On Aug. 19, 2025, the Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Arts opened its exhibit "Women Artists in Ascendance" to the public. The exhibit showcases artwork from notable women artists of the 20th century whose contributions have largely gone overlooked. The exhibit is one of four on display, exploring the idea of American art and who gets to define what that means.
The Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Art, commonly referred to as "the Jule," is Auburn University's official art museum. Established in 2003, the Jule is the only accredited university art museum in the state of Alabama, meaning that it has been evaluated and determined to meet high professional standards.
"We are the only teaching museum of our kind in the state of Alabama, so there's no other museum attached to a college or university that is accredited as an art museum the way that we are," said Chris Molinski, the Janet L. Nolan director of curatorial and educational affairs at the Jule. "We are a spot where everyone on campus should feel welcome, both for academic work and for their own pleasure and enjoyment."
Every week, students have the opportunity to visit the museum Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and see the exhibits for themselves at no cost to them. Visitors can browse the museum individually or schedule a guided tour from one of the Jule's knowledgeable staff members.
The Jule also hosts lecturers at the museum on Thursdays, so those that visit can learn more about the featured artwork, often from the artists themselves. These events are free, and all members of the public are welcome.
While the museum generally changes exhibits every semester, "Women Artists in Ascendance" will be on display until early July 2025. The exhibit features works from Helen Frankenthaler, Grace Hartigan, Alice Baber, Lee Krasner, Joan Brown, Amanda Williams and other notable women artists.
Many of the pieces featured were loaned to the University from the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City as part of the Art Bridges' Partner Loan Network, a program meant to promote the display of American art across the country.
"It's an incredibly rare and special gift that we get to spend so much time with these incredible works of art, and I don't want that to go to waste, so I want people to spend as much times at the museum with this art as they can," Molinski said.
The exhibit "Women Artists in Ascendance" gained its name from a May 1957 edition of Life Magazine with the same name. The article focused on the artistic achievements of a select group of women who were all under the age of 35 at the time it was written.
"Well, we really wanted to highlight all of these remarkable artists, all women who maybe for various reasons were not as famous as some of their male partners," Molinski said, regarding the mission of the exhibit. "Often, their boyfriends or husbands were more recognized and received both, you know, more popular acclaim and more critical acclaim during their lifetimes."
Molinski also discussed the process of curating the collection for the exhibit.
"I think one of the things I was most interested in with the exhibit was thinking about a wide range of different approaches to making art that all extended from this moment in the late 40s and early 50s where artists were really reinventing how they made art," Molinski said.
The Jule Museum displays art work in the Women Artists in Ascendance exhibit in Auburn, Ala. on Nov. 14, 2025.
While some of the main attractions are abstract paintings, the gallery also contains other media, such as performance art, sculptures and more conceptual art.
"I was hoping, with the number of artists that are included, to really show that wide range of experimental work that emerged over decades between different generations," Molinski said.
While guests can look up individual works from the exhibit online, Molinski describes why going to the exhibit and seeing the full collection is far more impactful.
"One of the things that I like to say to students when they're visiting a museum is 'An exhibition is really a scholarly argument in three-dimensional space, so when you walk around the gallery, you have the chance to experience, in person, the objects that are making an argument about art,'" Molinski said.
The exhibit may have roots in the 1940s and 1950s New York City art scene, but it also has direct connections to modern Alabama. Amanda Williams, an artist that took inspiration from Helen Frankenthaler, used Alabama red clay in her work, "Sweetness Alighted from on High Step," which was created in 2024 and is on display in the exhibition in the Jule.
On Nov. 13, 2025, the Jule hosted art historian Alexander Nemerov who presented his book, "Fierce Poise: Helen Frankenthaler and 1950s New York." The event allowed local art enthusiasts of all ages to come together and learn more about several artists with work on display at the Jule. More specifically, attendees gained insight into the lives and thought processes of Frankenthaler and some of her artistic counterparts. The lecture and audience questions that followed will be available on the Jule's YouTube channel for those who couldn't attend.
In his presentation, Nemerov highlighted the concept of livingness, or a sense of life, that was integral to the works of Frankenthaler. He also detailed how other artists featured in the exhibit portray that sense of livingness in vastly different ways. Some, such as Hartigan, opted for darker bolder motifs, and others, such as Baber, employed lighter and more subtle techniques.
Visitors to the exhibit can see the liveliness of the art with Frankenthaler's "Blue Territory," Hardigan's "Sweden" and Baber's "Lord of the Rainbow" – all being showcased in the exhibit. Ethan Olsen, one visitor to the exhibition, described why he found the storytelling of the collection to be impactful.
"I think it's just the fact that everything comes together so well, and everything's separated by its own little section, but it's very inclusive," Olsen said.
The Jule is already planning more events associated with the exhibit. In April of 2026, the Jule will host a dance company for a performance art piece inspired by Frankenthaler's "Blue Territory."
Whether visitors go to see the "Women Artists in Asecndance" exhibit or one of the other galleries full of fascinating and impactful works, all who are able should take the time to see the visual storytelling that makes the Jule a true jewel of the Auburn area.
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