City Hall Adds New Art to Collection
Prescott Moore Lassman's End of Pew, from a series about congregants at the All Souls Church. Copyright the artist. Image courtesy of the City Hall Art Collection. |
In 2006, local artist Sondra N. Arkin was given an enviable but extremely difficult job: acquire the defining volume of works that captured the breadth and scope of D.C. art to display in HeART of DC, the City Hall Art Collection at the John A. Wilson Building. She was given funds through the D.C. Commission on Arts and Humanities, access to their temporary art bank, six floors of empty hallways, and mere months to make it all happen. By that October, she'd purchased 155 pieces of art and borrowed 18 from the art bank to round out the collection of D.C.'s greatest artists.
Whether you've browsed the collection or not, make time to head over soon. After the first, somewhat harried round of purchases, Arkin took a breather and noted any gaps in the collection. She found 28 new works to fill them, now newly installed, for a total of 201 pieces of art to be celebrated during a reception open to the public next Tuesday, September 23, from 5 to 7 p.m.
James Lesesne Wells' Spanish Steps. Copyright the artist. Image courtesy of the City Hall Art Collection. |
The collection as a whole is overwhelming, in the best sense of the word. With a couple exceptions, it's hard to imagine a richer survey of regional works. On one end you'll find artists like famed painter Alma Thomas, born in 1891; she was the first person to graduate from Howard University's fine art department and the first black woman to have a solo show at the Whitney in New York. Her paintings, which evolved over the years from realism to abstract, are held by the Hirshhorn, the National Gallery of Art, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the National Museum of Women in the Arts, and the Phillips Collection. On the other end of the spectrum are the young talents shaping today's art scene: Molly Springfield, Billy Colbert, Michael Dax Iacovone and newly named Trawick Prize winner, Maggie Michael, to name a few. (Even James Calder, a two-time Exposed winner, is in it!)
The collection is bound by a few restrictions, due to its location on public property. No nudity, no politics. Everything must be encased behind plexiglass, so there are no free-standing sculptures. These rules impact the collection, but Arkin's has managed to make that impact minimal. For artists whose work is often ruled by nudes or possibly offensive images, she strove to attain a milder piece, so at least the artist's name is included and body of work will be remembered. Politics and even nudity can actually be found in the collection by those interested to look for it, but safely shielded from eyes that won't look further than canvas deep.
 Alexandra Huttinger's Samuel Dilbers, part of the series of portraits of former slaves titled Corn Ditties. Copyright the artist. Image courtesy of the City Hall Art Collection. |
The success of the collection is thanks to Arkin, whose story of compiling and hanging the artwork is as moving as the collection itself. Arkin has been an established figure in the city for decades, not only as an artist who's had more shows in the city than you or I can count, but as the Founding Director of Mid-City Artists, President of the Board of Directors for Artomatic, panel member for DCCAH public art projects, and, naturally, was twice nominated for Mayor's Arts Awards. Her dedication not just to supporting the arts, but to the public embrace of it, is something D.C. is lucky to have. In her effort to make the City Hall collection, she, like anyone who's been around the art scene awhile, had about 50 names off the top of her head who were must-haves. For the rest, she began studio hopping, interviewing artists, teachers and curators, and tracking down estates. Arkin notes how fascinating it was to track down many of the older artists and become a beneficiary to their oral histories. (After our tour I mentioned she should write a book on the experience; I think she thought I was joking.)
City Hall, located at 1350 Pennsylvania Ave NW, is open to the public from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday (you'll just need ID and must pass through an X-ray machine). Visitors may want to grab one of the silver pamphlets near the entrance with a map of the collection. Each of the six floors has two hallways of art, one on each side of the building, but it's fairly easy to navigate. You should certainly think about browsing the art during one (or over many) of your lunch hours, but we highly suggest also attending the usually once-a-month tours, led by either Arkin or an artist in the collection. Though the work alone is captivating, the collection is really about the history of art in the nation's capital, so it's better to enrich the experience by getting to hear about the artists' lives, the history of D.C. itself that shaped the art, and how pieces piggy-back on each other through the years.
A reception to celebrate the new additions to the HeART of DC is next Tuesday, September 23, from 5 to 7 p.m., is free and open to the public, and will include speakers from the city and the collection.