Smithsonian Announces Grand Opening on July 1 for Smithsonian Art Museum and National Portrait Gallery

Smithsonian Announces Grand Opening on July 1 for Smithsonian Art Museum and National Portrait Gallery

With the 4th of July upon us, what better way to celebrate than with the grand re-opening of two museums which are home to some of the finest American art and house portraits of some of the greatest Americans?

The National Historic Landmark building that houses the Smithsonian Art Museum and the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery is completing an extensive renovation. When the building opens on July 1, it will be an unprecedented showcase for American art and portraitures that celebrates that vision and creativity of Americans throughout history. Collectively, the two museums and their activities are known as the Donald W. Reynolds Center for American Art and Portraiture.

Did you know?

- The Smithsonian’s new art conservation center is the only place in the country that visitors can watch conservators at work on paintings, drawings, sculptures and frames – in labs with floor to ceiling glass.
- With a collection of more than 1,200 presidential portraits, the National Portrait Gallery holds the nation’s only complete collection of presidential portraits outside the White House.
- In the new Luce Foundation Center for American Art, visitors will see more than 3,000 works of art, nearly five times the number previously in public view – everything from Winslow Homer and grand landscapes of the American west to Edward Hopper and American Impressionists.

TALENT: Marc Pachter, Director, National Portrait Gallery

Marc Pachter directs the nation’s only museum of American biography and portraiture. He lectures extensively in the United States and abroad; serves on the Board of the National D-Day Museum; and represents the Smithsonian on the President’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities and the White House Historical Association. He has been a frequent commentator for CBS’s Nightwatch, the Voice of America, and C-SPAN – as well as the interviewer for filmed conversations with distinguished Americans. He has also authored and edited a number of books and is the editor for the scholarly journal Biography.

TALENT: Elizabeth Broun, Director, Smithsonian American Art Museum

Elizabeth Broun is responsible for the nation’s premier collection of American art, as well as major exhibition, research, publication, education and new media programs. During Broun’s tenure, the museum has become a leader in the field of education – providing electronic resources to schools and the public. Broun created and secured funding for the conservation center and the open storage artwork for this museum.