Artists in Residence: Free Screening
On Wednesday, October 7 the National Museum of Women in the Arts (NMWA) will present an award winning documentary film about women who chose art and independence over convention. The free screening is followed by a discussion with the film’s writer and director Katie Jacobs and composer Emily Wells. The talk will be moderated by Elise Peterson, founder of Cool Moms, a podcast and community platform focused on mothers who follow their passions in addition to parenthood.
About the film
Purchasing a house together on New York City’s Bowery neighborhood in the 1950s, three women artists (painter Lois Dodd, printmaker Eleanor Magid, and sculptor Louise Kruger) defied societal norms and prioritized their art over traditional roles as wives and mothers. Through interviews with the women, now in their 90s, as well as their grown children, Artists in Residence (2025, 93 minutes) explores the emotional complexities of being an artist and a parent. The film is a heartfelt celebration of independence, creativity, and the enduring strength of women artists.
Artists in Residence premiered at 2025 DOC NYC, where it won the Metropolis Grand Jury Prize with impressive accolades: “The film uses honesty and vérité style to capture the emotional complexity of balancing creativity and identity. It invites reflection rather than easy answers, revealing how friendship, place, and persistence shape a life’s work…Artists in Residence celebrates the courage to live authentically and the power of art to define a lifetime.”
Artists in Residence was an official selection at the 2026 Green Mountain Film Festival, the Millennium Docs Against Gravity Film Festival, the Woods Hole Film Festival, the Santa Barbara International Film Festival, and the Sarasota Film Festival. It screens next during the Heartland Film Festival in Indianapolis, October 2026.
When
Wednesday, October 7, 2026
6:30 to 8:30 p.m.
Where
National Museum of Women in the Arts
1250 New York Avenue, NW, Washington, D.C.
Trailer: https://vimeo.com/1110352119?fl=pl&fe=cm
About the Speakers
Katie Jacobs is an award-winning director and Emmy-nominated producer best known for House M.D. , which she executive produced and co-showran for all nine seasons. Under her leadership, the series became one of the most-watched television shows in the world, earning multiple Emmys, Golden Globes, a Peabody, and an AFI Award; she also directed several acclaimed episodes. A graduate of NYU’s MFA Film program, Katie began her career as an assistant before quickly becoming an exclusive producer for MGM and later producing films for Alan J. Pakula, Lasse Hallström and Carl Reiner. Known for spotting talent, she gave early TV roles to Hugh Laurie, Olivia Wilde, Viola Davis, Lin-Manuel Miranda, and Andre Braugher. Other awards include a Humanitas Prize and a Gracie Award for Outstanding Director.
Composer, producer, and video artist Emily Wells builds songs from deliberate strata of vocals, synths, drums, piano, string, and wind instruments. Forging a bridge between pop and chamber music, her evocative music (described as “visionary” by NPR) and performances (called “quietly transfixing” by the New York Times) impel listeners to be attuned. Wells’s latest release, the ten-song album Regards to the End, explores the AIDS crisis, climate change, and her lived experience watching the world burn. In addition to Artists in Residence, Wells also created the soundtrack and original score for Plainclothes (2025), a Sundance award-winning film, and wrote the music for The Fires (2024), a play by Raja Feather Kelly that was commissioned and premiered by SOHO REP, NYC.
Elise Peterson, is a writer, visual artist, and cultural strategist, as well as the founder of Cool Moms. Cool Moms began in 2018 as a podcast, then expanded to include a live-conversation series, and since has grown into a community and media platform focused on amplifying mothers who prioritize their passions. Cool Moms celebrates and supports moms who to live their passions and aim to find their identity in addition to their role within their families.