Jan

Today in Smithsonian History: January 27, 1972

2013 view of the Grand Salon gallery space inside the Renwick Gallery, home of the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s craft and decorative art program, in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Ron Blunt)

The Octogan Room with a chandelier by Dale Chihuly and Hiram Powers' "The Greek Slave" in the renovated Renwick Gallery, Smithsonian's American Art Museum. (Photo by Ron Blunt)

The Octogon Room with a chandelier by Dale Chihuly and Hiram Powers’ “The Greek Slave” in the renovated Renwick Gallery, Smithsonian’s American Art Museum. (Photo by Ron Blunt)

January 27, 1972 The Renwick Gallery opens in the former Corcoran Gallery of Art Building, designed by James Renwick, Jr. The gallery is devoted to American creativity in crafts, design and decorative arts and is a curatorial branch of the National Collection of Fine Arts, now the National Museum of American Art.

Read more about the Renwick’s most recent renovation and spectacular opening exhibition. The Renwick Gallery reopens with a renewed sense of WONDER

People gathered in the Grand Salon at the opening of new Renwick Gallery on January 27,1972. The paintings displayed are the same as those exhibited a century ago when the building served as the original Corcoran Gallery of Art. (Photographer unknown, as featured in the Torch, March 1972)