Washington DC Museums Closed!!! Argghhhh!!!!

[Tony Pro]

I just read that the Smithsonian Museum of American Art and the National Portrait Gallery are closed for renovation until 2006....

ARGRRGGHHHHH!!!!!!

Why is there a trip to the Portrait Gallery on Sunday if the whole thing is closed?

Can anyone confirm what is open?

[Richard Monro]

Tony,
I feel for you. I remember the time I went to Paris only to arrive and find out the Louvre was closed because it was being used to film a movie. Then I found out that the Musee d'Orsay was also closed to repair the roof which had been damaged in a bad storm the day before. ARGGG didn't even begin to express my disappointment.

[Julie Deane]

Tony -

I just looked at the Portrait Museum's website. It says in the blurb in Google that it's closed until 2006, but then when I got on the website it lists exhibitions into July/August. Surely they wouldn't do that if they plan on being closed?
Hope not, because I was planning on going through in June and visiting.
Please let us know what you find out for sure.

[Julie Deane]

You're right - both of those museums will be closed. Darn it!

The National Gallery of Art, however, will be open. I checked to make sure there's no construction problems. Here's a link:
http://www.nga.gov/ginfo/renovation.shtm

Other Washington museums:
http://www.asia.si.edu/exhibitions/default.htm (includes a Whistler exhibition)
http://americanart.si.edu/collections/exhibitions.cfml (Treasures from the Smithsonian American Art Museum)
http://www.corcoran.org/ (modern art)
http://www.phillipscollection.org/ (modern art)