During March, various New York groups and institutions honor women’s contributions to literature, art, music and more in special events for Women’s History Month. Other organizations, featured below, have made supporting female artists the focus of their work year-round.
Powerful women in history and politics are the subject of several plays this year, including Tina Packer’s “Women of Will,” an investigation into the women of Shakespeare; and “The Pinks,” about Confederate spy Rose Greenhow and the female detective who brought her down.
In a play by the Austrian Nobel Prize winner Elfriede Jelinek, Women’s Project Theater dissects Jackie Kennedy Onassis and the myths that surrounded the native Long Islander. “Ann” is an intimate, no-holds-barred portrait of Ann Richards, the legendary late governor of Texas. Anna Khaja illuminates the “Dream and Death of Benazir Bhutto,” including the historical forces surrounding the Pakistani prime minister before her assassination in 2007.
For visual arts, a selection of rarely seen prints by German Expressionist artist Käthe Kollwitz are on view in the Brooklyn Museum’s Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art. The New York Transit Museum is currently exhibiting “Meet Miss Subways,” a look back at this beauty contest and its contestants. The Metropolitan Museum of Art zooms in on a very specific advertising campaign in “A Sport for Every Girl,” an exhibition of printed images called “Sporting Girls,” which were successfully used by the tobacco industry in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The New School features a symposium and exhibition called ”REACT: The Feminine Mystique at 50,” celebrating the anniversary of Betty Friedan’s groundbreaking book.
Finally, you know Women’s History Month isn’t over until Gloria Steinem speaks. The feminist activist is joined by Dyllan McGee and Amy Richards in a discussion about “The Women Who Make America,” as part of “Makers,” the PBS documentary (premiering February 26 at 8 pm on THIRTEEN) and oral history project that amplifies the contributions trailblazing women have made to America. To learn which women standouts in the NYC art scene admire, see Women in the Arts on Who Paved Their Way.
Scroll down for even more events and organizations that celebrate women.
A Sport for Every Girl
Metropolitan Museum of Art
Manhattan
Tue, Dec 18, 2012 - Sun, Jul 14, 2013
Beginning in the late 1870s, tobacco producers used inventive imagery of "sporting girls" to advertise their brands. The first to use these printed images was the New York–based company Allen ...
Ann
Vivian Beaumont Theater
Manhattan
Mon, Feb 18, 2013 - Sun, Jun 09, 2013
"Ann" is an intimate, no-holds-barred portrait of Ann Richards, the legendary late Governor of Texas.
Buffy Sainte-Marie
National Museum of the American Indian‚ Smithsonian Institution
Manhattan
Thu, Mar 14, 2013, 6:00 pm
In honor of Women's History Month, Buffy Sainte-Marie will be featured in concert in the museum's Diker Pavilion. Visitors can also see the exhibition "Up Where We Belong: Native Musicians ...
Conversations with Contemporary Artists: Zarina
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
Manhattan
Fri, Mar 01, 2013, 6:30 pm
Zarina Hashmi discusses her artistic practice with Andreas Huyssen, Villard Professor of German and Comparative Literature, Columbia University, on the occasion of her retrospective Zarina: Paper Like Skin. A reception ...
The Deedle Deedle Dees
Leonard Nimoy Thalia Theater at Symphony Space
Manhattan
Sat, Mar 02, 2013, 11:00 am
Since 2003, the band has been wowing kids and their families with amazingly fun songs about science and history, many of which are about legendary ladies, including Harriet Tubman, Marie ...
Emma Lazarus: Poet of Exiles
Museum of Jewish Heritage: A Living Memorial to the Holocaust
Manhattan
Wed, Oct 26, 2011 - Sun, Mar 10, 2013
The poet Emma Lazarus, the author of the lines "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free . . . ," gave a compassionate voice ...
Impressionism, Fashion, and Modernity
Metropolitan Museum of Art
Manhattan
Tue, Feb 26, 2013 - Mon, May 27, 2013
"Impressionism, Fashion, and Modernity" will present a revealing look at the role of fashion in the works of the Impressionists and their contemporaries. Some 80 major figure paintings, seen in ...
Käthe Kollwitz Prints
Brooklyn Museum
Brooklyn
Fri, Mar 15, 2013 - Sun, Sep 15, 2013
A selection of 13 rarely seen prints by German Expressionist artist Käthe Kollwitz (1867-1945) will be on view in the Herstory Gallery of the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist ...
Living in Sequence Women in Comics Panel
Poe Park—Visitor's Center
Bronx
Fri, Mar 08, 2013, 1:00 pm
Join Regine Sawyer as she interviews women involved in the fields of comics and entertainment.
Makers: The Women Who Make America with Gloria Steinem, Dyllan McGee and Amy Richards
92nd Street Y
Manhattan
Tue, Mar 05, 2013, 8:00 pm
"Makers," a forthcoming PBS documentary and current oral history project, amplifies the contribution trailblazing women have made to America, past and present.
Meet Miss Subways
New York Transit Museum
Brooklyn
Tue, Oct 23, 2012 - Mon, Mar 25, 2013
From 1941 to 1976, the MTA hosted a beauty competition called Miss Subways and plastered images of the winners on trains and buses (often placed near ads as a way ...
New Georges
New York
Since 1992, New Georges, an Obie-winning nonprofit theater company, has steadily gained a reputation as an innovative producer of ambitious new plays by women.
Paley Center for Media
New York
Dedicated to the collection, preservation and exhibition of television and radio programs, the center possesses a collection of over 150,000 recorded programs covering more than 80 years of radio and ...
The Pinks: A Civil War Historical Fiction
Collapsable Hole
Brooklyn
Thu, Mar 14, 2013 - Sat, Mar 23, 2013
Meet Rose Greenhow, the Confederate spy who seduced half of Washington. Her goal? To flame the war and help the South secede. But Allan Pinkerton and his detectives are on ...
Professional Women Singers Association
New York
The Professional Women Singers Association advances careers of women singers and promotes musical excellence. It functions as a network of distinguished women singers who support each other in their ...
REACT: The Feminine Mystique at 50
Sheila C. Johnson Design Center
Manhattan
Thu, Feb 21, 2013 - Tue, Mar 05, 2013
The exhibition seeks to explore Bettty Friedan’s book from a contemporary lens in an effort to both honor the text – argued by many to be the catalyst of second-wave ...
Reflections on Rosie
BLDG 92: Brooklyn Navy Yard Center
Brooklyn
Mon, Nov 26, 2012 - Fri, May 31, 2013
A collaborative art installation inspired by the irrevocable transformation of woman during WWII.
Shaheed: The Dream and Death of Benazir Bhutto
Culture Project
Manhattan
Fri, Mar 08, 2013 - Mon, Apr 01, 2013
Writer/performer Anna Khaja illuminates the lives and historical forces surrounding slain Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, who was assassinated in 2007 while attempting to reunite a nation bitterly divided over ...
Sharon Lockhart | Noa Eshkol
The Jewish Museum
Manhattan
Fri, Nov 02, 2012 - Sun, Mar 24, 2013
"Sharon Lockhart | Noa Eshkol" is conceived by Lockhart as a two-person exhibition, with Lockhart's work in dialogue with Eshkol's. The exhibition includes a film installation, a series of photographs, ...
Show Way
McGinn/Cazale Theatre
Manhattan
Sun, Jan 20, 2013 - Sun, Mar 03, 2013
In Show Way, 11-year old Toshi Georgiana has lost a beloved family heirloom. As she searches for it, she is led by generations of women who came before her, from ...
SOHO20 Gallery Chelsea
Bronx
This non-profit art gallery has been promoting the work of women artists since 1973. Through events and community programs, SOHO20 Gallery seeks to educate the public about the quality and ...
Spiderwoman Theater
New York
The longest continually running women's theater collective in the United States, Spiderwoman Theater stages multicultural shows that celebrate diverse Native American cultures.
WET Productions
New York
WET is a nonprofit production company that produces media that challenges female stereotypes and advocates for equality. Founded in 1999 by executive producers Sasha Eden and Victoria Pettibone, WET adheres ...
Women of Will: The Overview
The Gym at Judson
Manhattan
Tue, Jan 29, 2013 - Thu, Mar 28, 2013
See all five parts of Tina Packer's "Women of Will" condensed into one evening. A true tour-de-force performance of Packer’s 40-plus years spent investigating the women of Shakespeare.
Women’s History Month Concert
New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center
Manhattan
Thu, Mar 07, 2013, 6:00 pm
A program featuring viola music by notable New York women composers, including Ursula Mamlok, Ruth Schoenthal, Marion Bauer, Rebecca Clarke and Inessa Zaretsky.
Women Inspired: Innovation and Imagination
El Taller Latino Americano
Manhattan
Mon, Mar 18, 2013 - Tue, Apr 30, 2013
To celebrate Women’s History Month, Professional Women Photographers is pleased to announce a show that celebrates women. The works reflect and commemorate a woman's point of view, her life, experience, ...
Women’s Project Theater: Jackie
New York City Center
Manhattan
Sun, Feb 24, 2013 - Sun, Mar 31, 2013
From the controversial pen of Elfriede Jelinek, winner of the 2004 Nobel Prize in Literature, flows Jackie, an intensely theatrical dissection of Jackie Kennedy Onassis and the myths surrounding her ...
-
Women’s Studies
American Folk Art Museum
Manhattan
Thu, Jan 24, 2013 - Sun, May 26, 2013
This exhibition presents drawings and photographs of women by four self-taught artists from the 1940s through the late 20th century, two male, two female. Eugene Von Bruenchenhein, Paul D. Humphrey, ...