator is John Buchtel, Curator of Rare Books and Head of Special Collections at the Boston Athenaeum. Meet the MA-NMWA nominees for 2027 here.

Learn more about Women to Watch

Community Profile

John Buchtel
Curator of Rare Books and Head of Special Collections
Boston Athenaeum

John Buchtel has been the Curator of Rare Books and Head of Special Collections at the Boston Athenaeum since 2018. Prior to that, he served as Head of Special Collections at Georgetown University (2008-2018); Curator of Rare Books at The Sheridan Libraries, Johns Hopkins University (2004-2007); and Curator of Collections at Rare Book School (2001-2003). Over the course of this storied career he has been entrusted with awesome responsibility by anyone's standards: the curation, procurement and care of hundreds of thousands of rare books.

John speaks to this responsibility with great care, and particularly to the mission he and his team at the Athenaeum share. He explains: “At this moment in our history, when our culture has become so virtual, we have [in book arts] a movement of work that involves handcrafting and is also conceptually interesting. We see our role as preserving the history, literature and culture of New England—and making the book accessible as a work of art.”

Not surprisingly, John is also thoughtful about how he goes about selecting artifacts (“artifacts, books, documents—all acceptable terms”) for the Athenaeum. Asked what is “rare” about rare books, he speaks to three factors. The most obvious is scarcity; that is, something that is limited in quantity or not easily found. John cautions that scarcity is not always analogous to desirability or value, the other factors. For example, a book may be hard to find but not necessarily of interest to potential buyers or scholars. It is the responsibility of the curator to determine what will fit with the mission of the organization’s collection.

The invitation to select the Massachusetts Chapter's nominees for Women to Watch 2027: A Revolution in Book Arts came at just the right time for John. In fact, the Athenaeum team has great interest in women artists and, he says, will field an exhibit examining the role of art education for women in New England later in 2027.

"I had thought a lot about book art in New England," he says. “Toward the end of the 20th century many artists were making books, but their craft skills were not always as strong as their conceptual thinking. Claire Van Vliet [printmaker, illustrator and typographer whose work is in both the Athenaeum and NMWA collections] emerged and through her combination of technical and expressive skills demonstrated how the medium could inform meaning.

“I have developed an awareness of a number of [New England] women book artists; it’s a relatively small community,” he continues. “I love the fact that I can highlight the work of women doing really interesting, inventive and imaginative things… the four artists we settled on all are doing fascinating things.” John emphasizes that book art has many components. Paper selection (or crafting; some artists make their own paper), type and overall design are a few of his considerations when approaching an artist’s book, but meaning is always foremost for him: “This genre asks you to spend time, to sit down, slow down, cogitate.”

In his role of curating MA-NMWA’s nominees, John Buchtel expresses both humility and excitement, hoping that the promotion and the exhibition itself will pique public awareness and interest. “I love the fact of bringing artist books to an art-appreciating community. There are not many places where book art is accessible [to a lot of people]… [and] book art demands your attention. We need to cultivate that side of ourselves.”

Read more Community Profiles

Education Outreach

Older Adults

In keeping with NMWA’s mission to champion women through the arts, the Massachusetts Committee (MA-NMWA) reaches out to the broadest possible community to advocate for the importance of women artists and their work. In the past MA-NMWA has organized programming for high school students in collaboration with MassArt's Artward Bound and, in 2024, began a collaboration with Goddard House, a 175-year-old not-for-profit senior living organization and an award-winning leader in creative aging.

Creative Aging Connections (CAC), a Goddard House Initiative (formerly known as Goddard House Community Initiatives) is an innovator of inclusive, community-based creative expression programs for under-resourced older adults across Boston, fostering creativity, social connection, and well-being through intergenerational programs led by professional teaching artists. There visual artist and MA-NMWA Committee member Silvina Ibanez teaches various art techniques to small groups. To complement their experience, she references art history and historical works.

In December 2024 Silvina took this a step further, visiting the Boston Athenaeum with CAC older adult artists who had been learning about the painting style of the women artists of the Boston school. And, in July 2025 she brought the group to the Harvard Art Museums for a private viewing of selected works of painter and printmaker Corita Kent. The participants already have made (and will continue to make) art themselves and they have been especially interested to study the works of others whose messages of social justice are deeply meaningful to them. The curator remarked that he had not found another such engaged group nor enjoyed such meaningful conversation with other visitors!

These collaborations are deeply beneficial on many levels. The experience of making and studying art enhances lives of program participants, opening new doors of inquiry and understanding to individuals who might never otherwise have such opportunities. They bring new audiences to the institutions that participants visit. And, they support CAC’s mission to advance the proven benefits of creative engagement—a goal that MA-NMWA shares. We thank the Athenaeum and Harvard Art Museums for their support.

Program participants at the Boston Athenaeum

K-12 Students

MA-NMWA partners with Artward Bound, the nation's first four-year, arts-centric college prep program, to offer high school students unique programs inspired by local events.

In late 2022 MA-NMWA hosted the students at an interactive workshop, led by an MA-NMWA Committee member, on Surrealist concept and techniques inspired by the “New Worlds: Women to Watch 24" theme. Students then enjoyed a private visit to the Massachusetts exhibition, where the artists were present to discuss their work and answer questions. We hope to continue this tradition with the upcoming 2027 Women to Watch.

This program was made possible with support from Boston Cultural Council and Reopen Creative Boston grants.

Sponsored Tickets

MA-NMWA provides tickets for students based in Massachusetts to attend selected MA-NMWA events free of charge with member registration.

Partnerships and Collaborations

The Massachusetts Committee has sought out alliances with other cultural entities that work with us to support and promote the work of women artists. The list below includes many of these alliances.

Abigail Ogilvy Gallery*
Addison Gallery of American Art*
City of Boston Mayor's Office of Arts and Culture
Boston Athenaeum*
Boston Ballet*
Boston College McMullen Museum of Art*
Boston Cultural Council
Boston Public Art Triennial (formerly Now + There)
Boston Society for Architecture, Women in Design*
Boston Symphony Orchestra
Cape Ann Museum*
Cape Cod Museum of Art*
Childs Gallery*
Concord Museum*
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute Art Collection*
Danforth Art Museum*
Davis Museum at Wellesley College*
deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum*
DeDee Shattuck Gallery*
Fitchburg Art Museum*
Friends of the Public Garden*
Fruitlands Museum*
Fuller Craft Museum*
Gallery Kayafas*
Goddard House
Griffin Museum of Photography
Harvard Art Museums*
Harvard Business School*
Huntington Theatre Company*
ICA Watershed*
Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston*
Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum*
Krakow Witkin Gallery*
Mass Cultural Council
MassArt Art Museum*
MIT Media Lab*
MIT Museum*
Montserrat College of Art*
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston*
National Heritage Museum*
New Bedford Art Museum*
New England Watercolor Society*
Nichols House Museum*
North Bennet Street School*
Northeastern University*
Orchard House*
Peabody Essex Museum*
Praise Shadows Art Gallery*
Rose Art Museum, Brandeis University*
Rose Kennedy Greenway Conservancy*
Schlesinger Library, Harvard Radcliffe Institute*
School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University*
Trustman Art Gallery, Simmons University*
Skinner, Inc.*
Smith College Art Museum*
Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities*
Society of Arts + Crafts Boston*
Tufts University Art Gallery*
Vose Galleries*
Worcester Museum of Art*

*Indicates a venue where MA-NMWA has held events