On the eve of festivities in Washington, DC, marking 250 years since the signing of the US Declaration of Independence, the Smithsonian Institution’s foremost museum of modern and contemporary art revealed plans to lend more than 200 works from its collection to institutions in every corner of the country. The initiative by the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in partnership with the Arkansas-based Art Bridges Foundation, dubbed “50 for 50”, will distribute loans to a partner institution in each of the 50 US states plus Puerto Rico.
“We wish everyone could visit us so sharing our collection is a must,” Melissa Chiu, the Hirshhorn's outgoing director, said in a statement. “‘50 for 50’ places important American masterworks from the national collection of modern and contemporary art—which might otherwise sit in storage—into American communities far beyond the National Mall.”
The more than 200 works that have been requested for loans of three-to-five years each have all been held in the Hirshhorn’s storage, and were selected by partner institutions to address gaps in their own collections or to complement connections in their holdings. The first loans through the initiative are expected to go on view by the end of 2026; the initiative is free for the receiving institutions.
Alma Thomas, Earth Sermon—Beauty, Love and Peace, 1971 The Martha Jackson Memorial Collection: Gift of Mr. and Mrs. David K. Anderson, 1980. © 2026 Estate of Alma Thomas (Courtesy of the Hart Family) / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Courtesy of the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden. Photo: Lee Stalsworth
Museums that will benefit from the Hirshhorn and Art Bridges’ scheme include institutions big and small, in major cities and small towns. In California, the receiving institution will be the Oakland Museum of California, while in New York the Queens Museum will be hosting Hirshhorn works and, in Puerto Rico, the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Puerto Rico in San Juan.
Meanwhile, in Kentucky, the participating institution is the Owensboro Museum of Fine Art in Owensboro (population 60,000); in Rhode Island the Westerly Museum of American Impressionism in Westerly (population 23,000) will receive works from the Hirshhorn; and in Wyoming, the participating institution is the Brinton Museum in Big Horn (population 500).
Christian Marclay, Telephones, 1995 (still) Joseph H. Hirshhorn Bequest Fund, 2007. © Christian Marclay. Courtesy of the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden. Photo: Lee Stalsworth
Around 20% of the participating museums are affiliated with a higher-education institution, from the Blanton Museum of Art at the University of Texas in Austin to the Sidney and Lois Eskenazi Museum of Art at Indiana University in Bloomington.
“For ‘50 for 50,’ each of these 51 museums chose works that connect with their own collections and audiences—a loan in Tacoma looks nothing like one in Savannah,” Anne Kraybill, chief executive of the Art Bridges Foundation, said in a statement. “Getting that match right is what makes a Hirshhorn loan meaningful to the people who live there.”
Works from the Hirshhorn’s 13,000-piece collection eligible to be loaned in the coming years through "50 for 50" include paintings by Willem de Kooning, Helen Frankenthaler, Alex Katz, Childe Hassam, Georgia O’Keeffe and Alma Thomas, installations by Yoko Ono and Lawrence Weiner, a video by Christian Marclay and more. Which works will go to which institutions will be revealed later this year.
