Renwick Gallery

Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian American Art Museum
Location 1661 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, D.C.
Coordinates 38°53′55.92″N 77°2′22.01″W / 38.8988667°N 77.0394472°WCoordinates: 38°53′55.92″N 77°2′22.01″W / 38.8988667°N 77.0394472°W
Built 1859 - 1873
Architect James Renwick, Jr.
Architectural style Second Empire[1]
Governing body Smithsonian Institution
NRHP Reference # 69000300[2]
Added to NRHP March 24, 1969

The Renwick Gallery is a branch of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, located in Washington, D.C., and focuses on American craft and decorative arts from the 19th to the 21st century. It is housed in a National Historic Landmark building that was begun in 1859 on Pennsylvania Avenue and originally housed the Corcoran Gallery of Art (now one block from the White House and across the street from the Old Executive Office Building). When it was built in 1859, it was known as "the American Louvre".

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. The building was designed by James Renwick, Jr. and finally completed in 1874.[3][4] It is located at 1661 Pennsylvania Avenue NW.[5] Renwick designed it after the Louvre's Tuileries addition.[6] At the time of its construction, it was known as "the American Louvre".[7][8]

The building was near completion when the Civil War broke out and was seized by the U.S. Army in August 1861 as a temporary military warehouse for the records and uniforms for the Quarter Master General's Corps.[9] In 1864, General Montgomery C. Meigs converted the building into his headquarters office.[9]

Image of the Corcoran Gallery from ca. 1884-88 showing the lost sculpture niches and historic first floor windows.
Renwick Gallery

On May 10, 1869, the building was returned to Corcoran, and, on January 19, 1874, the Corcoran Gallery of Art opened to the public.[3][9] The gallery quickly outgrew the space and relocated to a new building nearby in 1897.[10] Starting in 1899, the building housed the federal Court of Claims.[3] By the 1950s, in need of more space, the Court of Claims proposed to demolish the building, however, it was saved from demolition by First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy in 1963.[8][4][6] In 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson and Secretary of the Smithsonian S. Dillon Ripley, proposed that the building be turned over to the Smithsonian.[3][9][11]

In 1965, President Johnson signed an executive order transferring the Renwick building to the Smithsonian Institution for use as a "gallery of arts, craft and design."[3] After a renovation, it opened in 1972 as the home of the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s contemporary craft program.[3][11] The Renwick Gallery is now a branch of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, housing the museum's collection of decorative art and crafts.[4][6]

Closure for 2014-2016 renovation

Renwick Gallery closed December 9, 2013, and is tentatively scheduled to reopen in early 2016 in order to permit a major renovation of the historic structure.[12] The project is led by Westlake Reed Leskosky, an architecture and engineering firm based in Cleveland, Ohio.[13] Construction will be overseen by Consigli Construction Co. of Milford, Massachusetts.[13] Fundraising for the renovation began in 2013, and was completed in June 2014 when local real estate developer David Rubenstein donated $5.4 million toward the project. Smithsonian officials said they would rename the gallery's Grand Salon in Rubenstein's honor.[13]

The renovation includes replacing all HVAC, electrical, plumbing, and fire-suppression systems; upgrades to security, phone, and data systems (which includes adding wifi throughout the building); restoring the original window configuration; restoring two vaulted ceilings on the second floor; reconfiguring the basement for staff offices and workshops;[13] and adding LED lighting throughout the building.[12] The Renwick's Grand Salon will also be renovated to create a more contemporary event space.[12][1][14] Applied Minds was chosen to redesign the Grand Salon.[15] The four other firms which competed for the job and made it to the final round but were not selected were Marlon Blackwell Architect, Studio Odile Decq, Vinci Hamp Architects, and Westlake Reed Leskosky.[1]

Exhibitions

The first-floor gallery features temporary exhibits that rotate about twice a year.[3] One commentator said, the crafts displayed "are high art, not everyday objects."[3] On the second floor contains the Grand Salon, one of the most famous art-filled rooms in Washington. It is hung with 70 paintings by 51 American artists, most of the works created between 1840 and 1930.[4]

In 2012, the Renwick Gallery hosted an exhibition called "40 Under 40: Craft Futures", which featured 40 artists in "boundary-pushing interpretations of glass, fiber, ceramic, wood and other materials challenge the traditional process-oriented notion of the craft medium by incorporating performance, interactivity and politics."[16][17] On January 18, 2013, the museum hosted an event called "Handi-hour", which featured craft beers, a scavenger hunt, and "hands-on art projects themed around the work of exhibiting artist Stacey Lee Webber, who makes sculptural objects out of coins."[17]

Notable artists

A number of well-known, critically acclaimed artists have works in the Renwick Gallery's collection. Among them are:

See also

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 "Grand Salon gallery space inside the Renwick Gallery". Daily Art. Retrieved 18 July 2013.
  2. ↑ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. 2007-01-23.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 3.7 3.8 3.9 3.10 3.11 3.12 Yardley, William. "Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian American Art Museum". Washington Post. Retrieved 18 July 2013.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 "Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian American Art Museum". Frommers. Retrieved 18 July 2013.
  5. ↑ Hours and Directions. Smithsonian American Art Museum. Retrieved September 9, 2013.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 Boyle, Katherine (February 18, 2013). "Renwick modeled it after the Louvre’s Tuileries addition". Washington Post. Retrieved 18 July 2013.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 "Renwick Gallery Review". Fordors. Retrieved 18 July 2013.
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 "Smithsonian Plans Overhaul of D.C.’s Renwick Gallery". The Associated Press. February 19, 2013. Retrieved 18 July 2013.
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 9.3 "Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian Institution". US Natipnal Park Service. Retrieved 18 July 2013.
  10. ↑ Reed, Robert (1980). Old Washington, D.C. in Early Photographs: 1846-1932. Dover Publications. p. 127.
  11. ↑ 12.0 12.1 12.2 Boyle, Katherine (18 February 2013). "Starting in 2014, the Renwick Gallery will undergo major two-year renovations". Washington Post (The Washington Post). Retrieved 11/10/2013. Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
  12. ↑ 13.0 13.1 13.2 13.3 Echols, Tucker (June 24, 2014). "David Rubenstein Gives $5.4M for Renwick Gallery Renovation". Washington Business Journal. Retrieved June 24, 2014.
  13. ↑ "Renwick Gallery Review". Fordors. Retrieved 18 July 2013.
  14. ↑ "Applied Minds Renwick design". Daily Art. Retrieved 18 July 2013.
  15. ↑ "40 Under 40: Craft Futures". Washington Post. July 20, 2012. Retrieved 18 July 2013.
  16. ↑ 17.0 17.1 O’Sullivan, Michael (January 18, 2013). "Craft Futures Handi-Hour". Washington Post. Retrieved 18 July 2013.
  17. ↑ "Eight Red Bowls". Collections. Smithsonian American Art Museum. Retrieved 19 July 2013.
  18. ↑ John Kelly and Craig Stoltz. "Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian American Art Museum". Washington Post. Retrieved 18 July 2013.

For further reading

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Renwick Gallery.