Event Night at the National Museum of Women in the Arts!

March 20, 2024

National Museum of Women in the Arts

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After long watching for the re-opening of NMWA and waiting to attend an evening event, it finally happened! Thanks to my good friend, I finally got to see a dolled up NMWA! Thanks Sylvana!

Now, I’m not the type who requires a moon bounce at a Gala or Event, especially when it takes place in a museum. I could LIVE in a museum. A museum dedicated to championing the artistic accomplishments of women, even better! It’s something we truly need more of. I don’t drink, but there were definitely cute drinks. There were laughing friends, friendly employees, cornhole, a DJ with live drummer, and some vendors. I was mostly there for the art. This was, after all, my first time in the doors. As much as I’d love to speak about the art and this beautiful museum, I was rather overcome with thoughts about today’s climate. 

I recently saw a graphic online outlining the many inventions that came about thanks to women, and what grasped me most about it was not just how many and how prolifically engrained in everyday lives they were, but the fact that had women been given a fair shake at things like higher education or equal employment opportunities, there would be x times more. To argue that women and minorities are not playing from behind is folly when you look at history and I credit the Arts community back in 2012 as the catalyst toward realizing this. -And I never needed a history lesson or a lecture or moment to be wrong. I just needed to be around people who didn’t judge me or expect me to be something society says I should be. That alone made me want to shut up and listen, do my own research, and frankly, stand up for them. (Something I should have done a long time ago) Isn’t that odd? I think men have this idea that feminism is some kind of ideology akin to a Heaven’s Gate cult where one must jump through hoops or surrender the self, aka manhood, to get in the door, let alone comprehend. But it isn’t. It’s sad we even require a word to parallel, “I believe in women”. Believing in women isn’t a surrender of your genitals. I think the greatest folly of dude-bro is this hard-nosed belief that everything must exist as a side. I played team sports (not by choice) as a child, and there is this focus on the “team”. It’s amusing to look back and reflect on the subliminal messages there. My “team” is all guys. Sure, we’re competing with other men, but there isn’t another woman in sight except perhaps on the sidelines. -And I played a lot of sports, so this was day after day of being a man on a team of men. It makes perfect sense how one could interpret that as “I am on a team, I am on Team Man”. I don’t want to turn this great evening into a sermon, but I’ll say this; One thing I’ve learned from being among groups of men and being among groups of women is that with women, everyone is allowed to win. With men, the only for “me” to win, is for “you” to lose. I think that’s a mentality that needs to be addressed and acknowledged more often. It’s funny I’ve come away seeing many male groups dismiss this idea when I can point to my wall of “participation” trophies from a far less progressive time.

Thanks, NMWA! You rock! I’ll be back many times!

-David

David Dowling (he/him) (@isitmodern) is the founder of Dancing in the District and works to make video and photography accessible and affordable to artists of the DC Metro area.