Rales gift funds National Gallery loans to smaller museums nationwide

A new gift from Mitchell P. Rales is helping the National Gallery of Art push major works far beyond Washington and into museums in Alaska, Colorado and eight other states, a direct effort to spread elite cultural assets to communities that rarely see them in person. The museum said the money will support long-term loans through its Across the Nation program, which is built around bringing works from the permanent collection into local institutions rather than waiting for audiences to travel to the capital.

Across the Nation launched in February 2025 and runs through 2026 as part of the National Gallery’s commemoration of the United States’ 250th anniversary. Ten partner museums in ten states are taking part: the Anchorage Museum in Alaska, the Boise Art Museum in Idaho, the Denver Art Museum in Colorado, the Figge Art Museum in Davenport, Iowa, the Flint Institute of Arts in Michigan, the Mint Museum in Charlotte, North Carolina, the New Britain Museum of Art in Connecticut, the Utah Museum of Contemporary Art in Salt Lake City, the Whatcom Museum in Bellingham, Washington, and the Nevada Museum of Art in Reno. Each institution selected between one and ten works to borrow.

The National Gallery said it is covering the full cost of transporting and installing the loans, and in some cases supporting marketing and conservation needs so the works can travel safely and draw audiences once they arrive. The museum said the program is designed to create unprecedented access by placing masterworks directly in communities outside Washington, D.C., rather than concentrating them in a single national venue.

The scale matters. The National Gallery said its collection includes more than 160,000 works, including 75,000-plus American works that anchor its America’s 250th initiative. That broader effort also includes exhibitions, year-round programming and a special installation opening March 1, 2026, in the West Building. The lending push grows out of the museum’s National Lending Service, which was established to make the collection accessible to museums across the United States.

Rales is not a one-time benefactor. The National Gallery and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences identify him as a former president of the museum, a trustee since 2006 and the chair of Danaher Corporation. He and his wife, Emily Wei Rales, also co-founded Glenstone in Potomac, Maryland. The couple previously gave the National Gallery $10 million in 2013 for its East Building expansion, underscoring a relationship that has now translated into a national effort to move art, and cultural access, well beyond Washington.