WASHINGTON, DC.- The Phillips Collection kicks off its yearlong “90 Years of New” celebration on January 15 and 16, 2011, featuring free admission, the newly renovated Phillips house, special art installations, interactive tours, complimentary champagne, and a display of birthday cakes by some of the finest chefs working in Washington, D.C.
Celebrity chefs, including 701’s Melanie Parker, 1789’s Travis Olson, Blue Duck Tavern’s Peter Brett, Cake Love’s Warren Brown, Hook’s Heather Chittum, Restaurant Eve’s Rebekka Baltzell, caterer Susan Gage, and a pastry chef from Equinox, among others, will create work-of-art cake designs that capture the spirit of The Phillips Collection and celebrate its 90-year milestone. They will be on display in the museum for one weekend only, when visitors can vote for their favorite cake by donating $1 in support of The Phillips Collection’s education programs. The celebration continues in the museum’s café by FoodArts, where visitors 21 and over will enjoy complimentary champagne while supplies last.
The free weekend heralds the joyful reopening of the original Phillips house, closed for repair after a fire in early September. The Phillips welcomes visitors back to its intimate galleries where masterworks from the permanent collection will be on view, along with a special installation of Sir Howard Hodgkin’s most ambitious work to date, As Time Goes By (2009). Comprising starbursts of vibrant color, the two 20 foot long, hand-painted etchings were recently acquired for the Phillips’s permanent collection. Turner Prize winner Hodgkin had his first American exhibition at the Phillips in 1984.
Free tours offered all weekend provide insight into the art on view. Fast-paced “relay tours” spotlight 90 works of art in back-to-back talks, ten minutes each—visitors can take in one or all, depending on their art appreciation stamina. For guests seeking a self-guided experience, the Phillips debuts a new “things to do in 90 minutes” guide. Visitors can also spend time in the 90th Anniversary Reading Room to discover through photographs, letters, and other archival materials how museum founder Duncan Phillips shaped, in his own words, “an intimate museum combined with an experiment station,” and enjoy the special exhibition Side by Side: Oberlin’s Masterworks at the Phillips on its final weekend.
90 YEARS OF NEW
In 2011, The Phillips Collection celebrates its 90th anniversary and launches the countdown to its centennial. A host of exhibitions, programs, and events throughout the year debut stunning new acquisitions in contemporary art, engage artists in conversation with the collection, and tell the story of artistic innovation that has been the heart of the museum since Duncan Phillips opened its doors in 1921.
