WETA Arts February 2023: Alma Thomas

“Alma Thomas: Everything is Beautiful” was a city-wide series of programs and exhibits to honor Alma Thomas that concluded in 2022. It was spearheaded by the Phillips Collection and in conjunction with a major exhibit co-created by the Columbus Museum in Georgia and the Chrysler Museum of Art. Currently, the Phillips Collection has a work from Alma Thomas’ Earth Series; check the Phillips’ website to see if it is on view. 

As part of “Alma Thomas: Everything is Beautiful,” The National Gallery of Art hosted a major conference on Thomas. Check out the recordings, including an introduction to the proceedings by Michele Obama. The National Gallery has several Thomas works – check to see which are on view.

The Smithsonian American Art Museum has the most Alma Thomas works of any museum, as well as the portrait of Alma Thomas by Laura Wheeler Waring. To find out which are on display, contact the museum. As part of the multi-institution event, the museum is hosting an exhibit dedicated to her work through June 2, 2024.

You can do your own primary source research about Alma Thomas, and other artists, through the resources provided by the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution. Here you can hear artist interviews, see their photos, art, documents and letters, and even volunteer to make materials more findable by helping transcribe artists’ documents and letters.

Smithsonian Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, another host of programming related “Alma Thomas: Everything is Beautiful,” hosts many works by Thomas and other Washington Color School artists. To find out which pieces are on view, contact the museum.

The National Museum of Women in the Arts, recently reopened in fall 2023, hosts two significant works byThomas: Iris, Tulips, Jonquils, and Crocuses and Orion. For more information on both works, check their website.