The Athena Art Society of Toledo has been supporting art and female artists in the greater Toledo area since 1903, when Nina Spaulding Stevens, (wife of then Toledo Museum of Art Director George Stevens) invited 18 women to her studio to form a society ‘to assist and encourage women in all branches of the Fine Arts.’  This early group of female artists planned an annual exhibition at the Toledo Museum of Art from their earliest days through the 1940’s and are still going strong today! 

Currently, the Athena Art Society has grown to include over 50 women who are university art professors, retired art educators, and professional artists who work in multiple 2D and 3D disciplines of art.  They excel at painting with oils, acrylics, watercolor and pastels as well as creating with fibers, fabrics, metal, clay and paper.  These artistic women continue the tradition of supporting female artists with annual scholarships to promising art students who are recommended by the faculty of local universities as well as the earlier established annual Art Exhibitions.

Each year, Athena reaches out to the communities of NW Ohio and SE  Michigan by organizing two Exhibitions, a Fall Juried Show and a Spring Self-Juried show.  These exhibitions showcase the best current work of the Athena membership.  Recent venues for Athena’s Exhibitions have been 20 North Gallery, Toledo; Hudson Gallery, Sylvania; Wolfe Gallery at Maumee Valley Country Day School, Toledo; Fuller Art Gallery, Sylvania; the Walter Terhune Gallery at Owens Community College, Toledo; the Hickman Gallery at Adrian College, Adrian, Mich; the Toledo School for the Arts, Toledo, and this year’s exhibition at the Marathon Center for the Performing Arts at Findlay College, Findlay, Ohio.