After almost 150 years, the Corcoran Gallery of Art will be closing its doors to the public. Financial difficulties could not be resolved and a major institution will disappear.
The collection, focusing on American art, will be broken up and scattered to other locations. The National Gallery of Art will assume responsibility for the majority of the works, but it is unlikely that the permanent displays now in the Corcoran will ever be seen together again.
Sunday, September 28th will be the last day before it closes to begin a renovation that will take about a year.
It is expected that the building will be re-opened in the fall of 2015 but the exhibit space will be slimmed down to a so-called “Legacy Collection.”
Much of the current exhibit space will be used for an expansion of the Corcoran School of Art which will be managed by George Washington University.
I wonder what will happen to the Salon Doré, a room created in Paris six years before Thomas Jefferson wrote the the Declaration of Independence. The Count d’Orsay had it constructed as a drawing room for his bride-to-be. It was purchased in 1904 by William A. Clark for a mansion he was building on 5th Avenue in New York City. In 1925 Clark donated this room and his art collection to the Corcoran.
The gallery was not crowded today when I visited this morning. It was hard to walk out the front entrance, knowing I’ll not be here again.
photographybykent 
nicely done. M
Sent from my iPad
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Thanks, Michele.
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Dear Robin,
Thanks for the beautiful photos at the Corcoran Gallery of Art. I did not know it was closing. I was there many years ago, but living in Texas, I don’t get to Washington very often.
Annette Hrkel
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Thanks very much for commenting. Yes, it’s a sad occasion, but hopefully the collection won’t just go into storage at the National Gallery of Art.
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Oh, so sad! You have made a beautiful photographic tribute.
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Thank you for commenting. It is a great space and now we wait and see what they will do with it.
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Thank you for giving me a chance to glimpse the beauty of the place. Sad how there is less and less money, space and time for art these days.
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Thanks for your thoughts. That is a problem these days, although in this case I would put some of the blame on the management of the Gallery over the past decade or so.
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it is nice to be able to walk around the museum and take a few images for memories, these are wonderful.
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Very sad to hear that the Corcoran is closing – is this a sign of things to come?
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Thanks for your comments. Hard to say whether this is a sign of the times. I do believe that in this case part of the blame lies with the management. At the same time, the struggle to fund the arts at an appropriate level seems to be a growing challenge. Examples include the current difficulties of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra with the cuts in salary and benefits to the musicians and cutbacks in staffing and elsewhere. Similarly, the Detroit Art Museum is fighting creditors holding debt from the city who are trying to force the sale of art works belonging to the city’s museum. The model of public funding seems to be under assault in many places. At the same time, there are some bright spots. In the area of private funding (analogous to the Corcoran), there is the example of the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonvile, Arkansas. We were lucky enough to be passing through that town on the day after its official opening. Very impressive. Cities like Seattle and NYC have vibrant public arts programs.
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A lovely tribute, Robin.
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Thanks, Dani. We will miss it.
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