Plains Art Museum in Fargo has opened "Women Artists: Four Centuries of Creativity," a major exhibition running through March 1, 2026, in the Jane L. Stern Gallery. The show features 40 works from the museum's permanent collection alongside 37 works on loan from the Reading Public Museum, spanning etchings, engravings, lithographs, drawings, watercolors, woodblock prints, and photographs by canonical women artists. Highlights include a 1650 piece by Elisabetta Sirani, one of the earliest renowned female Renaissance artists. Students from Minnesota State University Moorhead's Women and Art course contributed original research and curatorial support.
The exhibition matters because it addresses the historical marginalization of women in the arts, who for centuries were denied formal training and faced barriers to showing and selling their work. By bringing together historical and contemporary works from both a major museum collection and local holdings, the show creates a dialogue about women's artistic legacy while making high-caliber art accessible to a regional audience. It also provides practical curatorial experience for students and underscores the museum's commitment to championing local and underrepresented artists.