The 35 days of the United States Government partial shutdown in late December through late January left the Smithsonian museums in Washington, D.C. barren and vacant of visitors. Tourists and locals, temporarily not working, roamed, as in a sci-fi movie, the nation’s capital looking for open, free cultural exhibitions. Private museums, including the Phillips Collection and Kreeger Museum, charged fees that tourists were unwilling to pay, and locals at this time could not pay, not knowing when the situation would resolve and when their paychecks would arrive. The United Kingdom and France managed to keep their museums open, free and accessible during government strikes and temporary shutdowns; the embassies of these and other nations satisfied cultural cravings for all visitors. Foreign embassies, foreign collections and cultural centers offer permanent art on view, while temporary … [Read more...] about VISUAL DIPLOMACY: GLOBAL EMBASSIES OPEN GALLERIES TO U.S. VISITORS
washington d.c.
A Study in Contrasts: The 2017 Presidential Inauguration Festivities and Women’s March on Washington
By Nancy Nesvet Washington D.C. - On Inauguration Day, January 20, 2017, two artworks were exhibited in celebration of the event. In the Capitol Building, George Caleb Bingham’s “The Verdict of the People,” on loan from the Saint Louis Art Museum, hung over the dais table at the inaugural lunch for Congress and the president and vice president. In depicting a party of white men who had apparently voted, with the lone black man pushing a cart, and the three women, all of whom could not vote, waving a banner proclaiming “Freedom for Virtue, Restriction for Vice”, the painting seemed an odd choice for the lunch after President Trump’s oath of office. The second artwork, displayed in the National Portrait Gallery, is the only official portrait, so far, of President Donald J. Trump. The photograph, shown here, courtesy of the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery, made by … [Read more...] about A Study in Contrasts: The 2017 Presidential Inauguration Festivities and Women’s March on Washington