In 2001, one Angela Shelton set off across the country to meet, and to interview on film, other women named Angela Shelton. Intending to tell a sweeping story of women in America, she discovered that 70 percent of the other Angelas had been victims of sexual abuse or domestic violence. Both her work with these women and the film itself have served as catalysts for healing and change. A screening of the film Searching for Angela Shelton (2004, 94 minutes) and a discussion with the director are hosted by Heather R. Taylor of The Heather Taylor Show: Boomer Radio in the Nation’s Capital. The event is preceded by a tour in the Smithsonian American Art Museum (see below) and is followed by a signing of Shelton’s book Finding Angela Shelton.

Tour: Women Artists in the Collection of the Smithsonian American Art Museum

Sunday, March 2, 2 pm

Smithsonian American Art Museum, Donald W. Reynolds Center for American Art and Portraiture  

This gallery tour highlights a variety of works, from Malcah Zeldis’s festive folk art to Louise Nevelson’s monumental wall sculpture to a nineteen-century Lilly Martin Spencer painting of fading beauty. Meet in the F Street Lobby.

This is the fourth of five feature events in the Smithsonian Heritage Month series “Sharing Stories/ Sharing Heritage,” which explores the ways objects and stories connect us to our heritage and to each other. It is offered in conjunction with month-long screenings of films (at the National Museum of the American Indian and the Freer Gallery of Art) in which women tell women’s stories. Please see the Films section of this calendar for more details.

Sponsors: Smithsonian American Art Museum, Smithsonian Center for Education and Museum Studies, and Smithsonian Heritage Months Steering Committee