The National Museum of Women in the Arts (NMWA) is the first museum in the world dedicated exclusively to promoting women through the arts. Founded in 1981 by Wilhelmina Cole Holladay, it has sought to present an integrative vision of the History of Art and proposes itself as a meeting place for reflective debate on the intersection of gender, identity and creativity. Its activities include a programme of exhibitions featuring emerging and underrepresented women artists from the states or countries in which the museum has a presence.

The curatorship – by art historian Enrique Mendoza – aims to promote and disseminate the history and development of the National Museum of Women in the Arts through various publications that form part of its bibliographic collection.

Presentation of the book “La mujer peruana a través de los siglos” (“Peruvian women through the centuries”)

Within the framework of the exhibition, the presentation of the first facsimile edition, in two volumes, of the book “La mujer peruana a través de los siglos” (“Peruvian women through the centuries”), by the Peruvian writer and educator Elvira García y García, will be held on the same date at 12:30 pm. The publication is the result of an editorial project carried out under the auspices of the Ricardo Palma University and the Peruvian Chapter of the National Museum of Women in the Arts. Commentary will be provided by the poets Marita Troiano and Ana María García.

In 1924 and 1925, Elvira García y García published two volumes of a meticulous historical-biographical study that brought together information on the most prominent women in the history of Peru since Inca times. The first volume contained the Tahuantinsuyo, the colony, the viceroyalty, the struggle for independence, the early years of the Republic, the war with Spain and Chile; the second volume covered contemporary women, writers and poets, educators, university women, benefactors and women’s groups of the time.

Marita Troiano is a writer, poet and essayist. She holds a degree in Sociology and Political Science from the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú. She is editor of the Carpe Diem imprint. She directs the Women Writers’ Commission of International PEN Peru and has published numerous books of poetry, narrative, anthologies, essays and plays. For her outstanding literary work and continuous defence of women’s and children’s rights, she has received several national and international awards. Her work has been translated into English, French, Greek and Italian.

Ana María García is a teacher, poet and essayist. She studied Education and Philosophy at the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru; Theology and Humanities at the Pontifical University of Salamanca; Systemic Family Therapy at the Autonomous University of Barcelona; Educational Psychology at the University of Valencia. She is director of the National University of Distance Education – UNED Lima Centre. She is director of Monólogos contra la violencia, a project belonging to the Asociación Psicoanalítica Lapsus de Toledo (Spain). She is a member of the board of directors of the PEN women writers’ commission.