Historic Building Reimagined with Welcoming and Accessible New Amenities

The Folger Shakespeare Library announced that its historic home on Capitol Hill will reopen on Friday, June 21, 2024. The $80.5 million renovation has made the historic building accessible and added a new public wing, the Adams Pavilion, with 12,000 square feet of public space. The expansion houses two new exhibition halls that will offer visitors opportunities to engage directly with the Folger’s world-class collection, including its 82 copies of Shakespeare’s First Folio which will be displayed together to the public for the first time. Accessible garden entrances and visitor lobbies, a café, a new learning lab and collaborative research spaces, and an expanded gift shop are among the visitor amenities and building enhancements added during the four-year construction project. 

“This renovation expresses our faith in the ongoing importance of Shakespeare, the arts, and the humanities to our civic life,” said Folger Director Michael Witmore. “Years in the making, these enhancements to our building and grounds guarantee that generations of DC residents and visitors will engage with our collections and programs in new and profound ways. As we look to the Folger’s next century in Washington, we continue to build community through programs that explore powerful stories as part of an inquiry into history and the human condition.”