The 88-year-old Textile Museum will move from its historic DuPont Circle home to the George Washington University campus in Washington, D.C.’s Foggy Bottom neighborhood as part of a $33 million project. Construction on the new 35,000-square-foot museum is underway and expected to reach completion in spring 2014. The transfer of 19,000 works, some dating back thousands of years, is expected to take an additional six months. The Textile Museum’s new location is slated to open to the public in late fall 2014.
Founded by American forester, philanthropist and collector George Hewitt Myers, the museum’s mission is to expand public knowledge and appreciation of the artistic merits and cultural importance of the world’s textiles. The museum’s collection includes 15th century rugs from Egypt, Spanish carpets, early Islamic textiles, pre-Columbian Peruvian textiles, Anatolian rugs, and more.
The Textile Museum’s final exhibition, Out of Southeast Asia: Art that Sustains will be on view through October 13 and the museum’s historic buildings will remain open through the holiday season.
