Museum complex is managed by the Glenstone Foundation which was established in 2006.
Foundation founder: Mr. Mitchell Rales, from Baltimore. Rales is Maryland’s richest man and one of the 12 billionaires living in the Washington metro-area. Rales’s fortune is estimated at $7 billion and is linked to the Danaher Corporation. Danaher designs, manufactures, and markets professional, medical, industrial, and commercial products and services.
Foundation curator: Mrs. Emily Rai Rales, wife of founder. She is a Canadian of Chinese origins and studied arts at Wesley College. She started her professional career as an intern at the Guggenheim Museum.
Foundation caters on a collection of 1,300 works by post-World War II artists. It is the largest private contemporary art collection in the United States. The total worth of the Foundation’s artworks is estimated at $1.4 billion.
The Museum complex extends over 230-acre (93 ha) of land previously used by a fox hunting club.
The Museum complex includes: (1) an expansive sculpture garden unwinding along a network of landscaped pedestrian trails; (2) a museum building with a total surface of 30,000 square feet; and (3) an extension of the original museum consisting in a new building complex made of several pavilions with a total surface of over 200,000 square feet.
The museum building was inaugurated in 2006. It is designed in modernist style with light brutalist features. It makes a masterful use of its limestone elements. The architect is Charles Gwathmey. Born in 1938. Deceased in 2009. Notable figure of early modern architectural movement. Master of Architecture from Yale. Studied under Paul Rudolph. Elected fellow of AIA. Spent one year as resident in Architecture at the prestigious American Academy of Rome. Most of his buildings are in NYC. Taught at Princeton, Columbia, University of Pennsylvania, University of Texas and UCLA. Operated out of NYC. Main buildings: Museum of Contemporary Art of North Miami, Astor Place Tower in Manhattan and the United States Mission Building to the United Nations also in Manhattan.
The Pavilions complex was inaugurated in 2018. In 2020, it was a winner of the AIA architecture awards. The cost of the building was $ 216 million. Its design style falls in the rationalist architectural movement and fits nicely in the company of illustrious similar museum complexes such as the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Denmark, the Menil Collection in Houston and the Beyeler Foundation in Basel. It was designed by architect Thomas Phifer. North Carolinian. Born in 1953. BA and Master of Architecture both from Clemson University. Also studied at the Daniel Center for Architecture and Urban Studies in Genova, in 1976. Taught at Yale, Cornell, University of Texas and University of Pennsylvania. After 10 years of works at Richard Maier’s practice opened his own architectural firm. Operates out of NYC. Main buildings: Corning Museum of Glass in NYC, Carolina Museum of Arts in Raleigh, and Museum of Modern Arts in Warsaw.