You'll need a special badge to see this "public" art collection

A few months ago I attended the grand opening of the Washington Convention Center's public art collection. The center introduced the largest public art collection in Washington, DC. Over 120 works of art, sculpture, paintings, photography, graphics and mixed media. They spent around four million dollars, of which half was allocated to DC area artists.

And the Washington Convention Center art selection committee, and its art advisory program, and the ad hoc community art program committee and all the other many groups, committees or people who had a say, word, vote or check into what gets acquired for a public art collection of this magnitude have done a surprisingly outstanding job. I counted almost sixty names somehow associated with what art was selected for the collection.

Also strange is the fact that apparently, due to security concerns, this public art collection is apparently not open to the public. That is, future convention attendees, official visitors and the people who work there have access to it, but the general public does not. I am trying to confirm this, but if true, some sort of remedy (such as "by appointment tours") should be institutionalized.

But in spite of that, this is overall an excellent collection of art, which manages to showcase some major new pieces by blue chip artists, as well as to provide many of our own well-known and emerging area artists with an opportunity to flex their artistic muscles. Because this is Washington, DC, it also manages (as expected) to avoid displaying a nude figure anywhere in the building, although this will change for two days in August of 2004, when Room 146 of the Center hosts the International Nude Art Expo 2004 from 21-22 August 2004.

In fact, the major problem that I have with the Washington Convention Center is that if they spent four million dollars to acquire the art, then they need to start figuring out how to get a few more million dollars, because this beautiful space is so vast, and the number of huge, empty walls so many, that the current number of artworks adorning the Center is but a minute - I would say 5% - of what truly needs to be there to have the art make the visual impact that I think it must make.

Article Author: Lenny Campello

F. Lennox Campello is a widely published Washington, DC based art critic, as well as an award winning artist and curator. He is also often heard on NPR and the Voice of America discussing visual art issues. …

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