Mini Trip to Natl Museum of Women in the Arts
 

Had the good fortune to meet up with some friends at NMWA on Friday. It was a glorious spring day and using Suitland Parkway from Rte. 4 was a great way to travel during non-rush hours. On this trip I paid more attention and stayed left after crossing the bridge into DC. That kept me from getting on 395 where people speed-alot!

This approach puts one due south of the Capitol. So I just zigged and zagged whenever possible to 12th St. and New York Ave NW. (BTW, there will be road construction for 2 years on New York Ave. so try to find an alternate way into DC).

I parked in a public parking garage about 2 blocks south of New York Ave. and stopped to take shots of the Niki de Saint Phalle's sculptures. Going to post them now.

OK, here's the site for the shots:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/upload/done/

NMWA used to be a Masonic Lodge. The downstairs hall is lovely with pink marble and very pretty faux painting. The permanent collection appears to be from the collection of the founder, Ms. Holladay and her husband.

We visited every floor and enjoyed what we saw. The current exhibit is from Bank America's photography collection. We saw color coupler shots and no one knew what they are. Going to google that now!

The most famous photograph in NMWA's permanent collection was by Kasbier (will try to find correct spelling). In the special exhibition, there were a couple of names familiar to us all but I'm drawing blanks (I'm old). Margaret Bourke-White? There was an exhibit of Paloma Picasso's jewelry and we all loved her pieces.

We ate lunch in the 2nd floor mezzanine: bacon quiche, roast beef sandwich and I'm forgetting the 3rd one. We all had coffee and split a nice lime cheesecake. $16.25 a apiece and we thought it was good and reasonably priced. "Rubenesque" sandwich was cleverly named.

We repaired to the gift shop and it held our interest longer than the exhibits! Two of us bought jewelry-a bracelet made of telephone wire and a necklace/earring set of silk adhered to some sort of backing. A third bought a beautiful wool and silk scarf. Some really quirky and attractive stuff. NMWA is working on an on-line store.

FYI, I noticed quite a few places to eat along 12th St. NW. H Street is the one just below New York Avenue. I parked about 2 blocks down-around Metro Center metro station. An easy walk from there. Big Marriott hotel and Ford's Theatre were also in that area.

My friends took red line metro to Grosvenor Station in 45 minutes. They had gotten a ride to the station, so didn't have to worry about parking. It took me just less than an hour to get back home using Suitland Parkway again. I had to turn left onto 12th St. out of the garage ($18) so I turned left 2 more times (when left was permitted) and ended up going south on 15th St. When I reached Pennsylvania Ave. I turned left again (that is another way for me to get out of town so thought I'd go that way if I got lost). When I saw the Capitol, I started working my way south then started following signs to 295/395 and just turning when I could so I can't give you specific streets. Making my goal to have my back to the south side of the Capitol, I somehow got back onto the street that became the Suitland Parkway. It should have said South Capitol St but I couldn't see the sign. This was around 3 p.m. and signal lights made one go slowly-expect traffic is really bad at rush hour.

If you are interested in women in the arts, I'd say give NMWA a look. $10 is admission fee ($8 for seniors) and we bought our entrance tickets in the gift shop.

Thanks for the mini report. I love that museum and don't get there often enough.

Can't seem to get into your photos. What am I missing?

Hi yes, Sorry about that. Please try this:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/32219995@N07/