Hirshhorn Museum

About this museum

The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden occupies a singular position among American art institutions: it is the nation's museum of modern and contemporary art, located on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., and its entire collection - acquired largely from the personal holdings of industrialist Joseph Hirshhorn, who donated them to the American people in 1966 - is yours to explore without paying a cent. That combination of world - class holdings and free, open access makes the Hirshhorn one of the most democratic art experiences in the country.The cylindrical concrete building, designed by Gordon Bunshaft and completed in 1974, is itself a statement: bold, unapologetic, a modernist object planted deliberately on the most storied stretch of civic green in America. Inside, the collection encompasses major works of postwar American art alongside international movements - Abstract Expressionism, Minimalism, Pop Art, Conceptual Art, and well beyond, reaching into the most current conversations in global contemporary art. The sculpture garden, sunken and serene, provides one of the Mall's most unexpected pleasures: a curated outdoor space where visitors can slow down among significant sculptures without the jostle of the larger institutions nearby.With a rating of 4.5 out of 5 from more than 6, 100 visitors, the Hirshhorn is widely recognized as one of Washington's most rewarding free stops. Hours run daily from 10AM to 5:30PM, with Monday hours beginning at noon - a slightly later start worth bearing in mind when planning your day on the Mall. The museum is part of the Smithsonian Institution and carries all the institutional weight that implies, yet it manages to feel genuinely alive to the present moment in a way that more encyclopedic museums sometimes don't. Learn more at hirshhorn.si.edu. Admission is free, as it always has been.