From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Renwick Gallery is part of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, located in Washington, D.C., and focuses on American craft and decorative arts from the 19th century to the 21st century. It is housed in an 1859 building on Pennsylvania Avenue that originally housed the Corcoran Gallery of Art, one block from the White House and across the street from the Eisenhower Executive Office Building.
[edit] History
The Renwick Gallery building was originally built to be Washington, D.C.'s first art museum and to house William Wilson Corcoran's collection of American and European art. At various points, the building was designed by James Renwick, Jr. and used as the original Corcoran Gallery of Art, a temporary military warehouse during the American Civil War, and the federal Court of Claims. In 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed an executive order transferring the Renwick building to the Smithsonian Institution for use as a "gallery of arts, craft and design."
[edit] See also
[edit] Sources
- Kenneth Trapp and Howard Risatti, Skilled Work: American Craft in the Renwick Gallery. Smithsonian Institution Press, 1998. ISBN 1-56098-831-2 (cloth). ISBN 1560988061 (paper).
[edit] External link
