UW Neltje Center Director Selected as Curator for Nationwide ‘Women to Watch’ Exhibition

The Wyoming Committee for the National Museum of Women in the Arts has selected Beth Venn -- executive director of the University of Wyoming’s Neltje Center for Excellence in Creativity and the Arts and managing director of the Jentel Artist Residency, both in Sheridan -- as curator for the “Women to Watch 2027: A Book Arts Revolution” exhibition.

 

The biennial exhibition at the National Museum of Women in the Arts (NMWA) in Washington, D.C., will showcase underrepresented and emerging women artists from around the world. The competitive process sees regional committees select a curator who submits a list of three to five nominated artists to the national museum.

 

The museum then selects one artist from each committee to represent the region in its “Women to Watch” exhibition, which will showcase contemporary artists’ books -- works of art in book form, which often encourage “readers” to rethink the nature of books in new or unexpected ways by fusing a wide variety of materials and formats from around the world.

 

“Too often, the voices of women artists in rural states go unheard,” Venn says. “This exhibition will showcase the important contributions of women artists in Wyoming, highlighting those doing the most visionary work in the field of book arts. I am honored to call attention to the ways they not only challenge, inspire and expand our understanding of the arts of the West, but to also include their contributions in the national conversation.”

 

Before she became executive director of the Neltje Center, Venn served as the founding executive director of KinoSaito, a multidisciplinary art center and artist residency program in the lower Hudson Valley in New York.

 

She has held curatorial positions at the Whitney Museum of American Art, The Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Newark Museum. Venn has consulted for museums, performing art centers and public libraries on strategic planning and program development, and she advises community-based arts nonprofits. She also serves on the board of the Wyoming Arts Alliance.

 

A native of northern Illinois, she received her bachelor’s degree in art history at Augustana College in Rock Island, Ill. After relocating to the Northeast, Venn completed a master’s degree in art history at the University of Delaware.

 

Venn will select three to five book artists from around the state to serve as Wyoming’s 2027 “Women to Watch,” using the NMWA’s definition of book arts as the guidepost for her decision. Curation will occur throughout this summer and fall, with the announcement of the 2027 “Women to Watch” occurring in early 2026.

 

The Wyoming Committee of the National Museum of Women in the Arts is fiscally sponsored by the Wyoming Women’s Foundation, a 501(c)(3). The Wyoming Women’s Foundation invests in the economic self-sufficiency of women and opportunities for girls in Wyoming.

 

For more information about this exhibition, email Venn at bvenn1@uwyo.edu.