CLARKSVILLE, TN – This winter and spring, the Customs House Museum & Cultural Center will be the stage to celebrate American women’s art through a special museum exhibition.
Of Mark & Meaning: American Women Artists will open at the Customs House Museum on Feb. 13. Since 2010, the Customs House Museum has hosted a series of exhibitions themed around “Celebrating Women Artists,” and Of Mark & Meaning continues this 16-year tradition. This year, 2026, marks the second time the museum has hosted American Women Artists. This exhibit is American Women Artists’ tenth national museum exhibition as part of the 25 in 25 campaign, an initiative to have 25 museum shows for its members over 25 years. 105 works were selected out of 791 impressive entries by professional women artists.
World-renowned artists in this exhibition include Paula B. Holtzclaw, who has a widespread reputation for her ability to capture the drama of nature on canvas; Sherrie McGraw known as one of America’s foremost painters and instructors; Diana Reuter-Twining known for her sculptures that capture the beauty of motion; rising Nashville art star Taylor Wiedemann, whose skillfully executed traditional still-lifes belie a deeper message about the struggles of womanhood; Star Liana York whose recent retrospective exhibition of 50 years of her work was an incredible honor for one of the most famous living sculptors of the West; and more!
Selection jurors included women at the top of their field: Vivian Chiu, a national sculptor based in Virginia who is known for her labor-intensive, repetitive processes to create optical sculptures from wood; Marcia Goldenstein, an accomplished landscape painter and fabric artist and Professor Emerita of Painting and Drawing at the University of Tennessee School of Art; and Kirsten Kokkin, an international award-winning sculptor from Norway known for her dancers and equine works in bronze.
Award judges include arts administrators from respected institutions in TN and NY: Katie Delmez, Senior Curator at the Frist Art Museum; Sharon Louden, artist, arts leader, author, teacher, and former Director of the Chautauqua Visual Arts at the Chautauqua Institution; and Nandini Makrandi, Chief Curator at the Hunter Museum of American Art.
Artists will compete for over $30,000 in cash awards and in-kind certificates, including a $10,000 Grand Prize sponsored by the Janet and Robert Lee Family Fund. The exhibition will be open to the public from February 13, 2026, until April 26, 2026. A closing reception and awards ceremony will be open to the public April 24, 2026, from 5:00 p.m. until 7:30 p.m. at the Customs House Museum, 200 S 2nd St, Clarksville, TN 37040.
Additionally, the annual Symposium of Women in the Arts, on April 25, 2026, 12:00 p.m. – 5:30 p.m. at the Frist Art Museum in Nashville, TN, features a keynote address by Sharon Louden. Sharon Louden is an artist, educator, advocate, consultant, and community builder. Sharon graduated with a BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and an MFA from Yale University School of Art. Louden’s work is held in public and private collections, including the Whitney Museum of American Art, the National Gallery of Art, the Yale University Art Gallery, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, among others. Sharon is the editor of Living and Sustaining a Creative Life book series. Her teaching experience includes studio and professional practice classes at colleges and universities such as Tyler School of Art at Temple University, Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art, Vanderbilt University, and Maryland Institute College of Art, among others. The Symposium is free and open to the public, but reservations must be made before April 10, 2026. Additional speakers to be announced soon.