The organization First Female, created by Gaby Viteri, known throughout West Palm Beach simply as Gaby, has curated the second annual Women’s Art Week Palm Beach (WAW) and will grace the walls and galleries of local businesses from March 6th to the 14th, during Women’s History Month, with the theme “RECLAMATION.”
After a successful first year of bringing women artists of all ages and mediums and skill levels together, First Female has now expanded their reach and impact with exhibits at local partnerships with MTNspace Gallery, CreativeMornings Palm Beach, the Boca Raton Historical Society & Museum, and Arts Warehouse Delray Beach, and additional events to be added.
“We have doubled in events, which is great,” Viteri says. “We have more partnerships and then some partners that came back, which is lovely to see that the community believes in this project. We expanded to Delray and Boca Raton and the History Museum down in Boca.”
As support within the artistic community has grown and people look forward to such events, what Viteri thought would be a biannual event has become annual.
“That’s how we started planning it,” she says. “Here’s the big difference. Last year, I was out there doing outreach. This year, people reached out to me. It’s a lot of work but a labor of love.”
WAW will be receiving a proclamation from the county to make it official and has the support of community partners.
With the economy faltering and international art fairs struggling, the shift to more local and regional art makes sense. Gaby will speak on Friday about the theme, especially in a city like West Palm Beach, where being ‘local’ is a liability because it is so seasonal. Some artists don’t want to be called local, but she thinks that local is changing; local is an asset.
The world is changing, and local is changing, and Gaby says local has nothing to do with longevity anymore. It has everything to do with investing in a community and showing up.
“You’re local because you want to be a part of something that’s bigger than yourself,” Viteri says. “And this isn’t just for women. I was recently on a radio show, and when the male hosts asked if they could attend, I told them absolutely—everyone’s welcome. After all, building community means including everyone.”
Gaby is reluctant to frame Women’s Art Week as a response to sexism, though she acknowledges that “anything calling itself a women’s art group is political just for existing.” The collective has been labeled everything from a cult to a movement, but to her, it’s simply the art of community.
WAW’s focus on supporting women artists reflects a persistent reality: museums and galleries remain dominated by male artists, an imbalance the Guerrilla Girls famously exposed decades ago. While more galleries now showcase underrepresented voices, few spaces are dedicated specifically to women artists. For women juggling art careers alongside family responsibilities, the challenges compound. WAW’s answer is to face them collectively, transforming isolation into support.
That’s why Gaby encourages us all to be together.
“We’re doing it together,” she affirms. “And to bring attention that it’s not just one show, it’s different events throughout one area, which is expanding to Miami now as well.”
For WAW, the doors kept opening as people spread the word. Newcomers reached out to them because they had moved here from cities like New Jersey, had found them on Instagram, and wanted to get involved.
This year, there are 20 artists and three art shows, one of which is at Terracotta Home in Boca Raton. For those who don’t know, Terracotta Home is a gallery space and artist-led initiative founded by Valerie Noell, a multidisciplinary artist with a background in Creative Directing and Photography. The space focuses on slow gatherings, creative restoration, and sensory connection of the process of art-making and community building.
Gaby’s mission includes treating women-made craft just as sophisticated as anything else.
Throughout the week, attendees can expect a thoughtfully curated series of events designed to foster connection, reflection, and creative exchange, including opening and partner-hosted gatherings, curated exhibitions and site-specific installations, artist talks, and community conversations, special programming featuring live music, the first all-female ceramics exhibition, wellness programming, additional pop-up events, studios, and collaborative moments.
For more information about the Women’s Art Week event in Palm Beach County this year, visit firstfemalepb.com or follow them on social media @firstfemalepb.