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AN INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER SERVING THE GW COMMUNITY SINCE 1904

The GW Hatchet

Serving the GW Community since 1904

The GW Hatchet

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Officials name senior vice president, chief of staff
By Fiona Riley, Assistant News Editor • March 26, 2024

Celebrating nine decades of art in the District

Edgar Degas’ impressionist canvases of ballet dancers sprung to life Saturday to celebrate an iconic D.C. collection’s 90th birthday.

The Phillips Collection celebrated its historic birthday in a celebration on what D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray has declared “Phillips Collection Day.”

Partaking in the festivities were students from the Kirov Academy of Ballet, who stretched and practiced at the barre as if living out a scene from one of Degas’ brushstroke-heavy, pastel-colored paintings.

Founder and collection namesake Duncan Phillips began collecting art in 1916, never realizing that his small-time hobby would expand to become a nationally celebrated collection.

The usually quiet museum off Dupont Circle bustled with over 3,000 visitors during Saturday’s birthday celebration.

“Normally it isn’t this mobbed and normally you can get around very easily and it’s a perfectly manageable museum,” Phillips regular Judy Zaluda said. “That’s why it’s my favorite. But today is fun with the cupcakes, the balloons and the thousands of people.”

Even after 90 years in the District, the museum still attracts art aficionados and enthusiasts to delight in its extensive collection.

“What makes The Phillips special has stayed the same,” Ann Greer, director of communications said. “What people love about this place is that it’s really great art in an intimate setting. And these were ideas that Duncan Phillips espoused.”

The gallery’s welcoming atmosphere and its passionate visitors have turned The Phillips into the unexpected backdrop for a love story.

“A lot of people met their significant other here, proposed here, whatever. You can go on our YouTube channel and see these love stories,” Greer said. “Everyone always said those stories existed and so we set out on documenting them.”

The relationship between the patrons and the collection is mutual – the gallery offers well-loved, world-renowned works of art and the guests keep coming back for more.

“If you talk to many people who know The Phillips, the first thing they say is, ‘I love The Phillips.’ I think people like to see art in an intimate setting. That’s what it’s all about,” Greer said.

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