MEDIA CONTACTS:
Angela Olson, [email protected]
The George Washington University
Chita Middleton, [email protected]
The Textile Museum
Washington, D.C.— The final exhibition at The Textile Museum before its 2014 reopening at the George Washington University will open on April 12, 2013. After the exhibition closes on October 13, 2013, The Textile Museum will reduce its current public hours. Visitors will still be able to visit the acclaimed Textile Museum Shop and the two historic homes of the museum’s founder, George Hewitt Myers, on Fridays through Sundays, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., October 14 to December 31. After October 14, The Textile Museum will be closed to visitors Mondays through Thursdays to prepare for the upcoming move. The museum will offer programs and special events at its S Street location throughout 2013. In addition, the museum’s popular event rental program will continue throughout the year.
The upcoming exhibition, “Out of Southeast Asia: Art That Sustains,” (April 12 through October 13), will feature the work of Carol Cassidy, the husband-wife team Agus Ismoyo and Nia Fliam, Vernal Bogren Swift and historical textiles from the museum’s collections. By pairing recent artworks with 16 treasures from the museum’s collections, “Out of Southeast Asia” asserts the beauty of the region’s textiles and demonstrates how contemporary makers help to preserve these art forms even as they interpret them in new and innovative ways. As The Textile Museum prepares to move to its new location, “Out of Southeast Asia: Art that Sustains” provides a fitting visual link between the past, present and future while demonstrating the continued relevance of traditional textiles.
The Arthur D. Jenkins Library of Textile Arts, one of the world’s foremost resources for the study of the textile arts, will be open by appointment only beginning October 14, 2013. This non-circulating, 20,000-volume library will reopen to the public in the new museum facility on the campus of the George Washington University.
About The Textile Museum and the George Washington University
The Textile Museum will reopen in a forthcoming museum on the campus of the George Washington University in the fall of 2014. Exhibitions and programs will be presented to the public through this unprecedented affiliation between a university and an existing art museum with a respected 88-year history. The Textile Museum plans to continue many of its acclaimed programs, and the affiliation creates new opportunities for research and innovative public resources.
The new museum will be a custom-built, approximately 46,000-square-foot building located at G and 21st Streets, NW. It will include dedicated galleries and increased exhibition space for The Textile Museum, the Albert H. Small Washingtoniana Collection and the university’s art collections. A groundbreaking ceremony was held in October 2012, substantial construction work will be completed on the facilities in December 2013, and the public opening is anticipated for fall 2014.
In addition to the new museum in Foggy Bottom, the university will construct a 22,000-square-foot conservation and resource center at its Virginia Science and Technology Campus in Ashburn, Va., for the care and study of the museum’s collections. Textile Museum staff are currently preparing the 19,000 pieces in the museum’s collection for the move to the new storage facility, a process which is being documented on the museum’s tumblr page.
About The Textile Museum
The Textile Museum expands public knowledge and appreciation—locally, nationally and internationally—of the artistic merit and cultural importance of the world’s textiles. Founded in 1925 by George Hewitt Myers, The Textile Museum is an international center for the exhibition, study, collection and preservation of the textile arts. The Textile Museum collection encompasses more than 19,000 objects that date from 3,000 BCE to the present. The museum’s 20,000 volume Arthur D. Jenkins Library of Textile Arts is among the world’s foremost resources for the study of textiles. The Textile Museum is located at 2320 ‘S’ Street, NW in Washington, D.C. The museum is open Tuesday through Saturday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. through October 13, 2013. An $8 suggested admission is requested of non-members. In the fall of 2014, The Textile Museum will reopen as a primary cornerstone of the forthcoming George Washington University Museum (G and 21st Streets NW).
Please Note: Beginning October 14, 2013, The Textile Museum will not have an exhibition on view. The Textile Museum Shop will remain open Fridays through Sundays, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. from October 14 through December 31, 2013. The Textile Museum will offer a variety of special events and programs throughout the transition in 2013 and 2014. Visit http://www.textilemuseum.org/calendar/ for the most up-to-date list of events.