Anonymous Was A Woman: Celebrating Women Artists Over 40

The Anonymous Was A Woman award is one of the most significant grants specifically supporting women-identifying visual artists in the United States. Each year, the foundation awards $25,000 unrestricted grants to approximately 10 artists over the age of 40 who are producing exceptional, innovative work across all visual arts disciplines. The award's name references Virginia Woolf's observation that throughout history, many of the world's most talented artists were women whose work was attributed to "Anonymous"—a quiet but powerful statement about the historical invisibility of women's artistic contributions.

Founded in 1996 by artist and philanthropist Susan Unterberg (who remained anonymous as the foundation's funder until 2018), the award specifically targets women artists in the middle and later stages of their careers—a demographic that is chronically underfunded by the broader art grant ecosystem, which tends to favor emerging artists and early-career practitioners.

Why This Award Matters

The Age and Gender Gap in Arts Funding

Research consistently shows that women artists receive less grant funding, lower gallery representation, and fewer museum acquisitions than male counterparts at every career stage. This disparity intensifies as artists age—while emerging women artists receive increasing attention, mid-career and established women artists often find that funding, gallery interest, and institutional support diminish precisely when their work is reaching its most mature and accomplished form. Anonymous Was A Woman directly addresses this gap.

Unrestricted Support

The $25,000 award is completely unrestricted—no required outcomes, no mandated exhibitions, no progress reports. Recipients use the funds however they choose: studio rent, materials, travel, living expenses, or simply the breathing room needed to focus on ambitious creative projects without financial anxiety.

Nomination-Based Selection

The award operates through a nomination process rather than open applications. Invited nominators—curators, critics, artists, and arts professionals—identify exceptional women artists who deserve recognition. A jury then selects the final recipients from the nominated pool. This process ensures that artists who may lack the time, resources, or institutional connections to navigate complex application processes are still considered.

Past Recipients

Anonymous Was A Woman has awarded grants to over 250 women artists since 1996, including many who have gone on to major museum exhibitions, gallery representation, and broader recognition. The award has a track record of identifying exceptional talent before the mainstream art world catches up—making it both a predictor and accelerator of career success.

The Name and Its Meaning

The award takes its name from Virginia Woolf's observation in A Room of One's Own that throughout history, many of the greatest creative works attributed to "Anonymous" were likely created by women—women whose contributions to culture were erased by patriarchal systems that denied them recognition, authorship, and institutional support. The name serves as both a historical acknowledgment and a contemporary commitment: ensuring that women artists working today receive the recognition and financial support that history has too often withheld.

Why Age and Career Stage Matter

The award's focus on women artists over 40 addresses a specific and well-documented phenomenon in the art world: the mid-career gap. Many women artists who receive attention and support as emerging artists—through MFA programs, early gallery shows, and emerging artist grants—find that institutional interest fades as they age. Male artists of comparable quality and career stage continue to receive gallery exhibitions, museum attention, and grant funding, while women artists experience a statistical decline in institutional support that accelerates through their 40s, 50s, and beyond.

This mid-career gap has devastating consequences for women's artistic careers. Without gallery representation, museum exhibitions, and grant funding, even extraordinarily talented women artists struggle to sustain their practices. Anonymous Was A Woman intervenes at precisely this critical juncture—providing both financial support and institutional validation to women artists at the career stage when mainstream support is most likely to disappear.

The Nomination Process

The nomination-based selection process is deliberately designed to reach artists who might not apply through traditional grant applications. Many established women artists—particularly those who have experienced the mid-career gap—become discouraged by grant processes that seem to favor younger, more institutionally connected applicants. By using nominators who actively seek out exceptional women artists, Anonymous Was A Woman ensures that artists who have stopped applying for grants because of past rejections are still considered.

Nominators are selected for their deep knowledge of contemporary art and their commitment to identifying excellence across geographic, stylistic, and institutional boundaries. The nominator pool changes regularly, ensuring that the award's reach extends across the full diversity of American artistic practice rather than concentrating within any single network or aesthetic community.

The Impact of $25,000

For many recipients, the $25,000 unrestricted award provides the financial breathing room needed to complete ambitious projects, maintain studio practices, or take creative risks that financial precarity has prevented. The unrestricted nature of the award is particularly important for mid-career and established artists who understand their own needs better than any funder could prescribe.

Recipients report using funds for studio rent, material purchases, travel for research and exhibitions, living expenses during intensive production periods, and simply the psychological relief of reduced financial pressure. The latter benefit—the mental and emotional impact of feeling financially supported in one's creative practice—is often cited as the award's most transformative effect.

Disciplines Represented

Anonymous Was A Woman supports women artists working across the full spectrum of visual and performing arts: painting, sculpture, photography, film/video, installation, performance, printmaking, ceramics, fiber arts, and interdisciplinary practice. This breadth ensures that women artists working in every medium have access to support, including those working in craft-adjacent media that some fine art grant programs exclude.

The Bottom Line

Anonymous Was A Woman is one of the most important awards supporting women artists in America. Its combination of $25,000 in meaningful unrestricted funding, deliberate focus on mid-career and established women artists who face the documented mid-career gap in institutional support, a nomination-based selection process that reaches artists who might not apply through traditional channels, breadth across all artistic disciplines, and a name that honors the historical erasure of women's creative contributions fills a critical and persistent gap in the arts funding ecosystem.