Ig ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1937 



tion, now valued at approximately $10,000,000, that the present joint 

 resolution provides. 



The resolution sets aside a tract of land on the Mall between 

 Twelfth and Fourteenth Streets and Constitution Avenue and North 

 Mall Drive; creates a Smithsonian Gallery of Art Commission to 

 make preliminary investigations and obtain designs for the building ; 

 authorizes the appropriation of $4,800,000 for the building; author- 

 izes annual appropriations for the maintenance of the gallery; and 

 states the policy of the gallery as follows : 



Sec. 7. It shall be the policy of the gallery to maintain a worthy standard for 

 the acceptance of art objects for exhibition in the Smithsonian Gallery of Art; 

 to foster by public exhibitions from time to time in Washington and other parts 

 of the United States a growing public appreciation of art both of past and con- 

 temporary time; and further, as funds are available, to encourage the de- 

 velopment of art by the purchase of worthy examples of contemporary or other 

 art works, and to invite the private donation of funds therefor. 



Sec. 8. The Smithsonian Gallery of Art shall be under the administration of 

 tlie Regents and Secretary of tlie Smithsonian Institution. 



The resolution did not pass the first session of the Seventy-fifth 

 Congress, but it is hoped that favorable action may be taken at the 

 next session. 



For many years the Smithsonian Institution has urged the con- 

 struction of a suitable building for the housing and public exhibition 

 of the art collections belonging to the Nation. These collections 

 contain many works of art of high quality, mainly gifts from private 

 citizens, and there is no doubt that many more such gifts would be 

 made were proper exhibition space available. As much of the col- 

 lection as possible has been exhibited to the public in the halls of 

 the National Museum, but the available space there was not specifi- 

 cally designed for the display of art works, and in spite of being 

 overcrowded, the space is entirely inadequate, so that many things 

 which should be on exhibition are forced into storage. It is the 

 urgent hope of the Institution that the proposed Smithsonian Gallery 

 of Art may become a reality in the near future. 



It will in no sense be a duplication of the newly received National 

 Gallery, for the National Gallery is restricted to classic painting 

 and sculpture, leaving the fields of National collections in contem- 

 porary art of all kinds, portraits, jewels, glass, tapestry, and other 

 kinds of art unprovided for. There is already a large national 

 collection of such objects, and every reason to expect great increase 

 if a suitable gallery were available. 



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