Updated Feb. 19, 2014 at 9:40 p.m.
GW announced plans Wednesday to absorb the 145-year-old Corcoran Gallery of Art, its largest academic takeover in 15 years.
Corcoran Gallery, which also runs the Corcoran College of Art + Design, is the largest private art museum in D.C. and has faced years of financial uncertainty. The University would join with the National Gallery of Art to take over the Corcoran, pending the approval of all three institution’s boards.
GW would take ownership of the 17th Street building, expanding its large real estate portfolio. The University would shoulder costs for renovations, expected to be in the tens of millions of dollars, though it would not pay for the building itself. The Corcoran’s 17,000 pieces of art would be stored in the National Gallery, but could eventually be distributed to museums across the country.
Negotiations will take place over the next six weeks, and would mark GW’s largest academic merger since absorbing the Mount Vernon College for Women in 1999.
The takeover could give the University another off-campus academic space, which would be a crucial addition because of an on-campus enrollment cap. The Corcoran College of Arts + Design is a four-year private college with 386 undergraduates, with the most popular majors as studio art, photojournalism and photography. It also offers master’s degrees.
Peggy Loar, Corcoran’s interim director, told The New York Times that GW would take charge of the college’s faculty for at least a year.
University President Steven Knapp told The Times that the move “would be a very exciting opportunity and helps establish our university as a hub for the arts.”
“I’ve been talking to the Corcoran for a number of years about partnerships that would be beneficial,” Knapp said. “They are a close neighbor.”
This is also the second major expansion of the University’s arts offerings in the last few years. GW is already investing $33 million in the construction of the GW Museum and Textile Museum, which will be completed within the year.
Ben Vinson, dean of the Columbian College of Arts and Sciences, called the deal a “historic partnership that will dramatically improve the landscape of arts education in Washington, D.C.,” according to a University release.
The move would allow GW to create “new arts programs and interdisciplinary opportunities” while maintaining gallery space.
GW was rumored to be in talks with the Corcoran Gallery on 17th Street in October 2012, but the institution’s board reportedly began negotiating with the University of Maryland instead.
William Wilson Corcoran, the famed collector who founded the institution, was president of GW’s Board of Trustees from 1869 to 1888.
