Phillips Collection

The Phillips Collection
1600 21st Street NW
Washington DC
202-387-2151
Map

America's First Museum of Modern Art

www.phillipscollection.org

Museum Hours:
TUESDAY‒SATURDAY 10 am - 5 pm
THURSDAY extended hours 5 ‒ 8:30 pm*
SUNDAY: Noon ‒ 6:30 pm

Closed Mondays, New Year’s Day, Independence Day, Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Eve, and Christmas Day

During severe weather, call The Phillips Collection at 202.387.2151 for information about possible closings.

*On the first Thursday of every month, general museum admittance ends at 5 pm due to Phillips after 5 events. Admission after 5 pm is restricted to members and Phillips after 5 ticket holders. Advance ticket purchase for Phillips after 5 strongly encouraged as this popular event tends to sell out.

Please note that the original Phillips house is currently unavailable due to a thermal upgrade project. Special exhibitions and selections from the permanent collection are on view in the Goh Annex and Sant Building galleries, and the cafe, shop, and courtyard also remain open. The Phillips house will reopen in 2018. Download the press release for more information.

ADMISSION

Ticketed Exhibitions Includes museum collection

Tuesday–Sunday
ADULTS: $12
STUDENTS: $10
VISITORS 62 AND OVER: $10
VISITORS 18 AND UNDER: Free
MEMBERS: Free

Museum Collection Only
Tuesday–Friday by donation

Saturday and Sunday: When no ticketed exhibition is on view
Adults $10; Students and visitors 62 and over $8; Members and visitors 18 and under free

Phillips after 5
First Thursday of the month, 5–8:30 pm
Advance ticket purchase is strongly recommended for this popular event

ADULTS $12
STUDENTS $10
VISITORS 62 AND OVER $10
VISITORS 18 AND UNDER Free
MEMBERS Free

On Phillips after 5 evenings, general museum admittance ends at 5 pm. Admission after 5 pm is restricted to members and Phillips after 5 ticket holders. Advance ticket purchase for Phillips after 5 strongly encouraged as this popular event tends to sell out.

GROUP TOURS AND VISITS

Visiting with your family

ACCESSIBILITY

Tryst at the Phillips: Vradenburg Café

Phillips Music: A Phillips Tradition Since 1941

ABOUT THE PHILLIPS
America's First Museum of Modern Art

Encounter superb works of modern art in an intimate setting at The Phillips Collection, opened to the public in 1921 in Washington’s vibrant Dupont Circle neighborhood. Paintings by Renoir and Rothko, Bonnard and O'Keeffe, van Gogh and Diebenkorn are among the many stunning impressionist and modern works that fill the museum. Its distinctive building combines extensive new galleries with the former home of its founder, Duncan Phillips. The collection continues to develop with selective new acquisitions, many by contemporary artists.

Special exhibitions and frequent changes in the arrangement of the permanent collection mean that there's something fresh on every visit to the Phillips. The University of Maryland Center for Art and Knowledge at The Phillips Collection offers stimulating Conversations with Artists, symposia, lectures, and more, while Sunday Concerts, Phillips after 5 programs, and other events provide additional food for thought. The museum also produces a vigorous, award-winning program of educational outreach that serves thousands of students and teachers.

The Phillips Collection is a private institution that relies on the support of admission and program fees, endowment income, and generous assistance from individual donors, corporations, foundations, and others.

Mission Statement
The Phillips Collection is an "intimate museum combined with an experiment station."–Duncan Phillips, 1926

The Phillips Collection is an exceptional collection of modern and contemporary art in a dynamic environment for collaboration, innovation, engagement with the world, scholarship, and new forms of public participation.

Collection

History
America's First Museum of Modern Art

Duncan Phillips (1886‒1966) was the younger son of Major Duncan Phillips, a Pittsburgh businessman and Civil War veteran, and Eliza Laughlin Phillips, whose father was a banker and co-founder of the Jones and Laughlin steelworks. He moved with his family to Washington in 1895.

Duncan Phillips was very close to his older brother, Jim, with whom he graduated from Yale in 1908. Duncan wrote extensively on art and published his first book, The Enchantment of Art, in 1914. He and Jim also collected works of art, obtaining a collecting allowance from their parents in 1916.

His father's death in 1917 and Jim's death from influenza in 1918 were stunning blows to Duncan Phillips. He and his mother responded by founding the museum, originally called the Phillips Memorial Art Gallery. “Sorrow all but overwhelmed me,” he later wrote. "Then I turned to my love of painting for the will to live."

Phillips married artist Marjorie Acker in October 1921, just before the museum opened, and the two worked closely together. Over the years, Phillips continued to write about art, build strong relationships with artists as patron and collector, present numerous exhibitions, and frequently rearrange works of art in the galleries. He served as the museum's director until his death in 1966.

Exhibitions

An Italian Impressionist in Paris: Giuseppe De Nittis
February 12, 2023
(more information)

Intersections: Jonathan Monaghan: Move the Way you Want
Through December 31, 2022
(more information)

Community Exhibition: Art + Music: More than a Feeling: Printmaking with Washington School For Girls
Through December 31, 2022
(more information)

Events