The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C., has announced a new, large-scale partnership with the Art Bridges Foundation. The initiative, called 50 for 50, will bring key artworks by American artists from the Hirshhorn’s collection to smaller museums throughout the US’s 50 states and Puerto Rico.
The loans will be long-term, lasting three to five years, and will typically include several artworks chosen by each participating museum that will complement their existing collection or programming.
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The project will allow for significant artworks that are typically in storage to be enjoyed by American museum-goers in places that don’t have collections nearly as robust as the Hirshhorn’s, which owns some 13,000 pieces across all mediums by giants of American art.
“It’s Georgia O’Keeffe, Thomas Eakins, Joan Mitchell, Calder,” Melissa Chiu, the Hirshhorn’s director, told the New York Times. “We asked ourselves, how can we do more to make the Hirshhorn the national museum of modern and contemporary art . . . We want to help museums across the country have more access.”
The idea of expanding Americans’ access to American art is key to Art Bridges, a relatively new foundation inaugurated by philanthropist Alice Walton in 2017. The foundation partners with museums across the U.S. and Puerto Rico—300, so far, including Crystal Bridges, Walton’s museum in Bentonville, Ark.— to financially support their programming, collection-building, and education programs.
Anne Kraybill, the CEO of Art Bridges, and Chiu told the Times that they are working diligently on finding museum partners in every state, with her initial focus being the central United States. So far, they have secured collaborators in 46 states.
