Walk into the Emma Darnell Aviation Museum and Conference Center on Aviation Circle in Atlanta right now, and the first thing you notice is the sheer volume of it. Works by women artists cover the space — paintings, sculptures, photographs, quilts, mixed media, body casts — a full accounting of what women make when room is given.
That someone is Tisha Smith, public art manager for Fulton County Arts and Culture and the curator behind “EmpowerHER: A Celebration of Women in Art.” The exhibition, which opened March 13 and runs through April 25, draws artists from across Atlanta and beyond, spanning disciplines, generations, backgrounds and communities. Smith built the show from a digital call for submissions, a curatorial eye sharpened over decades, and a conviction that the work itself, versus the resume behind it, should lead.
Since its inaugural year in 2024, when the show featured 70 artists, “EmpowerHER” has grown into one of the largest exhibitions of women artists in Georgia. The 2025 edition featured close to 160 artists. This year, the show hit 200. And Smith says the ceiling is nowhere to be seen.
Here’s Smith on what it takes to curate at this scale, the legacy artists who helped build the foundation, and why she thinks “EmpowerHER” is becoming something bigger than an annual art show.
We have artists who have never shown their work before who have now come into the fold and feel empowered to showcase their work because of the presentation at the gallery. We’re looking to not just create an exhibition, but a movement.
Tisha Smith, ‘EmpowerHER: A Celebration of Women in Art’ Curator
With more than 200 Fulton County women artists in this show, how did you and your team approach selecting artists? What criteria did you use beyond ties to Atlanta?
So, it’s a heavily curated exhibition all the way down through the submissions. I look at them, and I identify what would be a wonderful addition to the exhibit. If I have access to the website, I might review it to see if there’s another piece beyond what they submitted for consideration, and then ask them to bring that. So it is just utilizing my curatorial attributes and bringing these women together through the work that they submitted.
What was the guiding curatorial philosophy behind EmpowerHER?
Your experience wasn’t necessarily a consideration. It was just, “How do I think this art would look with that art? How are you keeping on the theme of women being empowered? Does your artwork represent women in an empowered way?”
So that’s pretty much how I gauged my selection of the work … beyond just being elementary and saying I picked what I liked. It wasn’t just that. It was really about applying a curatorial lens to the work.
You mentioned legacy artists who’ve participated in the show year after year. Who are some of them, and what makes that designation meaningful?
We have Marryam Moma, Chanell Angeli, Sue Ross, Tae Earl-Jackson— quite a few other artists who are members of Sistography and African Americans for the Arts. The three women awarded the residency we added to EmpowerHer this year are also legacy artists. To be considered a legacy artist, you had to participate in EmpowerHER for at least two years. Of course, we’re in our third year.
Tell us about that addition of the residencies to the program?
We added an artist residency in partnership with the Central Library and the Fulton County Library System. The library at Central Library has three spaces designated for art residencies. We worked with the manager, Vicki Waters, to make those residencies available to EmpowerHER artists for Women’s History Month. Reinilda Blair, Carlita Scarborough, and Bonita Martin are the three artists.
The show spans painting, sculpture, photography, quilts, fiber art, film, poetry and performance. How do you think about representing that breadth?
We’re not just celebrating 2D and 3D visual artists. We’re also celebrating women who practice in different genres … filmmakers, vocalists, musicians, poets, performing arts. This year, in partnership with Central Library, we’re creating a programming presentation that highlights the filmmakers, violinists, and vocalists – and even performing artists. This year, we have the honor of being graced with renowned poet, writer and female activist Pearl Cleage. She’s going to be at the artist talk, and that’s when she will contribute her lyrical contribution to the program.
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Tell me more about the arist talk. How does that format work for a show this size?
The artist talk is on March 28. We will open at 12 p.m. with a “Curate Her: panel discussion with Denise Jackson and Shannon Morris. Then I will moderate the artist talk, which is more like an open forum dialogue. Close to 200 women, we can’t have a traditional artist talk.
What does success look like for this show beyond the gallery walls?
It looks like, after the gallery closes and the show comes down, these women have built a very strong community where they network and exhibit with one another beyond EmpowerHER. We have artists who have never shown their work before who have now come into the fold and feel empowered to showcase their work because of the presentation at the gallery. We’re looking to not just create an exhibition, but a movement.