National Gallery of Art to Loan Works from Collection to US Museums

A Rembrandt in Denver. A Botticelli in Flint, Michigan. A Rothko in Boise. An O’Keeffe in Anchorage. Masterpieces from the collection of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. will soon be on view in far-flung locales across the country.

As part of its programming to mark the 250th anniversary of the United States next year, the NGA has launched “Across the Nation,” which will see major works from its permanent collection loaned to 10 partner institutions in Alaska, Colorado, Connecticut, Idaho, Iowa, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Utah, and Washington. Each institution selected between one and ten works to borrow for its display.

As part of the initiative, the NGA will also cover expenses for the travel and installation of the works, as well as the marketing to local communities about the works going on view.

In a statement, NGA director Kaywin Feldman said the new “Across the Nation” program “is the manifestation of the National Gallery’s vision as the nation’s art museum, and we are so thrilled to bring some of the most beloved works from the nation’s collection of art directly into communities across the country.”

Four museums have already opened their displays with the NGA loans. The Anchorage Museum in Alaska has on view paintings by Georgia O’Keeffe, Mark Rothko, and Nancy Graves, while the Whatcom Museum in Bellingham, Washington, has on a selection of Impressionist works, including ones by Henri Matisse, Auguste Renoir, and Paul Cezanne.  

At the Denver Art Museum, Rembrandt’s A Woman Holding a Pink (1656), as well as portrait of the artist by his studio, have been loaned by the NGA, where they are now on view in the DMA’s 17th-century art galleries, alongside paintings by Anthony van Dyck, Mary Beale, and Peter Lely. Similarly, the Utah Museum of Contemporary Art in Salt Lake City has also opted for a loan from a single artist, receiving a large-scale wall drawing by Sol LeWitt.

Later this month, Boise Art Museum will place on view works by Rothko, Berthe Morisot, and Thomas Eakins, while the Flint Institute of Arts in Michigan will show three works, by Sandro Botticelli, Hans Memling, and Andy Warhol, spanning nearly five centuries. And, the Mint Museum in Charlotte, North Carolina will exhibit paintings by O’Keeffe, Alma Thomas, and Edgar Degas. Also in April, the Nevada Museum of Art in Reno will host the NGA’s traveling exhibition “Dorothea Lange: Seeing People,” which first debuted in 2023.

The final two sets of loans will go on view in May. The Figge Art Museum in Davenport, Iowa, will show 10 historical works from Northern Europe dating from 1537 to 1700, by artists including Lucas Cranach the Elder, Anthony van Dyck, Frans Hals, and Louis Vallée. The New Britain Museum of Art in Connecticut will show paintings by Robert Duncanson and Winslow Homer.

The NGA’s “Across the Nation” initiative comes at a time when the museum has been under intense scrutiny given its location in the nation’s capital and its status as a federal agency. In January, the NGA ended its DEI programs after an Executive Order calling on all parts of the federal government to do so. Last month, another Executive Order directly targeted the Smithsonian Institution, which is a separate federal entity from the NGA and includes a consortium of national museums. That order seeks to root out any “improper, divisive, or anti-American ideology.” So far, the NGA has been spared from this kind of targeting.