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Maybe it’s a sign of the times: Some private galleries are now trying to take the focus off of visitor numbers and social media. Instead, they are choosing to limit admissions in an attempt to bring quality back to the experience of viewing art.
The Glenstone Museum near Washington, DC, does just that. Its recently expanded site in Potomac, Maryland, is enormous. Still, billionaire collectors Mitch and Emily Rales expect to welcome just 400 visitors a day, reports The Washington Post. (The Hirshhorn, a popular gallery in downtown DC, receives 2,500 daily.) Via an online reservation system, visitors to the Glenstone are given generous time slots for contemplating post-world War II art by such greats as Louise Bourgeois, Jasper Johns, and Richard Serra. Thomas Phifer, architect of the expansion, says the idea is to avoid the “Mona Lisa moment,” when people and their phones so overwhelm a gallery that its art can no longer be appreciated.
Admission is free — in a sense. The Glenstone is set up as a charitable organization, exempting it from federal tax, a model used by many other private museums, reports The New York Times.