Hirshhorn Museum Will Lend Artworks to Museums Throughout U.S.

Washington, D.C.’s Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden announces a new massive partnership with the Bridge of Arts Foundation. The initiative, called “50 for 50,” will bring important works of art by American artists from the Hirshhorn Collection to smaller museums in all 50 U.S. states and Puerto Rico.

The loans will be long-term, lasting three to five years, and typically include several artworks selected by each participating museum to complement its existing collections or programs.

The project will allow American museum visitors to view important artworks that are typically stored in warehouses where collections are not as extensive as those at the Hirshhorn Museum, which houses some 13,000 works in various media by the American art giant.

“It’s Georgia O’Keeffe, Thomas Eakins, Joan Mitchell, Calder,” Hirshhorn Theater director Melissa Chiu told the outlet. new york times. “We asked ourselves what it would take to make the Hirshhorn a national museum of modern and contemporary art… We want to help give museums across the country greater access.”

Expanding Americans’ access to American art is key to Art Bridges, a relatively new foundation founded in 2017 by philanthropist Alice Walton. The foundation works with museums across the United States and Puerto Rico (300 to date, including Crystal Bridges at the Walton Museum in Bentonville, Arkansas) to provide financial support for their programming, collection building and educational programs.

Art Bridges CEO Anne Kraybill and Chiu told era They are working to find museum partners in every state, with her initial focus being on the central United States. So far, they have found collaborators in 46 states.