News Release: April 30, 2001

National Gallery of Art Sculpture and Pavillion Café Extend Hours Memorial Day through Labor Day

Washington, DC -- Beginning Memorial Day, May 28, and extending through Labor Day, September 3, the National Gallery of Art Sculpture Garden will be open until 7:00 p.m. daily. The hours during this period are Monday through Saturday, 10:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m., and Sunday from 11:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. The Pavilion Café will stay open until 6 p.m. daily during this period. Admission to the Sculpture Garden is free of charge. It is located at Seventh Street and Constitution Avenue, NW, on the National Mall, in the block adjacent to the West Building of the Gallery.

The Pavilion Café, located within the Sculpture Garden, will be open as follows during this same period: Monday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Sunday, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. The Café has panoramic views of the reflecting pool and fountain and Sculpture Garden and serves specialty pizzas, sandwiches, soup, salads, desserts, coffee, wine, and beer. A children�s menu is available. Indoor and outdoor seating is provided.

Given to the nation by The Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation, the 6.1-acre Sculpture Garden opened to the public on May 23, 1999. The dynamic and richly landscaped setting includes seventeen major works of post-World War II sculpture by such internationally renowned artists as Louise Bourgeois, Mark di Suvero, Roy Lichtenstein, Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen, and Tony Smith. Visitors are able to enjoy a reflecting pool in summer and an ice-skating rink in winter, as well as spacious seating and walking areas amid the native American canopy trees, flowering trees, shrubs, groundcovers, and perennials.

General Information

The National Gallery of Art and its Sculpture Garden are at all times free to the public. They are located on the National Mall between 3rd and 9th Streets at Constitution Avenue NW, and are open Monday through Saturday from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and Sunday from 11:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. The Gallery is closed on December 25 and January 1. For information call (202) 737-4215 or the Telecommunications Device for the Deaf (TDD) at (202) 842-6176, or visit the Gallery's Web site at www.nga.gov.

Visitors will be asked to present all carried items for inspection upon entering the East and West Buildings. Checkrooms are free of charge and located at each entrance. Luggage and other oversized bags must be presented at the 4th Street entrances to the East or West Building to permit x-ray screening and must be deposited in the checkrooms at those entrances. For the safety of visitors and the works of art, nothing may be carried into the Gallery on a visitor's back. Any bag or other items that cannot be carried reasonably and safely in some other manner must be left in the checkrooms. Items larger than 17 x 26 inches cannot be accepted by the Gallery or its checkrooms.

For additional press information please call or send inquiries to:

Press Office
National Gallery of Art
2000B South Club Drive
Landover, MD 20785
phone: (202) 842-6353 e-mail: pressinfo@nga.gov

Deborah Ziska
Chief of Press and Public Information
(202) 842-6353
ds-ziska@nga.gov

If you are a member of the press and would like to be added to our press list, click here.