The museum's founder, Duncan Phillips, used words like "enchantment," "joy-giving" and "life-enhancing" when he wrote about the experience of seeing art. By displaying superb modern works in an intimate setting, he hoped to encourage visitors to appreciate new, even challenging, forms of artistic expression.

The Phillips Collection opened to the public in 1921 and is America's first museum of modern art. It is a private institution that is not a part of the federal government. It relies for support on admission and program fees, endowment income, and generous assistance from individual donors, corporations, foundations, and others.

The center for the study of modern art
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