As though reinvigorated by last September’s fire, which forcibly closed its oldest gallery spaces, the Phillips Collection gleamed with pride and excitement this weekend, offering the public two days of free admission and flowing champagne to celebrate the grand reopening of the original Phillips house and “ninety years of new” as DC’s oldest art museum.
A kick-off to the museum’s year-long anniversary celebration, the weekend event featured a special exhibit of nine “cakes of art,” inspired by pieces from the collection and baked by local-area pastry chefs. On Saturday alone, nearly three-thousand people waited in lines curled around the block to see the cakes, and the museum’s myriad of contemporary gems.
“It reminded me a little [scarily] of the MOMA on the weekends,” joked Chair George Vradenburg at a cocktail party Saturday night. Joined by an audience of donors, patrons, artists, ambassadors, and other guests, he and Director Dorothy Kosinksi reiterated the Phillips’ “spirit of open-minded, interdisciplinary and collaborative inquiry,” and officially welcomed two twenty-foot Howard Hodgkin prints to the collection—a birthday gift, of sorts.
Following the remarks, guests meandered through the halls, sipping on champagne or Cointreau-infused hot chocolate, taking in dumplings, truffles, and gorgeous landscape paintings, confirming that while the Phillips may be old, it still knows how to party.
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