How are women artists faring these days? According to a new survey commissioned by Anonymous Was A Woman, the arts nonprofit known for its grant-making, and compiled by reporter-researchers Julia Halperin and Charlotte Burns in conjunction with SMU Data Arts (and exclusively released online by ARTnews), the answer is complex—and in many ways disheartening. But one thing is sure: The art world is all ears. Last Wednesday, more than 300 people filled an auditorium at New York University to hear about the survey and listen to a series of panel discussions devoted to the findings.
Afterward, a group of 40 invited women professionals in the arts—leaders of museums and nonprofits, philanthropy workers, artists, and gallerists—participated in roundtables to discuss the survey and the talks. At the end of it all, they anonymously jotted down answers to two questions: What have you learned? What can you do?
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To give greater access to the day’s events, ARTnews has created a video with key highlights from the symposium and compiled some key takeaways from the anonymous responses.
Community Is Crucial
In the survey, an overwhelming majority of respondents (79 percent) cited artistic community and networks as key to their careers, naming residency programs among the top resources that would further enrich their sense of belonging.
Community was a major theme during the panel discussions as well, with MoMA PS1 director Connie Butler saying she felt there to be a lack of community for women artists right now, ending on a positive note that she feels a need for more of it.
One anonymous roundtable respondent echoed Butler’s sentiment: “There is a tangible sense of lack or loss felt by artists in terms of institutional support and community building.”
Founder Susan Unterberg gives her opening statement at the Anonymous Was A Woman Symposium at NYU.
Photo Casey Kelbaugh/CKA
Other respondents pointed to the need for more discussions; the power of solidarity and working together; the importance of “intergenerational community … as a means of meaningful long-term structural change”; the importance of trust within communities of women artists; the feeling that community suggests “a more local approach to thinking about the art world.” Community “requires support, connection, and compassion.”
Another wrote “I am really still thinking about how we can shift our ideas about the difference between art community and art world,” observing that the former is oriented toward resource sharing.
How do we get there? Respondents said they could personally do this through more listening and active participation in community-based discussions; using one’s platform as a support system; and facilitating spaces for exchange.
The ultimate goal, one pointed out, could be “community activism. … Right now, arts and culture is an important vehicle for resistance.”
From left, artists Steffani Jemison, Coco Fusco, and Judith Bernstein during the Artists Speak panel, moderated by journalist Julia Halperin (right), at the Anonymous Was A Woman Symposium.
Photo Casey Kelbaugh/CKA
Financial Precarity and Lack of Resources
In recounting what they learned from the report and symposium, many roundtable participants pointed to a particularly bleak section of the survey on women artists’ financial precarity: Many live below the poverty level, lack studio space, and a majority are able to spend only half their time making art. The biggest financial issues for women artists, after housing and debt, are studio space, storage, and materials. And then there is childcare.
On one of the panels, artists shared real-life stories of how they found resourceful ways to make it all work. Coco Fusco recounted buying her house in Brooklyn’s Bedford-Stuyvesant with a credit card loan just before gentrification took over the neighborhood. As a Latina artist, she said that her main source of support over the years has come from “African American woman. If it weren’t for [them], I wouldn’t be here. …They understand the struggle … and have created their own infrastructure.”
Judith Bernstein, a cofounder of the 1970s feminist art space Artists in Residence (A.I.R.) said wryly: “I suggested naming it Twenty Women Artists Together (T.W.A.T.),” and talked about her decision to make money from having tenants. “I thought, ‘You can have a husband or tenants, what would you prefer?’ Tenants are less trouble.”
Results of the AWAW Artist Survey shown at the Anonymous Was A Woman Symposium.
Photo Casey Kelbaugh/CKA
Steffani Jemison said she used the $20,000 grant she received from the Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation in 2013 as a down payment on a house because that was the best way for her to support her work at the time. She pointed out that it had taken her family years to acquire generational wealth because of discriminatory redlining practices in Cincinnati, where she was raised.
Prominent among the roundtable responses were calls for more unrestricted grants, like those given by Anonymous Was A Woman, which since its founding in 1996 has distributed more than $5 million directly to women artists over the age of 40. Since its 2024 cycle, the foundation has given $50,000 each to 15 women and nonbinary artists.
On a panel, Ruth Foundation executive director Karen Patterson talked about the importance of unrestricted grants like the ones her organization gives out to both arts nonprofits across the country and artists alike. Questioning the restrictions on some grants, Patterson said, “the old model of trust is not radical. If it has been eroded while we were watching, why is that?”
The audience during the Artists Speak panel at the Anonymous Was A Woman Symposium.
Photo Casey Kelbaugh/CKA
Can Institutions Do More?
Almost two thirds of survey respondents (63 percent) said that a lack of museum or institutional backing hinders their careers, and more than half (59 percent) felt the same way about galleries. Many of the roundtable responses drew attention to what the survey indicated is a result of this: Many women artists (55 percent of respondents) are selling their work independently.
Proving that institutions can change was Dia Foundation director Jessica Morgan, who delivered a keynote on the progress she has made at Dia since she took over in 2014. For instance, in the past decade, the percentage of women artists in the collection has increased from 6.8 percent in 2015 to 29 percent in 2025 through her focused acquisition strategy.
Jessica Morgan gives the keynote at the Anonymous Was A Woman Symposium.
Photo Casey Kelbaugh/CKA
Dealers, curators, and museum directors who attended the roundtables stressed the importance of sharing the report with their colleagues and artists. They were also fairly specific about what could be done, such as further promoting visibility through exhibition programs and acquisitions, as well as exploring under-recognized narratives.
One said she would “continue to acquire work by women artists for my institution—and not necessarily through galleries but directly from artists without representation.” Another said that “small institutions [that] do not rely on admissions or government funding can be particularly useful as organizers or bases of operation.” There was also the suggestion of “collaborat[ing] with … lawyers and general counsels in the art world around equitable and culturally aware contracts.”
The New Models for Women Artists panel at the Anonymous Was A Woman Symposium.
Photo Casey Kelbaugh/CKA
What Can and Can’t Be Said
Exactly half of the survey respondents felt they could not speak freely without fear of career consequences, something that was felt more acutely by young artists and artists of color. This was discussed in the talks and roundtables in the context of ongoing structural issues in the world that are only being heightened during the current presidential administration. (One roundtable participant noted of the survey, which was completed in late 2024, “50 percent felt they could not speak freely and this is BEFORE the present administration came into power.”)
Another wrote, “This is how it looked like 20 years ago. Is it because we are more dependent on funders and institutions and galleries to show work?”
Butler, the PS1 director, talked about the current backlash to women’s progress and wondered if artists and others may need to resort to opacity, in the Glissantian sense. And Jemison added, “It has happened to me that a proposal is not supportable by an institution because of its political content.” Jemison also stressed the importance of picking one’s battles by being strategic about what to say in what context.
From left, Nicola Vassell, Karen Patterson, Charlotte Burns, Rashida Bumbray, and Connie Butler on stage for the New Models for Women Artists panel at the Anonymous Was A Woman Symposium.
Photo Casey Kelbaugh/CKA
Plus Ça Change…
One feeling that was echoed throughout the roundtable responses can be captured in the comment of one attendee that “despite superficial appearances, things actually haven’t changed much.”
Others expressed it differently: “Despite the changes that have occurred in past 40–50 years in the number of people/artists in galleries/institutions, the data is not surprising and similar relative to 40–50 yrs ago.” According to another, “Not that much has changed and there are a lot of systemic issues that will remain permanent for some time.” The survey “confirmed my assumptions about the position of women artists,” a third said.
But the survey and symposium weren’t all doom and gloom. “I was glad to see that more than 59 percent of respondents felt their sense of artist belonging was strong,” said one response. On a panel, gallerist Nicola Vassell pointed out that there are opportunities for women artists in the “great wealth transfer” from baby boomers to their heirs, because much of that money will go to women.
And curator and choreographer Rashida Bumbray, who organized the conference for Black women artists “Loophole of Retreat” in Venice in 2022 as part of Simone Leigh’s US Pavilion for the Biennale, put a strong emphasis on building on the work done by women artists in the past, like the late artist Lorraine O’Grady, who said, at the 2022 gathering, “this movement is unstoppable. We are no longer fighting to be seen.” However, Bumbray warned about “not equating visibility with power.”
Perhaps one last anonymous comment, citing a stat in the survey, says it all: “That 49 percent of women … feel not taken seriously … points to deep-seated structural problems, and it would be good to understand the nuances of it. It also emphasizes the need to listen to women.”
