Anonymous Was A Woman Award

The Anonymous Was A Woman Award is a grant program for women artists who are over 40 years of age, in part to counter sexism in the art world.

[1][2] It began in 1996 in direct response to the National Endowment for the Arts' decision to stop funding individual artists.

[2] The award comes with a grant of $25,000 and is designed to enable exceptional woman artists to further develop their work.

Awardees are chosen on the basis of their past accomplishments, their originality and artistic growth, and the quality of their work.

[2] She named the award in reference to a line from the Virginia Woolf book A Room of One's Own[1] and in recognition of all the women artists through the ages who have remained anonymous for various reasons.