Dumbarton Oaks Gardens To Close For Renovations This July

GEORGETOWN, DC — You have two weeks to see the beautiful Dumbarton Oaks Gardens before it closes for renovations July 10.

A letter from the organization states:

The time has now come to undertake large-scale improvements to the garden’s water supply network, which dates to the garden’s original creation in the 1930’s. We are therefore obliged to close the gardens to the public from July 10, 2017 to March 15, 2018.

The gardens are part of the Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, administered by the Trustees for Harvard University. The institute in residential Georgetown supports research and earning internationally in Byzantine, Garden and Landscape, and Pre-Columbian studies through fellowships and internships, meetings, and exhibitions.

The museum will remain open with temporary exhibitions, including:

• WOMEN IN ART, 1850–1910, Special Exhibition Hallway, April 25, 2017, to March 2018: The exhibit examines the fashionably dressed, urban woman of the late nineteenth century in thirteen works collected by institution’s founders, Mildred and Robert Woods Bliss. The Blisses admired the art of the French Impressionists and Post-Impressionists and were especially fond of the paintings of the Belgian artist, Alfred Stevens. Five of his paintings in this exhibition are on public display for the first time.
• ANCIENT BRONZES IN THE DUMBARTON OAKS COLLECTIONS,Courtyard Gallery, April 25, 2017, to March 2018: The manufacture of copper and its alloys, such as bronze, was well known in Mesopotamia and Egypt in the fifth and fourth millennia BC. The temporary display and juxtaposing of bronze sculptures that span more than fifteen hundred years aims to draw attention to the highly specialized techniques applied by the makers of metal sculpture. It invites to ask questions of craftsmanship, use, and the meaning of these works in bronze.
• EARLY BLISS ACQUISITIONS: COLLECTING IN PARIS AND LONDON, 1912–1919, Bliss Gallery, April 25, 2017, to March 2018: When the Blisses resided in Paris, they developed their collecting interests and passion and became especially intrigued by “unusual” objects that were newly available at the avant garde art dealers’ shops.
• EARLY BLISS ACQUISITIONS: COLLECTING TEXTILES, Textile Gallery, April 25, 2017, to March 2018: The textile rotation features late Roman and early Byzantine hangings and curtains in tapestry weave used in private as well as religious spaces, alongside looped and woven garments from the Andes, where elite individuals displayed their wealth and status by wearing clothing in dazzling colors and patterns.
• IMAGINING THE EMPRESS: THEODORA IN POPULAR CULTURE, 1882–1922, Orientation Gallery, April 25 to August 31, 2017: This display from the Ephemera Collection shows how a single historical figure—the sixth-century Byzantine empress Theodora—captured the public imagination at the end of the nineteenth century through film, theater, opera, and even buttons.
• CITY WATER/CITY LIFE, Rare Book Gallery, April 25 to August 31, 2017: This exhibit displays materials from the Rare Book Collection to explore the past and present of three major European cities (Amsterdam, Florence, and Paris).
  

Photo: DC Gardens/Flickr