ArtGrams: Around the Phillips

Posted on August 21, 2015 by Experiment Station

This shot of the exterior of the original Phillips building, emphasizing the red facade, is brought to you by Instagrammer @miquelcar

There are plenty of mesmerizing works on view at the Phillips, but for this month’s ArtGrams, we’re highlighting photos from visitors who looked beyond the canvas.

Via Instagrammer @wolfofkstreet: “Tête-à-tête chairs in this incredible Georgian Revival house turned gallery. Just one of the many reasons this is one of my favorite places in the city.”

A rare shot of the window details as seen from 21st Street, NW by Instagrammer @smitn

Via Instagrammer @babesicle: “Stylish Mondrian wall and chair up in the museum coffee shop! Perfect place to chill out after being on our feet all day.”

Via Instagrammer @laura_ewan: “New art installation outside Phillips. Miss walking by this every day.”

We can never get enough of the Music Room. Here’s a great image captured by Instagrammer @Sstephaniediaz.

Phillips Flashback: April 1924

Posted on April 20, 2011 by Sarah Osborne Bender

21st Street view of The Phillips Memorial Gallery (as it was then called), and the original entrance, 1920s. From The Phillips Collection Archives.

A permit is issued to the “change [the] entrance of the picture gallery,” giving the public direct access to the Main Gallery through a new entrance at 1608 21st Street. On occasion, visitors can also enter the Music Room (North Library). Previously entry was through the formal double-staircase entrance at 1600 21st Street and possibly through a “basement” entrance on Q Street. The new entrance at 1608, pictured above, allows visitors to enter and go directly to a small elevator, delivering them to the second floor Main Gallery.

Today, the museum has two main entrances: Q Street for office visitors and the Sant Building on 21st Street for museum visitors.

Library Paradise

Posted on April 14, 2011 by Sarah Osborne Bender

“I have always imagined that paradise will be a kind of library.” – Jorge Luis Borges

In honor of National Library Week (April 10-16, 2011), let’s look at how far The Phillips Collection library has come! The library was established in 1976 in a space on the fourth floor of the house, a beautiful light-filled room that had previously served as Laughlin Phillips’s baby nursery, Marjorie Phillips’s painting studio, and the Phillips Gallery Art School.

Phillips Gallery Art School, fourth floor of original house, c. 1930s. The Phillips Collection Archives.

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