In 2023, Historic Artists’ Homes & Studios and Where Women Made History (WWMH), also a program of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, established of a new grant program that celebrates the roles of significant women in art history, by funding the creation of educational programming for young students (K-5) at HAHS members sites across the country.
The Dorothy C. Radgowski Learning Through Women’s Achievement in the Arts Grant program, like HAHS itself, aims to support the constellation of one-of-a-kind museums set within the historic residences or working spaces of notable American artists. This new program enables sites to put women at the center of their interpretive story, highlighting their accomplishments, histories, and integral roles in the worlds of art, history, and historic preservation.

Thanks to a generous expanded gift, the National Trust has now provided nearly $190,000 to fund creative new student- and family-based STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, Math) educational programming at 11 sites across the HAHS network.
“We are so fortunate to have a funder who understands the importance of this type of groundbreaking educational programming,” said Chris Morris, senior director of preservation programs at the National Trust and leader of Where Women Made History. “As part of our larger commitment to increasing gender equity in our work, these grant projects are changing the ways in which the public–particularly young people–encounter women’s stories and achievements at historic places.”
“All of the projects funded by the Radgowski grants will become part of a virtual casebook of educational models for historic sites that the National Trust and HAHS will share widely,” added Valerie Balint, Director of HAHS. “These grant awards and resulting projects are impactful for the entire network of HAHS sites and beyond. They provide critical funds and important programmatic examples for engaging young students – something sites throughout the country are striving to do.”
Learn more about the innovative projects funded to date.
Round 1 Awardees
Announced February 9, 2023
- SaltLife: Students Create Kinetic Sculptures and Soundwalk Inspired by Art and Home of Helen Torr at the Helen Torr/Arthur Dove Cottage (Heckscher Museum of Art) in Centerport, NY. Students will visit the Dove/Torr Cottage, learn how the natural world and local ecology affected the life and art of Helen Torr, and create kinetic sculptures and a soundwalk for a public art installation. ($18,000 grant)
- Renee Gross in Mid 20th-Century Greenwich Village at the Renee and Chaim Gross Foundation (RCGF), New York, NY. Drawing on Renee Gross’ life story and experiences as an immigrant, a pandemic survivor, an activist and organizer, and a philanthropist, and the lives of the many women artists in her orbit, RCGF will develop educational resources for K-5 students to provide them access to a small site and histories that would otherwise not be accessible. ($18,000 grant)
- Centering Women in STEAM through Classroom, Field Trip, and Digital Learning for 4th Graders at the Saint-Gaudens National Historical Park/Saint-Gaudens Memorial, Cornish, NH. This place and collections-based project shines a light on the many women involved in the creative process associated with sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens through the development of science, technology, engineering, art and math (STEAM) focused lesson plans for 4th grade students and education professionals. ($14,500 grant)
- Looking Closer with O’Keeffe: STEAM Learning Experiences at Georgia O’Keeffe’s Home & Studio, Abiquiu, NM. At the artist’s former home, now owned at operated by the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, underserved and predominantly Spanish-speaking students from the local elementary school system will be inspired through immersive educational field trips and family tours rooted in sensory experiences that address accessibility. New STEAM learning opportunities will celebrate this icon of modernism, and acknowledge her own sensory challenges, while building stronger relationships with the local community. ($18,000 grant)

Round 2 Awardees – funded through the Driehaus Foundation
Announced July 20, 2023
- Thomas and Mary Nimmo Moran Studio (East Hampton, New York) for “Artistic Identities: Using STEAM, History, and Artmaking to Understand Gender, Race, and Class.” Mary Nimmo Moran’s and Sarah Fowler’s lives intersected at the Moran Home & Studio in the 1880s and 1890s. Through the etchings of Nimmo Moran and the beading and basket weaving of Fowler (a member of the Montaukett Indian Nation), this afterschool program will explore how both women used science to create artwork expressing their identity and heritage. An intensive 28-week OST (Out of School Time) program will center on opportunities to learn science and history while incorporating a comprehensive art program featuring artmaking with professional artists and members of several Long Island Indigenous communities. The program is designed to help students meet NY State learning standards for grades 4-6, improve student achievement, school attendance, and social and emotional learning. A potential “in-class” version of the program available for all five local school districts will be considered as well.
- Mabel and Victor D’Amico Home and Studio and Art Barge (Amagansett, New York) for “Mabel D’Amico Full STEAM Ahead: A Found Object Art Tour and Workshop.” This project will celebrate and amplify the experimental art-making and innovative teaching of Mabel D’Amico with a five-phase, multi-day program that can be adjusted to fit the needs of educational partners. Mabel’s pedagogy, lifestyle, and artmaking are the sources of inspiration for the program, encouraging children to learn about the natural environment around them through engagement in the creative process. Hands-on, found-object construction experiences align with Mabel’s artwork and build on her connection to the natural environment and wildlife around her home, studio, and the art barge. Students will consider scale, balance, stability, and materials used in Mabel’s work, and explore the skills used in building and sculptural construction. A new, free online video will highlight Mabel’s deep connection to the local environment in her artwork and collections, and will include descriptions of Mabel’s construction process along with detailed steps for creating found-object construction.
- Sam and Alfreda Maloof Foundation for Arts and Crafts (Alta Loma, California) for “Alfreda Maloof and Art, Math and Science Lessons of the Maloof Historic Home.” In partnership with the Ontario Montclair School District (88% Latino/Hispanic student population) and the Smithsonian Institution’s “Leadership for Change” internship program, the Maloof Foundation will expand its four-week K-6 curriculum beyond its current focus on art to incorporate science and environmental teaching. A new “Guide to Science Learning in the Maloof Discovery Garden” will conduct new archival research about the life and work of Alfreda Maloof in the management of the family’s citrus groves, creating up to six new bilingual lessons (in English and Spanish) relating to science, environment, and climate change. The guide will be developed in collaboration with teachers from science academies in local public schools and piloted with students before, during, and after their field trip visits to the Maloof Foundation, and also will be made available as a free, online resource.


Round 3 Awardees
Announced March 27, 2024
- Alice Austin House (Staten Island, New York) for “Alice Austen’s Lens: Bringing the Mobile Photography STEAM Wagon to PS 59: The Harbor View School.” The Alice Austen House will retrofit and transform a mobile food pantry truck into a “STEAM Wagon,” a mobile classroom and photographic lab. Through a six- week intensive residency program delivered to every grade level at the nearby PS 59 on Staten Island, students will look closely at the life and artwork of Alice Austen (1866-1952), one of America’s first female photographers who produced over 7,000 photographs of a rapidly changing New York City through the lens of her lesbian identity. Students will learn how Austen and her female peers broke boundaries of acceptable female roles and created groundbreaking art and inventions; will explore a range of photographic techniques from the Victorian era guided by teaching artists; and create an exhibition of their own photography.
- Elisabet Ney Museum (Austin, Texas) for “Breaking the Mold: Mobile Hands-On Art Crates Featuring Art, History, and Science Programs.” Elisabet Ney (1833-1907) was a German-born, emigree sculptor who defied societal norms in the 19th century and broke down barriers for future women artists. This program is designed to address the shortfall of arts education in local public schools by providing comprehensive materials, along with qualified museum education staff, to lead classroom discussions and guide K-5 students through a series of three hands-on activities. Working with a science teacher and an arts education coordinator, Ney Museum staff will create curricula and three different traveling Art Crates focused on distinct aspects of Ney’s story as a suffragist living and working in a male-dominated sculpting field, and her story as an immigrant. Ney’s process as an artist, her social advocacy, her rightful place in Texas history, plus her admiration of the natural world will be evident in the out-of-the box designs and innovative object-centered teaching lessons in each of the Art Crates.
- Pond Farm Pottery (Guerneville, California) for “4th Graders Explore Design, Physics, and Nature at Marguerite Wildenhain’s Pond Farm Pottery.” For decades Pond Farm Pottery was the studio and home of artist and educator Marguerite Wildenhain (1896-1985), the first female master potter trained at the Bauhaus in 1925. This project for local 4th grade students will consist of field trips to Pond Farm Pottery that connect the artistic concepts of texture, form, and color with Wildenhain’s legacy and themes of resilience and perseverance. Students will learn from Wildenhain’s philosophies and teaching pedagogy and strengthen their observational skills by learning from a pottery educator demonstrating throwing a pot on one of the kick wheels; exploring patterns, colors, and forms found in nature; creating their own work with clay; and sharing what they learned. Ultimately this pilot project will be expanded from two local school districts to nearly 40 other schools.
- Frelinghuysen Morris House & Studio (Lenox, Massachusetts) for “Suzy’s Palette: Exploring Abstract Color Relationships with Personal and Mathematical Insights.” By examining the paintings of opera singer and abstract artist, Suzy Frelinghuysen (1911–1988), the museum staff and local educators will create pilot workshops and a lesson plan for 4th and 5th graders that uses math as a method to teach students to appreciate and understand the color proportions and formal composition principles in abstract art. The lesson plan will be developed over the course of 20-30 on-site student workshops, and the final lesson plan will become part of a toolkit for educators that contains all project research, along with clips of a new video that will provide an overview of the House & Studio, Suzy’s story and her art, and “how to” guidance for teachers or parents undertaking the lessons outlined in the toolkit.



