When critics hinted Maurice Prendergast was getting a little repetitive as he approached 50, he could’ve hung up his brushes. After all, he’d been pretty successful. Instead, he headed back to where it all began–Paris–and came away reinvigorated with “a new impulse,” as he called it.

Today’s episode takes us to the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington DC. We’ll find out how an idea that started with Congress just before the Depression led to an official modern art museum on the National Mall!

Content produced by: A Long Look