Renwick Gallery

Infobox_nrhp | name =Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian American Art Museum
nrhp_type = nhl


caption =
location= Pennsylvania Avenue at 17th Street
Washington, D.C.
lat_degrees = 38
lat_minutes = 53
lat_seconds = 55.92
lat_direction = N
long_degrees = 77
long_minutes = 2
long_seconds = 22.01
long_direction = W
locmapin = District of Columbia
area =
built =1859 - 1873
architect= James Renwick, Jr.
architecture= Late 19th and 20th Century Revivals, Other
added = March 24, 1969
governing_body = Smithsonian Institution
refnum=69000300cite web|url=http://www.nr.nps.gov/|title=National Register Information System|date=2007-01-23|work=National Register of Historic Places|publisher=National Park Service] The Renwick Gallery is a branch of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, located in Washington, D.C., and focuses on American craft and decorative arts from the 19th century to the 21st century. It is housed in a National Historic Landmark building that was begun in 1859 on Pennsylvania Avenue that originally housed the Corcoran Gallery of Art, one block from the White House and across the street from the Eisenhower Executive Office Building.

History

The Renwick Gallery building was originally built to be Washington, D.C.'s first art museum and to house William Wilson Corcoran's collection of American and European art. The building was designed by James Renwick, Jr. and completed in 1874. The building was near completion when the Civil War broke out, and was used as a temporary military warehouse and to house the federal Court of Claims. When the building was finally completed in 1874, the Corcoran Gallery of Art opened to the public. The gallery quickly outgrew the space and relocated to a new building nearby in 1897. [cite book |author=Reed, Robert |title=Old Washington, D.C. in Early Photographs: 1846-1932 |publisher=Dover Publications |date=1980 |pages=p. 127]

In 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed an executive order transferring the Renwick building to the Smithsonian Institution for use as a "gallery of arts, craft and design." After a renovation, it opened in 1972 as the home of the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s contemporary craft program. [http://americanart.si.edu/renwick/renwick_building.cfm "Architectural History of the Renwick Gallery"] ]

See also

* American craft
* Decorative arts

Sources

*Kenneth Trapp and Howard Risatti, "Skilled Work: American Craft in the Renwick Gallery". Smithsonian Institution Press, 1998. ISBN 1-56098-831-2 (cloth). ISBN 1-56098-806-1 (paper).

References

External links

* [http://americanart.si.edu/ Renwick Gallery official website]