The History of ICCR

The Phillips Collection has welcomed all people and worked across communities since its founding in 1921.

From the moment he opened the doors to The Phillips Memorial Gallery—the museum’s original name—Duncan Phillips was reaching out and partnering with important cultural organizations in Washington, DC. He believed art was universal, with a profound social purpose to unite people. Washington had few cultural offerings at the time and was deeply segregated. Phillips knew that to grow the cultural landscape of Washington, he needed to partner and collaborate with other emerging cultural organizations and work across racial divisions.

Among the organizations with which Phillips partnered was the DC Public Library. Using art to reach new audiences, he began loaning paintings in 1929 to the library’s central branch, formerly the Central Public Library at Mount Vernon Square, which opened in 1903 as the city’s first desegregated public building. In the 1930s and 1940s, Phillips forged critical relationships with the Howard University Fine Arts Department and Gallery of Art, the first art programs in a historically Black university. Phillips welcomed faculty and students to his museum and acquired work for his museum by Howard art faculty, including James Lesesne Wells and Loïs Mailou Jones.

In the 1940s, Phillips supported the Barnett Aden Gallery, the first Black-owned and operated commercial art gallery in the US, also located in Washington. He frequented the gallery, loaned works to its exhibitions, and purchased art from it.

This commitment to partnership with fellow Washington, DC, cultural organizations and to welcoming all people—regardless of race or background—has been at the heart of the Phillips since it opened its doors in 1921. The language we use to describe these values may evolve, but the values themselves remain constant.

Diversity Intergroup Dialogue Series

Diversity Intergroup Dialogue Series (DIDS) was established in 2022, building on the work of The Phillips Collection’s 10-week anti-racism series in 2021. The series has evolved to create an immersive experience in diverse and cultural perspectives that lead to inclusive practices, create a shared language among all staff, offer an opportunity to have open and honest dialogues in a facilitated way that both support and challenge, and establish a diversity education program for other museums to replicate.

When a museum is accessible, more people are able to participate—it’s that simple. Consider the many individuals with mobility challenges, visual or hearing impairments, or cognitive differences, as well as their families, friends, and caregivers. When a museum is genuinely welcoming, it naturally reaches a broader and more diverse audience.

Accessibility is not only about increasing attendance; it’s about strengthening community connections. An accessible museum becomes a shared space where diverse perspectives meet, varied life experiences enrich interpretation, and everyone feels a sense of belonging. In this way, the museum becomes a true community asset—open, inclusive, and meaningful to all.

By the Numbers: Board of Trustee Demographics

Survey taken September 2023

Collecting Historical Data

Conceptions of race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, and disability have all evolved in the past two centuries. As a result, it is difficult to identify artists using today’s language, as artists were unlikely to self-identify using contemporary terminology. There is also no set of conditions or threshold of evidence agreed upon by scholars for identification (e.g., would a portrait of an artist showing a light complexion be sufficient “proof” of whiteness? What about a self-portrait? A photograph?) Furthermore, many metrics for determining an artist’s background are imperfect. For instance, an artist’s identity as conveyed by the historical record did not necessarily reflect their lived experience (a person in a heterosexual marriage, for example, may also have been attracted to people of the same sex).

By the Numbers:
1921-66 Acquisitions

In 2021, The Phillips Collection established the Makeba Clay Endowed Fellowship with the goal of advancing work on The Phillips Collection Institutional History Project (IHP). A snippet of the data shown here was collected by the 2023-24 Fellow Sophie Bennett. She conducted research on the demographics of artists in our permanent collection from 1921 (the year the museum opened) to 1966 (the year of Duncan Phillips’s death). This is an ongoing project that will be updated as new research is conducted.