General Resources
Descriptions of resources are adapted or quoted from vendor websites.
Below are the four special institutions created by Congressional statute to perform a national mission as a federal trust instrumentality:
National Gallery of Art – serves as a center of visual art, education, and culture. The collection includes more than 150,000 paintings, sculpture, decorative arts, photographs, prints, and drawings spans the history of Western art with the purpose of showcasing some of the triumphs of human creativity.
John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts – established in its authorizing statute in 1964, : the center’s mission is to present classical and contemporary music, opera, drama, dance, and other performing arts from the United States and other countries.
Smithsonian Institution -- the world’s largest museum, education, and research complex, with twenty-one museums and the National Zoo—shaping the future by preserving heritage, discovering new knowledge, and sharing our resources with the world. The Institution was founded in 1846.
Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars – established by an Act of Congress in 1968 as the national, living memorial honoring President Woodrow Wilson, it is the nation's key non-partisan policy forum for conducting and sponsoring original scholarship and convenes balanced and inclusive dialogue through its programs, which cover all regions of the world and several major global issues to inform actionable ideas for the policy community. The center is governed by its own residentially appointed Board of Trustees and supported by public and private funds.