The Women of WARM
A 50-Year Legacy of Local Women in the Arts
By Emma Geary
Photos courtesy of Linda Gammell
The air was thick with cigarette smoke, and the line wrapped around the block. On April 10, 1976, more than 1,500 people cycled through a small Minneapolis gallery space for opening night, buzzing with anticipation. The women of WARM had hoped for a crowd, but never expected this.
Before WARM, women artists in the Twin Cities and across the country were routinely sidelined. The numbers told the story. At the Walker Art Center between 1960 and 1969, 68 solo exhibitions were by men and only four by women. At the Minneapolis Institute of Art, just 14 of 349 exhibitions between 1953 and 1967 featured a woman artist. Women were making vital work, but rarely given space to share it.
The opening exhibit’s promotional poster, designed by Patricia Olson.
In 1973, a small but determined group founded The Women’s Art Registry of Minnesota (WARM). It began as a radical act of visibility: a 35mm slide registry mailed across the state to promote the work of local women artists. Momentum built quickly and membership grew. If these women could do it, so too could others.
Opening a gallery was a natural next step. In 1976, they found their home.
It was a space only a visionary could love. 414 First Avenue North, a former millinery shop in a Minneapolis warehouse, was dark, dingy, and far from the pristine, white-walled gallery space they imagined. The 37 founding members of WARM never shied away from a challenge though—they simply rolled up their sleeves and got to work.
Hundreds of hours were spent scraping old, dirty linoleum off the floor, painting walls, and renovating the space. The vigor of the physical work, mixed with lively discussions of their vision and feminist ideas, created an electric energy. They often sat in a circle, working through big issues and small details, where everyone was given a space and time to speak with their organic, collective governing system. Together, they embraced a new way of being together.
A warehouse transformed.
When the gallery opened its doors, it was the start of a legacy. WARM grew into the largest women’s art collective in the country. Its members went on to teach, exhibit widely, own businesses, and shape the cultural fabric of the region. Generations of women artists found mentorship, opportunity, and authority within its walls.
Now, almost exactly 50 years to the date, the women of WARM reappear on gallery walls once more, this time, at Kickernick Gallery. LEGACY: The Women of WARM Gallery is a landmark exhibition honoring a pioneering feminist art movement as it marks the 50th anniversary of its founding. The show, with accompanying catalog book, is an extraordinary exhibition showcasing the work of 73 groundbreaking women artists who helped redefine the landscape of contemporary art and feminist expression.
“When we learned that the Women’s Art Registry of Minnesota (WARM) was seeking a venue for this landmark exhibition, we jumped at the opportunity,” said Christy Frank, Kickernick Gallery’s curator. “We knew it belonged here, in the heart of the Warehouse District, where its story first began. It is truly an honor to be a part of this part of American art history.”
Gallery members are older now, but they have not lost their optimism or joy in making art, educating, and thinking about what’s next. Celebrating what WARM Gallery artists accomplished together honors this enduring legacy.
Legacy: The Women of WARM Gallery runs from April 10 - June 13, 2026 at Kickernick Gallery at 430 N. 1st Ave. Mpls. Learn more.
Emma Geary
Emma is Collective Magazine’s Editor-in-Chief and LAB’s Brand + Editorial Manager. She loves getting lost in a story and is sharing her own on her Substack, Hot Girl Walk. Find her staring at the sun on her daily lap around Lake of the Isles.
