UPCOMING

NASA STUDIES AND PAINTING PORT CLYDE

August 11 - September 1, 2025

“Barbara Prey, the only woman commissioned by NASA for multiple projects, opened her archives and loaned a masterwork joined Rachelle Krieger, Christine Matthai and Scott McIntire (…) as the local talent on the wall.”               Museum Director Charles Riley

Prey was honored when NASA commissioned her to paint four paintings for their collection.  The x-43, the fastest aircraft in the world, included in the Smithsonian Institution’s 12 Museum Traveling Exhibit NASA|ART:50 Years, was on exhibit at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Washington D.C.  NASA invited her to be the artist spokesperson for the exhibit and she was featured on The CBS Evening News. Her other NASA commissions include: The Columbia Tribute, to commemorate the anniversary of the Columbia tragedy; the International Space Station, which is on exhibit with her painting of the Columbia Tribute, at the Kennedy Space Center; and the Shuttle Discovery: Return to Flight. Prey joins an elite group of American artists who have been invited by NASA to document the history of space exploration including Norman Rockwell and Robert Rauschenberg. Dr. H. Lester Cooke, former National Gallery of Art Curator who guided the NASA Arts Program comments, “future generations will realize that we have not only the scientists and engineers capable of shaping the destiny of our age but artists worthy to keep them company.”

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Barbara Prey is considered one of America’s foremost painters. Her recently completed commission for MASS MoCA, described as a “technical tour de force” by commissioning Director Joe Thompson, is the largest watercolor ever exhibited. Her paintings are in the collections of the National Gallery of Art, the Brooklyn Museum, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the White House, the Kennedy Space Center, among many other public and private collections including Tom Hanks and Orlando Bloom.

For over a decade she has been a Presidential Appointee to the National Council for the Arts, the governing body of the National Endowment for the Arts. In 2003 her painting of the Diplomatic Reception Room was featured on the White House Christmas card. With dozens of artworks commissioned by government agencies and institutions, such as four paintings for NASA, Prey is a global ambassador for American Art. Tapped annually for the U.S. Art in Embassies program, Prey’s work has been on display in over one hundred U.S. Embassies and Consulates worldwide, including those in Paris, Hong Kong, and Madrid. Her painting Gallantly Streaming is currently on exhibit in the lobby of the U.S. Mission to the U.N. and three others in the Ambassadors Office.

Prey earned a Bachelor’s degree from Williams College, where she is an adjunct faculty member, and a Master’s degree from Harvard University. She has received numerous institutional accolades, including a grant from the Henry Luce Foundation, a Fulbright Scholarship and the New York Senate’s “Women of Distinction” Award, joining Eleanor Roosevelt and Susan B. Anthony,  awarded to outstanding New York women.