Displaying items by tag: george washington university

A new museum in Washington will showcase a wide variety of art, history and culture through ancient textiles and a significant collection on the history of the nation's capital — while also signaling a major expansion in the arts for George Washington University.

The university opened the $33 million complex Saturday on its downtown campus where two museums will share one facility. The six-story complex is the new home for Washington's 90-year-old Textile Museum and its collection of 19,000 artifacts, along with a new museum featuring maps and documents tracing the capital city's history.

George Washington University plans to sell the historic schoolhouse in Georgetown that it took control of this summer as part of a court approved breakup of the financially-troubled Corcoran Gallery of Art. The agreement sent the museum’s art collection to the National Gallery of Art and allowed the university to absorb its College of Art and Design.

The university said it has selected TTR Sotheby’s International Realty to list the historic brick building, known as the Fillmore, and its one acre of property. The initial sale price is $14 million.

George Washington University (GW) in Washington, DC, is beefing up its arts infrastructure. Less than two months after the university finalised its merger with the Corcoran Gallery of Art, the GW Museum and the Textile Museum announced they will open a joint facility on the university’s Foggy Bottom campus on 21 March 2015.

The museum is set to occupy both the Maxwell Woodhull House, a historic former home of a US Navy commander, and a 35,000 sq. ft addition designed by the local firm Hartman-Cox Architects. Since the university finalized its merger with the Corcoran in August, it has also assumed operations of the gallery’s Beaux-Arts building near the White House.

The hearse carried only a wreath, because technically, the dearly departed was still alive — albeit barely, considering the vegetative, life-supported state the Corcoran Gallery of Art has been in since August. When the institution’s takeover by the National Gallery of Art and George Washington University was approved last month, the spirit had already left the body. So on Saturday, the day before the museum was scheduled to close for renovations, from which it will later emerge as part of the National Gallery of Art, former staff members gathered there to mourn.

Visitors to the Corcoran Gallery of Art have quadrupled since admission became free to the public late last month.

With the gallery scheduled to close soon for renovation, art lovers are coming to the gallery in its last month for all kinds of reasons.

After court approval of a controversial plan that ended the Corcoran's independence, the art gallery and its school have merged with the National Gallery of Art and George Washington University.

Now that the deal between the Corcoran Gallery of Art, the National Gallery of Art and George Washington University is signed and sealed, the first change in operations became apparent Friday: Admission to the Corcoran now is free.

The controversial merger between the Corcoran Gallery of Art, George Washington University and the National Gallery of Art, all in Washington, DC, has received the green light from the district’s Superior Court. In a ruling on Monday 18 August, Judge Robert Okun called the decision “painful,” but concluded that it would be “even more painful to deny the relief requested and allow the Corcoran to face its likely demise.”

Under the terms of the agreement, first announced in February 2014, the beleaguered Corcoran will transfer its historic Beaux-Arts building and its College of Art + Design to George Washington University. The National Gallery of Art will take over a substantial portion of the Corcoran’s 17,000-work collection, which includes paintings by John Singer Sargent and Frederic Edwin Church as well as celebrated photography holdings.

The court calls them “The Intervenors,” which sounds as if it could be the name of a performance art collective. If that were true, the past few weeks would have been quite a show for the group Save the Corcoran.

The scrappy group of students, staff, faculty and concerned observers dedicated to preserving the nearly 150-year-old museum as an independent institution in the face of a merger with the National Gallery of Art and George Washington University see themselves as David fighting Goliath — which makes their recent legal intervention the proverbial sling to the forehead. They won’t find out whether they’ve slain their giant until Aug. 20 at the latest, which makes this week an anxious wait.

The Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington received a surprising setback in court this week when a judge ruled that members of a group opposing the institution's planned takeover deal with the National Gallery of Art and George Washington University have legal standing and will be able to have their grievances heard.

On Monday, Judge Robert Okun in D.C. Superior Court ruled that nine members of the group Save the Corcoran must be allowed as intervening parties to the Corcoran's plan. According to the group, the nine include current students, a faculty member and a member of the gallery staff.

The controversial plan to dissolve the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, through a merger with the nearby National Gallery of Art and George Washington University (see artnet News report) received the backing of district attorney general Irvin B. Nathan this week, even as opponents of the plan continue efforts to thwart its implementation, reports the Washington Post.

A brief issued by Nathan’s office on Wednesday called the proposed merger the best way out of a bad situation: “the District supports [the reorganization] because [it] will allow the Corcoran’s assets to continue to be used in DC consistently with the charitable purposes to which they have been dedicated.” The office is responsible for regulating charities such as the Corcoran, and represents the city in the case, so Nathan’s support gives the Corcoran a major boost.