While most people, and most incoming Joe and Jane Hoyas, associate Washington with Congress, the White House and the Capitol, Washington is just as much a city of the arts as it is a city of politics. The District contains world-class museums and galleries, many with renowned and famous paintings, drawings and sculptures. And while deciding which galleries to visit can seem intimidating at first — there are over 20 main art museums in the city alone, not including the hundreds of small galleries and local museums — THE HOYA is here to help. Here is a list of this resident reporter’s top four art museums, with helpful hints on what to see, where to go and what to do. With this information, you’re sure to be a Washington art connoisseur before you can even utter “election 2008.”

National Gallery of Art: Fourth and Constitution Ave., NW

Created in 1937 by a joint resolution of Congress, the National Gallery of Art is Washington’s and arguably the nation’s premier art collection. Containing thousands of works of art from the Middle Ages through the present, the National Gallery is the must-see gallery of the city.

The original West Building, designed by John Russell Pope, contains Old Masters works in painting, paper and sculpture; world-famous works include Leonardo da Vinci’s Ginevra de’Benci, the only Leonardo in North America; Jan van Eyck’s The Annunciation panel; Peter Paul Ruben’s huge Daniel in the Lion’s Den; and Monet’s The Houses of Parliament, Sunset,in addition to hundreds more.

The newer East Building, designed by famous architect I.M. Pei and completed in 1978, features modern works by artists such as Pablo Picasso, Jackson Pollack and Andy Warhol, as well as study and research centers. Like any art museum, The National Gallery also holds numerous exhibitions throughout the year; currently on view are minimalist sculptures by D.C. artist Martin Puryear (until Sept. 1); Afghanistan: Hidden Treasures from the National Museum, Kabal (until Sept. 7); a series of beach photographs by Richard Misrach taken shortly after Sept. 11, 2001 (until Sept. 1); Medieval to Modern: Recent Acquisitions of Drawings, Prints, and Illustrated Books, which includes newly acquired works by Fra Bartolommeo, Lucas Cranach the Elder, J.M.W. Turner, and Edgar Degas (through Nov. 2); Max Ernst: Illustrated Books (until Sept. 6); and Crosscurrents: American and European Masterpieces from the Permanent Collection, featuring notable works from the West Gallery that are being shown on the Ground Floor, while the Main Gallery is being renovated (through Jan. 1, 2009).

But besides the fabulous and famous works of art, perhaps the best thing about National Gallery is something closer to most students’ hearts: Like the Smithsonian museums, it’s absolutely free. Since you’ve saved money, you can enjoy the culinary pleasures of the Gallery without feeling guilty: a delicious gelato bar on the ground floor and a lovely little café next to the gift shop that serves afternoon tea. The Gallery’s sculpture garden, adjacent to the West Building, also features a nice café with outdoor seating and an ice skating rink during the winter.

The Phillips Collection: 1600 21st St., NW

Away from the hustle and bustle of the joggers and tourists of the National Mall is the nation’s first modern art museum, the Phillips Collection, in the hip and chic Dupont Circle neighborhood. Just a GUTS bus stop away for art-seeking Hoyas, or an easy walk from the Dupont Circle Metro stop, the Phillips is housed in founder Duncan Phillips’ beautiful, 1897 Georgian Revival home. In the tradition of other great private homes-turned-art museums like the Frick Collection in New York City, the Phillips is a testament not only to American home architecture of the late nineteenth century, but also to Duncan Phillips’s elegant taste in home furnishings and his excellent and discriminating eye for modern art. The Phillips today is regarded as one of the world’s best small museums.

The highlight of the collection is Pierre-Auguste Renoir’s huge and iconic Luncheon of the Boating Party, finally back in the Phillips after years of traveling the world in various exhibits. The painting is a lovely example of the height of French Impressionism and has inspired numerous books, films and even a comic strip; readers might especially remember the painting for its specific role in the 2001 French film Amélie.

Other well-known artists with works in the collection include El Greco, Vincent van Gogh, Paul Cézanne, Edgar Degas, Pablo Picasso, Piet Mondrian and Georgia O’Keefe.
In addition to numerous highly regarded exhibitions throughout the year, the Phillips holds a popular series of classical music concerts every Sunday from October through May in its spacious music room, as well as “Artful Evenings,” which feature gallery talks on a variety of subjects, every Thursday night from 5:30 p.m. to 8 p.m.

Hillwood Museum and Gardens: 4155 Linnean Ave., NW

Though less accessible, Hillwood Museum and Gardens is well worth the 20-minute walk from the Van Ness/UDC Metro stop (Red line). The home of cereal heiress and prolific art collector Marjorie Merriweather Post, Hillwood is a gorgeous estate of 13 acres of gardens and a stately mansion holding Post’s art treasures. Hillwood’s slogan of “where fabulous lives” couldn’t be more fitting for this oasis of grandeur, elegance and opulence in the middle of the busy city.

Post’s collection, gathered over her many travels around the world, is primarily of 18th and 19th-century French and Russian imperial decorative art. Arranged in her fabulous mansion in a similar manner to the way they were displayed when Post lived there, the collection features a diamond crown worn by the Tsarena Alexandra of Russia at her wedding to Tsar Nicolas II; two Fabergé eggs; tapestries with designs by Francois Boucher; and Sèvres porcelain. It is today considered one of the most comprehensive collections of Russian imperial art outside of Russia.

If French and Russian decorative art isn’t your thing, Hillwood’s gardens are still well-worth visiting. The winding paths of blooming perennials and annuals lead to pretty fountains and statues, and the back of the garden contains a Japanese-style garden complete with bonsai and cherry trees; it’s a wonderful place to sit and unwind from the stress of Georgetown or even to study in a quiet, relatively calm place away from Lauinger.

Dumbarton Oaks Museum and Gardens: R and 31st Streets. (garden entrance), 32nd Street, between S and R Streets (museum entrance)

Just a stone’s throw away from the Hilltop, Dumbarton Oaks is one of the most beautiful and tranquil places to visit in Georgetown and in Washington. An institute of Harvard University in Byzantine and Pre-Colombian studies, as well as gardens and landscape, Dumbarton Oaks is the former estate of the collectors Robert and Mildred Bliss. For free during the fall and winter and for a small fee during the spring, Dumbarton Oaks is the perfect place to spend a lazy afternoon without having to go downtown. There are wide expansive lawns for picnicking and reclining, rows of roses and seasonal perennials, hidden stone paths around every corner and quiet benches under shady trees. Dumbarton is hardly ever crowded, and like Hillwood, the perfect place to study or read if you enjoy multitasking in a beautiful setting.

The museum, located inside the property’s huge house, recently opened last April after extensive renovations. It features over 1,200 objects from Byzantine Empire, ranging from Eucharistic platters to Byzantine and Roman jewelry and icons, as well as an extensive collection of Pre-Colombian art from Central and South America. The architect Philip Johnson, of the famed Glass House in New Canaan, Conn., designed a special pavilion for the Pre-Colombian collection in 1963, and the building itself is one of the highlights of the estate.

Other Notable Museums and Galleries in Washington:

Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden: Independence Ave. at Seventh St. SW
Modern and contemporary art

Freer and Sackler Galleries: 1050 Independence Ave. SW (Sackler); Jefferson Drive at 12th Street SW (Freer)
Asian, Near Eastern and Islamic art

The National Portrait Gallery and Smithsonian Museum of American Art: Eighth and F Streets NW
American art and portraiture

Corcoran Gallery of Art: 500 17th St. NW
American, contemporary and European art from the eighteenth century to the present

National Museum of Women in the Arts: 1250 New York Ave. NW

Works by women artists from all nationalities and periods