Media Alert: West Point Cadets Come to the Freer and Sackler Galleries

WHAT: West Point Cadets Visit Freer and Sackler Galleries’ Whistler Exhibition and Collections in Honor of Famous Alumnus Whistler’s 180th Birthday

WHEN: Thursday, Aug. 14, 11 a.m.–12:15 p.m.

WHERE: Smithsonian’s Arthur M. Sackler Gallery and Freer Gallery of Ar, 12th Street and Independence Avenue S.W.

WHO: Cadets from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, led by MAJ Hendrik Miller; Lee Glazer, associate curator of American art, Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery

August 12, 2014

James McNeill Whistler, one of the most famous American artists of the 19th century, received his first formal art training as a cadet at West Point. This summer marks the 180th anniversary of his birth.

In honor of this milestone and to celebrate the closing weekend of “An American in London: Whistler and the Thames,” cadets from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point will visit the Smithsonian’s Freer and Sackler galleries to tour the exhibition with curator Lee Glazer, visit the Freer Gallery’s Peacock Room and go behind the scenes into art storage to view the vast collection of Whistler’s priceless paintings, watercolors, etchings and sketches not on display.

Closing Aug. 17, “An American in London: Whistler and the Thames” is the largest U.S. display of the artist’s work in a generation, and it is the first exhibition to look at the artist’s early years in London.  

The Freer Gallery contains the world’s largest and finest collection of works by Whistler, including the popular “Harmony in Blue and Gold: The Peacock Room,” a late 19th-century dining room decorated in an effusion of blue, green and gold peacock motifs.

To arrange filming, photography and interviews, contact pressasia@si.edu or 202-633-0271.
Editors: images will be available after the visit; email pressasia@si.edu for hi-res and proofs.