The Phillips Memorial Art Gallery

Abstract

the public at 1600 Twenty-first Street N. W., Washington, D. C. This is to be the home of the collection for several years while plans for the permanent building are in a formative and plastic state. Although it is too soon to make definite announcements of all that we intend to do, since force of circumstances or changed conditions may cause our best laid plans to be altered or amended, nevertheless the time is ripe for telling about the treasures and for creating an interest in the special and novel character of the Phillips Memorial. It is to be a home for the fine arts and a home for all those who love art and go to it for solace and spiritual refreshment. We wish, therefore, to create an atmosphere which is attractive and intimate rather than grandiose and institutional, in which visitors will feel inclined to linger, and to which they will wish to return again and again for a special sort of pleasure or for study. The ultimate building must not be large, no matter to what size the collection may grow. Our idea is not to show all of our treasures at once but to have ever varied and purposeful exhibitions, arranging the collection in units which would be frequently changed so that the walls of the various rooms would undergo interesting transformations.1 No crowding of the walls nor disfiguring additions to the building as the collections grow can ever be permitted to destroy the harmony of our rooms and the essential domestic character of the architecture as a whole. In the fireproof storage vaults light and air will be supplied and the paintings hung on sliding screens, so that they can be at all times available