AWARE: Archives of Women Artists, Research & Exhibitions is a non-profit association, co-founded in 2014 and directed by Camille Morineau, curator and art historian. “Too much time has been lost thinking that women artists didn’t exist, that there were so few of them. Today, their critical mass invites us to write a different story, with different words, different movements, different avant-gardes.”

Comprising an international team, the association works to make women artists of the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries visible by producing and sharing free bilingual (French/English) content about their work on its website.

AWARE represents a diversity of voices, with texts written by over 500 researchers, curators, feminist art historians, art critics and activists from all over the world. This website’s database brings together women and non-binary artists born between 1664 and 1974 working in the visual arts, with no limitations on medium or country. Research articles and interviews allow for a deeper understanding of these artists’ careers and works by contextualising them within larger artistic movements, societal changes and feminist thinking. The site is aimed at art professionals and educators, as well as anyone interested in the history of art.

Particular attention is paid to the accessibility of quality information. Focuses on major art history subjects, animated series for children and podcasts offer different ways to discover or better understand the lives and work of women artists.

To widely disseminate research on women artists and gender studies, AWARE also organises symposiums, round tables and seminars in partnership with institutions, universities, museums and other independent structures internationally, and edits its own publications. The annual AWARE Prizes for women artists are presented in partnership with France’s Ministry of Culture to one mid-career artist and one artist with a career spanning more than forty years as a way of paying tribute to women whose artistic careers have not been fully celebrated, and to promote contemporary artistic creation.

AWARE is located in the Villa Vassilieff in the 15th arrondissement of Paris, where the artist Marie Vassilieff had her studio in the 1910s. In this highly symbolic space, reimagined by designer matali crasset, AWARE has set up a research and documentation centre entirely dedicated to women artists and feminist art. In this space, the association also hosts residencies, events, meetings, and workshops for school groups. The programming brings together visitors, professionals and artists from the Paris region all while drawing on its research programmes and a vast network of authors around the world. With this double identity, at once local and international, as well as a space open to the public, AWARE aims to encourage research, exchange and discussion around questions of gender and the recognition of women artists in history.

AWARE is accompanied by various advisory committees linked to its research programmes and involves three transnational networks in its work:

TEAM: Teaching, E-learning, Agency, Mentoring is an international academic network dedicated to creating resources on women artists with the aim of training a new generation of researchers sensitive to gender issues in art history.

AMIS: AWARE Museum Initiative and Support brings together museums from around the world to collect and share research on women artists produced for exhibitions, acquisitions, and collections.

NEST: Network for Empowerment, Solidarity and Transregionality brings together independent structures from different countries working at the intersection of visual art, activism and gender studies to unite their forces and give visibility to women and non-binary artists.