The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden is showing pieces they’ve recently added to their collection with Recent Acquisitions, a show that underscores the direction the museum is moving in terms of collecting, and draws attention to the work of the Contemporary Acquisitions Council (CAC). The CAC helped bring Radiant, a stand-out work by New York-based artist Alyson Shotz, to the museum.

Anne Ellegood, associate curator at the Hirshhorn, said that the museum launched the CAC in the fall of 2006 in order to focus on bringing works by emerging artists into the collection. Council members are primarily local collectors who have been invited to join, and they make financial contributions that are supplemented by the museums’ acquisitions budget. The CAC has spent about $100,000 at each of the three biannual meetings that have occurred so far.

The curators on staff select the works that the CAC considers — the works are actually brought to D.C. for meetings, and 50-80% are selected — and then the director approves their choices.