Focusing on women in the arts during the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries, the conference will run in two parts in October 2023

The Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts at the National Gallery of Art and The Juilliard School have partnered for the first time to present “Women in Art and Music: An Early Modern Global Conference.” 

Open to the public, the conference will include presentations and performances focusing on women of the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries as expert artists and key contributors to the cultural and global economy in the early modern period.

Part one of the event will be held on October 18, 2023, at New York’s Juilliard School, while the second part will be from October 20–21, 2023, at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.

The three days will involve eight thematic sessions, as well as 30 scholars from Columbia University, Handel Hendrix House, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Tecnológico de Monterrey, University of Oxford, and University of Victoria, plus other institutions across North America, Europe, and Australia. 

The event will also include live performances from students of Juilliard’s Historical Performance program and the early music ensemble Sonnambula.

Organized by National Gallery of Art curator Eve Straussman-Pflanzer and musicologist and Juilliard faculty member Elizabeth Weinfield, the conference also celebrates the National Gallery’s recent acquisition of a 16th-century painting by female artist Lavinia Fontana of the musician Lucia Bonasoni Garzoni.

Conference registration is free and open to all. Participants may attend all three days, register for a single day, or watch via live stream. To register, click here.

“At the National Gallery, we’re excited to join forces with Juilliard and bring together internationally renowned experts in both early modern art and music to explore the women that have been understudied in our fields for so long,” said director of the gallery, Kaywin Feldman. “Art historical research is at the center of the National Gallery’s work and we are thrilled to take an interdisciplinary approach in our studies. I am grateful to all participants in the project.”

“We greatly look forward to co hosting the ‘Women in Art and Music’ conference with the National Gallery of Art this fall,” added Adam Meyer, Juilliard’s provost. “This meaningful collaboration between our institutions brings together scholars and curators to examine the role of women as creators and leaders within their chosen fields of art. I would like to extend my gratitude to Elizabeth Weinfield for her leadership in organizing the conference on Juilliard’s behalf, and to the music history department for its support and contributions to the conference.”