The
Corcoran Gallery of Art is the largest privately supported cultural institution in
Washington, DC. The museum's main focus is
American art. The permanent collection includes works by
Eugène Delacroix,
Edgar Degas,
Ian Hornak,
Paul Manship,
Chryssa Vardea Mavromichali,
Claude Monet,
Rembrandt,
Pablo Picasso,
Pierre-Auguste Renoir,
Andy Warhol, and many others. There are always several exhibitions. The Corcoran is the oldest and largest non-federal
art museum in the
District of Columbia. Its mission is to be "dedicated to art and used solely for the purpose of encouraging the American genius."
History
When the gallery was founded in
1869 by
William Wilson Corcoran, the co-founder of
Riggs Bank, it was one of the first
fine art galleries in the country. Corcoran established the gallery, supported with an
endowment, "for the perpetual establishment and encouragement of the Fine Arts."
The Corcoran Gallery of Art was originally located at 17th Street and
Pennsylvania Avenue, in the building that now houses the
Renwick Gallery. Construction of that building started before the
Civil War. The building, near completion, was used by the government as a warehouse during the Civil War. It was finally completed in 1874 and the gallery opened to the public.
By 1897, the Corcoran Gallery collection outgrew the space of its original building. A new building was constructed, designed by
Ernest Flagg in a
Beaux-Arts style. The building spans 135,000 square feet (12,500 m²). A proposed addition by
Frank O. Gehry would have more than doubled the museum's size, but the plan was scrapped due to funding problems in the summer of
2005.
The museum and its affiliated art and design college
Corcoran College of Art and Design together have a staff of about 185 and an operating budget of about $20 million. Revenue comes from various sources, including grants and contributions, admissions fees, tuition, membership dues, gift shop and restaurant sales, and an
endowment currently worth around $30 million. In February
2001, two
AOL executives (
Robert Pittman and
Barry Schuler) and their wives donated $30 million to the museum, its largest single donation since its founding.
The Corcoran's president and director is Paul Greenhalgh.
See also
