Sackler Gallery Passage - The Museum Below the Garden
Photo: ajay_suresh, CC BY 4.0 (cropped)
A stop on Washington DC National Mall Walking Tour, a free self-guided tour.
From the Freer's lower level, a corridor runs underground to the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery. Together the two buildings make up the National Museum of Asian Art.
The Sackler opened in 1987 with about 1,000 works of Asian art given by Arthur M. Sackler, a New York doctor and collector. Most of it lies below ground, under the Enid A. Haupt Garden; only its small entrance pavilion shows above the surface.
The two halves work differently. Freer's will bars the Freer from lending art or showing other collections beside his, but the Sackler can borrow and lend, so it hosts most of the museum's traveling and special exhibitions. The passage lets you see both in one visit without going outside.
When you come back up, head out through the Haupt Garden and back to the stop.
More on Wikipedia: Arthur M. Sackler Gallery · Arthur M. Sackler · National Museum of Asian Art
Stops on this tour
- Washington Monument
- National Museum of African American History and Cu
- National Museum of American History
- Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History
- National Gallery of Art
- United States Capitol
- United States Botanic Garden
- National Museum of the American Indian
- National Air and Space Museum
- Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden
- The Smithsonian Institution Building - The Castle
- Freer Gallery of Art
- Jefferson Memorial
- World War II Memorial
- Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial
- Korean War Memorial
- Lincoln Memorial
- Vietnam Veterans Memorial
- White House Ellipse
- White House
- Lafayette Square