WASHINGTON — University of Maryland has announced a new partnership with The Phillips Collection, which university officials hope will lead to a “laboratory for the arts.”
“To really do really good scholarship and research, you need laboratories,” Brian Ullmann, a University of Maryland spokesman, tells WTOP. “What has been missing from the University of Maryland is that laboratory for the arts. Now our faculty in art history and studio arts have access to a world-renowned collection — in effect, our laboratory for the arts.”
The partnership will create the University of Maryland Center for Art and Knowledge at The Phillips Collection, in addition to creating new community programs, courses for students, an art gallery and an open-art storage facility in College Park, university officials announced Monday.
While there is hopes that the collaboration will expand the university’s footprint in D.C., The Phillips Collection, a private art museum in D.C., hopes to broaden its reach and pursue initiatives that position the museum as an “experiment station.”
Ullmann says that could mean visitors to the new gallery could go on tours with “augmented reality” goggles, allowing them to see famous paintings “deconstructed” as the tour guide talks about brush strokes.
“Imagine completely changing that museum experience and getting into levels of detail that aren’t possible right now,” Ullmann says.
As part of the new partnership, University of Maryland students, faculty, staff and members of the Alumni Association will receive free admission to the Phillips, and have special access to the collection, facilities and museum staff for research and educational purposes. The Phillips will also offer internships for students in interdisciplinary fields.
WTOP’s Kristi King contributed to this report.
