Hirshhorn Museum & Sculpture Garden

The Smithsonian’s cylindrical modern art museum is the best of its kind in Washington. Sculptures and canvases are presented in chronological fashion, from modernism’s early days to pop art to contemporary. Gallery spaces are usually airy and bright, infused with the right edge of cold showroom chic you expect in modern art museums. Highlights include sculptures by Rodin, Brancusi, Calder and Moore, along with canvases by Bacon, Miró, O’Keeffe, Warhol, Stella and Kiefer. On Fridays and Saturdays, the Improv Art Room invites children to create their own works of art. Outside and across Jefferson Dr, the sunken Sculpture Garden feels, on the right day, like a bouncy jaunt through a Lewis Carroll Wonderland all prettified up. Young lovers, lost tourists and serene locals wander by sculptures such as Rodin’s The Burghers of Calais.