What Is Glenstone?
John Hill
3. July 2023
Aerial view of the Pavilions building (Photo: Screenshot)
In a short film produced by Glenstone Museum, founders Emily and Mitch Rales, architect Thomas Phifer, artists Doris Salcedo, Glenn Ligon, and Jeff Wall, and numerous members of the Glenstone team discuss the museum located on 230 acres in Potomac, Maryland.
Calm and contemplative are two of the words heard multiple times during the ten-minute video, both in relation to the intentions of the Rales in creating Glenstone and in the reality of its day-to-day operations. Although it first opened in 2006, Glenstone didn't earn its place as a must-visit art institution until the opening of the Pavilions building, designed by Thomas Phifer and Partners, in 2018. The short film comes ten years after the June 2013 groundbreaking for the Pavilions and nearly five years since its November 2018 inauguration. Phifer's buildings — the Pavilions and the standalone Serra Pavilion he added in 2022 — do a great deal to create the calm and contemplative environment of Glenstone, captured well in the short film below.