Western Spirit: Scottsdale’s Museum of the West announced is opening the “The Women of the Southwest: A Legacy of Painting,” exhibition on July 2, 2024.

This landmark exhibition features nearly 50 works by 25 influential women artists, donated by Fran and Edward Elliott in 2020. This collection represents artwork by women to an American institution. It highlights the role women artists played in the development of modern Western art.
“The Women of the Southwest: A Legacy of Painting” showcases the contributions of women artists active in Arizona from the late territorial period through the early twentieth century.

Highlights of the exhibition include works by Lillian Wilhelm Smith, the first woman to paint the Rainbow Bridge and illustrator of Zane Grey’s novels; Kate Cory, the first resident artist to extensively paint and photograph the Hopi at the First and Third Mesas; Jessie Benton Evans, a catalyst behind the first art show at the Arizona State Fair in 1915; and Marjorie Thomas, who established the first artist studio in Scottsdale.