Striving to Make a Positive Impact
Director's Desk
Spring 2025 update from Vradenburg Director & CEO Jonathan P. Binstock
The Phillips Collection team works every day to make a positive impact on our community, region, nation, and beyond. Like our founders Duncan and Marjorie Phillips, we believe strongly in community engagement and strive to build a museum that welcomes people of all backgrounds. Manifesting these legacy aspirations is one way we maintain the integrity of what the founders envisioned. We are the stewards of safe spaces for artistic expression and appreciation for all people; we value, respect, and support all individuals by being an inclusive and responsive museum.
We represent these goals in our new mission statement—the result of a months-long strategic planning process involving staff, Trustees, and community members completed last June—which reads as follows:
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.
Amid the many changes happening in Washington, DC, and the country, our values and mission to create an empathetic and welcoming institution built on resilience and our ability to embrace an ever-changing world remain steadfast. In that vein, I invite you to our galleries this spring to see art, connect with fellow members, and take a moment for yourself.
Our exhibitions demonstrate our commitment to artistic excellence and discovery. This spring, we are thrilled to partner with the Mucha Foundation on a new exhibition and to be the first stop on its North American tour. Art Nouveau pioneer Alphonse Mucha’s flowing forms and sinuous lines are magical, seductive, and timeless. His revolutionary style has resonated across many artistic genres and generations, and continues to do so. Come see his posters, paintings, and drawings, as well as and the iconic album covers and comic books they have inspired.
Speaking of comic books, on view at Phillips@THEARC is an exhibition curated by illustrator Shawn Martinbrough featuring 20 Black comic book artists working in a huge variety of comic book styles. And on view in the community exhibition space at Dupont Circle are student artworks created through our Art Links program that respond to Mucha’s expressive line through various printmaking techniques.
Please join us for our monthly artist-led workshops at Phillips@THEARC, tag along on a daily Spotlight Tour with our brilliant Educators, become entranced by a Phillips Music concert, dance the night away during our Annual Gala After Party on May 9, and visit the galleries to see new acquisitions and old favorites from the collection … or even get a Mucha-inspired tattoo!
