Strategic Plan
The Phillips Collection Strategic Plan 2025-29
We are unique.
The Phillips Collection is an extraordinary and distinct art museum. Unlike most museum founders who began with substantial collections, Duncan Phillips opened the doors of the Phillips with a modest array of artworks and envisioned the museum’s growth as a collaborative and public journey. He referred to his project as an “experiment station,” underscoring its role as a dynamic and evolving space for art appreciation and dialogue.
Phillips’s approach to curatorial work was groundbreaking. Rather than present art within traditional historical or cultural frameworks, he displayed objects from different cultures, eras, and places side by side to foster dialogue across time and geography. This method was not primarily about instructing guests in the history of art but rather encouraging them to engage with artworks directly and from their own experience. Phillips wanted his guests to discover how artists “see differently,” a radical perspective for his time that emphasized subjective approaches to viewing art and the subjectivity of artists, “gifted individuals well worth knowing and honoring.” As Phillips’s perspectives and tastes changed over time, so, too, did the collection and museum.
Our Guiding Principles
The Phillips Collection is a welcoming home for all where the vision and spirit of artists thrive in intimate settings. We bring people together, from the local to the international, for learning and discovery, and to experience joy and respite.
The Phillips stands for:
- open-mindedness and experimentation
- intellectual humility and social purpose
- accessibility and inspiration
- stewardship, integrity, and excellence
- serving all members of our community justly
- authenticity, connection, and strengthening civil society
Seeing Differently, Inspired by You embodies The Phillips Collection’s renewed mission and values. It speaks to our commitment to offering fresh perspectives and creating unique experiences that respond to the expressed needs and desires of our guests. Inspired by Duncan Phillips’s philosophy of “seeing differently,” the museum invites everyone to view art and the museum through a lens that encourages personal discovery and shared dialogue. Marjorie Phillips wrote in 1970, “Some might think of Duncan as primarily interested in art, but a concern for people was always at the center of his thought.” Our guests, the community, and artists—people—are at the heart of the new plan, our journey for the next five years, and the effort to enhance The Phillips Collection as a dynamic space where art, ideas, and inspiration come together.
The Phillips Collection is committed to fostering an inclusive environment that encourages and values diversity in its staff, board of trustees, supporters, volunteers, audience, collections, exhibitions, and programming. Diversity enhances the institution’s engagement with an increasingly broad spectrum of participants, and strengthens relationships within our community and beyond. Diversity promotes creativity and innovation, thereby increasing the institution’s resilience and ability to embrace our ever-changing world.
The Phillips Collection is a community of artistic expressions of diverse people, situated on the ancestral and unceded homelands of Piscataway and Nacotchtank (Anacostan) peoples. The area we know as Washington, DC, was rich in natural resources and supported local native people living there. We pay respect to their Elders, past and present. It is within The Phillips Collection’s responsibility as a cultural institution to disseminate knowledge about Indigenous peoples and this acknowledgment reminds us of the significance of place and the museum’s commitment to building respectful relationships with those who call these lands home today.
We are evolving.
The strategic plan was mindfully crafted through a collaborative and inclusive process involving input from a diverse set of stakeholders, including museum staff, the Board of Trustees, and members of the community. The plan honors the museum’s superlative permanent collection; historical practices of collection building, display, and community engagement; and the need to innovate and chart a course for longterm sustainability and relevance. A rededicated focus on engaging today’s leading artists will enable The Phillips Collection to continue building meaningful connections with audiences, expand dynamic public programming, and strengthen its financial foundation.
This new plan honors the past while setting a bold course for the future.
2025-29 Strategic Plan
- Create a dynamic commission series that invites leading artists to create new, innovative bodies of work for the permanent collection
- Attract and welcome new art enthusiasts with dynamic, evolving content
- Diversify and expand the museum’s collection
- Establish a robust endowment dedicated to the strategic growth and sustainability of the museum’s collection
- Continue building meaningful connections with communities throughout DC and beyond
- Expand public programming by deepening public engagement
- Strengthen and expand the museum’s presence at THEARC
- Expand institutional and programmatic marketing strategies to reach wider audiences
- Increase donor and member engagement
- Build a larger base of major donors
- Diversify Board of Trustees membership
- Invest in staff development and training to build a strong, knowledgeable team
- Conduct a comprehensive technology audit
- Develop a long-term facilities plan
An Enduring Legacy
The Phillips Collection, first opened in 1921 by Duncan Phillips, stands as a testament to the transformative power of art and the visionary approach of its founder. What began as an intimate, personal initiative in Duncan and Marjorie Phillips’s Washington, DC, Dupont Circle home has evolved into a pioneering institution recognized as the first museum of modern art in the United States. The museum’s legacy of intimacy and commitment to the personal experience of art may be found today in how we invite guests into a warm and welcoming home for art exploration.
With this new strategic plan, The Phillips Collection rededicates itself to engaging today’s leading artists and strengthening its role as a dynamic and evolving space for art appreciation and dialogue.