Glenstone Museum - Mitchell and Emily Rales' Contemporary Art Museum in Potomac

[Tweaked]

Glenstone in its current state of development is a beautiful place.  When it is completed, it just might end up being one of, if not the best, art museums in the DC area.

Of course much of this will have to do with the Rales art collection itself, which, due to space limitations, little is available for public viewing.  Instead the museum offers solo or small group shows drawn from the collection.  Generally, if the Rales like an artist they collect deep.  The current building is 22,000 square feet and they are building a 150,000 square foot complex of connected pavilions to expand the gallery space.  The collection is comprised of Post-World War II contemporary and modern art. So, depending on your viewpoint, it might be the greatest thing you have ever seen...or it could be crap.

Admittance is free, with time scheduled appointments made via their website.  Each group is capped at 12 people and you are given a docent led tour of the galleries.  Tours last approximately one hour.  We had ten people in our group with two docents...it's about as private a tour as one can get.

Glenstone is very much in an infant stage.  Over the coming years, it has the potential to turn into something truly spectacular.

[DonRocks]

Admittance is free, with time scheduled appointments made via their website.  Each group is capped at 12 people and you are given a docent led tour of the galleries.

I've been meaning to get around to this thread for awhile now.

Thank you *very* much for highlighting one of the potentially greatest destinations in the Washington, DC area.

I L-O-V-E the fact that there is no admission. Also, that Mitchell and Emily Rales did not name the museum "in their own honor."

The only tiny discrepancy I can find is that their website now says they'll accommodate groups of up to 15, and that tours can last between 60 and 90 minutes. Wheelchairs are available.

Currently, the artist duo on display is Peter Fischli and David Weiss (exhibition runs May, 2013 - December, 2014), who have collaborated together since 1979.

And wow! They are the artists who created "Der Laufe Der Dinge" ("The Way Things Go," Film, 1987). I have seen this film, although I can't remember if it was at Comet Ping Pong (really, it might have been!), NGA, MOMA (where it's on permanent exhibition), or somewhere else, but it's about the damnedest chain-reaction film I have *ever* seen in my life. It is awesome, and suitable for people ages 8 through 80, as they say. A filming of a Rube Goldberg machine, the film is a full 30 minutes long; if you want to cheat, and I hope you don't, you can see excerpts of it on YouTube, but I'm purposely not including the links because it deserves to be seen in its entirety, and if you watch a five-minute clip, you'll completely lose the artists' intended purpose, and be cheating yourself in the process.

[Tweaked]

The greatly expanded Glenstone is scheduled to open Oct. 4, 2018.  The new building, called Pavilions, will feature 204,000 square feet of galleries.  This will make it one of the largest private museums in the country.  Admission will still be free, however online reservations are needed. 

Wash Post article

[dracisk]

Wow. I never heard of this place. As I started reading the thread I thought admission must be $20-30, but it's free. Wow. I'll check it out one of these days.

[Tweaked]

well that was exciting.  and by exciting I mean just getting the tickets!

Today, tickets for the month of April went online, at 10:00am.  By 10:08 the entire month was snapped up (and probably quicker than that).

Tickets are free and limited quantities. 

My advice

Go on the website early.  Have your day picked, number of people and a back up date.  Look at a calendar to figure out exact where your preferred day will be on a calendar layout. 

The first action is selecting the number of people you want to reserve tickets.  It's a drop down box, so drop down the box and hover on the number.

At exactly 10:00am, click that number.

A calendar box will pop up, immediately click your preferred date.  (since you have already looked at a calendar layout, you know exactly where your date will be.)

Once you have a date selected, a list of times available for that day will appear.  Don't hesitate, I suggest late morning.  They have a nice cafe, you can spend all day there. 

If you screw up and need to refresh, you'll get caught up in slow refreshing of the website.

Once you have your day and time selected, you then enter your name and e-mail address and the tickets are e-mailed to you.

If you haven't completed these steps by 10:05, you are out of luck.

[silentbob]

Thanks for the tips!  It's only a few miles from our house but we've never been able to get tickets.

[tfbrennan]

Couple other suggestions -- check the availability the same morning you might be able to go -- some small number seem to be released. For example, this morning, 2 tickets were available for 10 or 10:30.  Also, for the rest of February, if you arrive by Montgomery Co Ride-On bus (there's a stop at Glenstone), admission is guaranteed without a reservation -- I assume you show your ticket (I'm old), pass, whatever.

[Bart]

This month might have been particularly tough to get as they were just feature on the CBS Sunday Morning show a few weeks ago. 

[DonRocks]

I drove by Glenstone about a week ago - the property itself is extraordinary, and I only saw the parking area.

Some serious, serious money has gone into this thing - it's an "art version" of my fantasy, "if I were a billionaire," philanthropy project.