Art for the White House: A Changing Portrait of America

A Special Conversation in Partnership with the White House Historical Association,

Featuring:

Leslie Greene Bowman,

author of 

Art of the White House:

A Changing Portrait of America

Thursday, October 22, 2026, 6:00 pm

OPEN TO THE PUBLIC

$30 Members - $40 Non-Members

The Arts Club of Washington invites you to a very special evening, in partnership with the White House Historical Association and conceived in celebration of the 250th birthday of the United States of America,  Art for the White House: A Changing Portrait of America reveals how America’s history is told through the more than five hundred paintings, illustrations, and sculptures collected for the President’s House since President John Adams moved into the barely finished mansion November 1, 1800.

LESLIE GREENE BOWMAN is an author, historian, and president emerita of Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello in Charlottesville, Virginia. She has devoted her career to art and history museums. After serving as curator of decorative arts and assistant director of exhibitions at Los Angeles County Museum of Art, she was named director of Winterthur Museum, Garden and Library in Delaware in 1999. From 2008 to 2023 she was president of the Thomas Jefferson Foundation, which owns and operates Monticello. Bowman earned her bachelor of philosophy degree at Miami University of Ohio and her master of arts degree in early American culture as a Winterthur Fellow at the University of Delaware. She is a trustee emerita of the National Trust for Historic Preservation and the Association of Art Museum Directors. By presidential appointment, she served on the Committee for the Preservation of the White House under Presidents Biden, Trump, Obama, George W. Bush, and Clinton.

Bowman lives in Keswick, Virginia, with her dogs and horses.  She travels frequently, especially to Europe. Besides riding, she is fond of biking, hiking, cooking, and new adventures.

• Time:
  6:00 p.m. Doors Open
  6:30 p.m. Talk Begins
• Location: Monroe Parlor, The Arts Club of Washington
• Hors d'Oeuvres and Open Bar