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Renwick Gallery Review

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Renwick Gallery

Address: Pennsylvania Ave. at 17th St. NW, White House area, Washington, DC | Map It
Phone: 202/633-2850
www.americanart.si.edu

Category: Museums/Galleries
Location: White House area

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Fodor's Review:

The Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian American Art Museum has exquisitely made utilitarian items, as well as crafts made from traditional materials such as fiber and glass. The words dedicated to art are engraved above the entrance to the French Second Empire-style building, designed by architect James Renwick in 1859 to house the art collection of Washington merchant and banker William Wilson Corcoran. Corcoran was a Southern sympathizer who spent the duration of the Civil War in Europe. While he was away, the government used his unfinished building as a quartermaster general's post.

In 1871 the Corcoran, as it was then called, opened as the first private art museum in the city. Corcoran's collection quickly outgrew the building, and in 1897 it was moved to what's now the Corcoran Gallery of Art. After a stint as the U.S. Court of Claims, the building Renwick designed was restored, renamed after its architect, and opened in 1972 as the Smithsonian's Museum of American Crafts. Although crafts such as handwoven rugs and delicately carved tables were once considered less "artistic" than, say, oil paintings and sculptures, they have come into their own. Not everything in the museum is Shaker furniture and enamel jewelry, though. The second-floor Grand Salon is still furnished in the opulent Victorian style Corcoran favored when his collection adorned its walls.

Cost: Free
Open: Daily 10-5:30
Metro: Farragut W

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