About The Phillips Collection

The Phillips Collection is America's first museum of modern art. In 1921, founder Duncan Phillips opened his 19th-century Georgian Revival house, and his art collection, to the public. Since then, the museum has continued to acquire works of art and present them in the intimate setting Phillips had intended, and has maintained a significant program of temporary exhibitions, classical music concerts, and programs for the public and for schools.

The Phillips Collection is noted for its Impressionist and Post Impressionist paintings. Pierre-Auguste Renoir's dazzling icon of Impressionism, Luncheon of the Boating Party hangs here, as do celebrated works by van Gogh, Monet, Degas, Gauguin, and Cezanne. American artists are equally celebrated in The Phillips Collection. Such 19th century artists as Homer, Eakins, Prendergast, Whistler, and Ryder are also included, and the museum is especially strong in the works of the modernists O'Keeffe, Marin, Dove, and Hartley.

The Phillips Collection Expands

Ongoing efforts since the mid-1990s have improved The Phillips Collection's ability to serve and engage its growing audiences. To accommodate its ever-growing collection of art, audiences, and activities, the Phillips recently completed a four-year renovation and expansion project. The Sant Building was publicly unveiled on April 15, 2006. The new spaces incorporate expanded galleries, among them the first to accommodate larger-scale postwar and contemporary work; a 180-seat auditorium--the museum's first--for lectures, films, and more; an outdoor courtyard; an art conservation studio; and an expanded visitor entrance, shop, and cafe.

These new enhancements allow The Phillips Collection to fully engage its many audiences and present more of its collection, while retaining the distinctive qualities that have made The Phillips Collection a beloved institution: great modern art and related earlier masterworks presented in an intimate, residential setting. The enlarged Phillips Collection is now, more than ever, a lively gathering place for art, music, ideas, and audiences.

The Center for the Study of Modern Art

The addition also laid the groundwork for the establishment of an ambitious new museum-based educational model: The Center for the Study of Modern Art. The mission of the Center is to further the understanding of modern art, its sources, and its legacy by fostering new research and scholarship in the field and making the findings available to a wide range of students at all educational levels.

Partnering with the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, one of the country's leading research universities, enables The Phillips Collection to be a catalyst for new scholarship and a training ground for future art historians and museum professionals in the field of modern art. Through this collaboration, the Center for the Study of Modern Art will offer a wide range of programs including lectures, symposia, studio presentations, as well as academic courses for public enrollment.

More information is available at: http://www.phillipscollection.org/html/center.html

DATES TO REMEMBER:

January 29
Spring 2007 Classes: Public Registration closes

February 8
Information Meetings for UIUC Students

March 16
UIUC Students:
Fall 2007 Application Deadline

Mid-July
Public Registration starts for Fall 2007 Classes