From The White House To America’s First Modern Art Museum–Washington, D.C. As Arts Destination

With everything else it’s known for, Washington, D.C. can be easily overlooked as a premier destination for art lovers. From the National Gallery of Art to the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery, the Smithsonian American Art Museum and Renwick Gallery, the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Asian Art, the Philips Collection–America’s first Modern art museum–the Howard University Gallery of Art and of course all the sculptures and monuments found throughout the city, forget politicians and lobbyists, many of the nation’s greatest artists take up residence in Washington, D.C.

Another extraordinary art collection in the nation’s capital belongs to the White House. Some 60,000 objects from the decorative arts and furniture to paintings and sculpture are in its possession.

While each administration significantly customizes the items on view in the upstairs family living quarters and Oval Office, the ground floor and first floor presentation remains largely the same–at the President and First Lady’s discretion.

Seeing these artworks in person does take extensive planning.

For American citizens, requests to join a public tour of the White House must go through each visitor’s member of Congress no less than 21-days in advance. Additional lead time should be given to avoid scheduling conflicts and sellouts. Non-U.S. citizens interested in touring should contact their embassy in Washington, D.C. Find a complete list of requirements for taking a public tour of the White House here.

For those who do make it, one item not to be missed can be found in the Vermeil Room on the ground floor: Alma Thomas’ “Resurrection.”

This radiating expression of vivid color became the first painting by an African American female to enter the White House collection when it was acquired in 2015.

Acquisitions of new pieces for the White House are a collaborative effort between the First Lady, the Committee for the Preservation of the White House, the White House Historical Association and the White House Office of the Curator. The Office of the Curator collects and preserves objects in the White House collection, maintaining them to museum standards. It’s the responsibility of the Historical Association to provide interpretation of all that stuff for the public.

As part of its educational mission, the White House Historical Association developed a 360-degree tour virtual of the executive mansion within the past year as tours have been curtailed due to COVID-19. An even more recent project sheds new light on slavery in the White House and surrounding neighborhoods.

The organization, created in 1961 by Jackie Kennedy, also works extensively with school groups, produces its own podcast, and further raises money to support its mission of protecting, preserving and providing public access to the history of the building. One way it does this is by commissioning an official White House Christmas ornament each year.

Beyond “Resurrection” at the White House, The Phillips Collection presently offers a unique opportunity to see Thomas’ (1891-1978) work in volume. The long-time D.C. resident and educator receives a full retrospective during “Alma Thomas: Everything is Beautiful” through January 23, 2022. This  comprehensive overview of her extraordinary career includes 50 canvases spanning 1922-1977, along with marionettes, costume drawings, prints made with her students and sculpture far predating her breakthrough “Alma’s Stripes” from the mid-60s for which she became famous.

Around Washington, D.C.

Not only does The Phillips Collection present an historic exhibition for Howard University grad Thomas, it does so additionally for another Howard grad: David Driskell (1931-2020). “David Driskell: Icons of Nature and History,” on view through January 9, 2022, brings together approximately 60 of his artworks. Overshadowed by his career as one of America’s foremost art historians, educators and curators, Driskell’s artmaking takes center stage here, and what a treat it is–joyful, sensitive, expressive, vibrant, narrative.

Photographer James Van Der Zee compiled an extraordinary chronicle of Harlem during the 1920s and 1930s, a body of work on view through May 22, 2022 at the National Gallery of Art during the exhibition “James Van Der Zee’s Photographs: A Portrait of Harlem.”

“James Van Der Zee created an intimate, celebratory and rich portrait of African American life in Harlem in the first half of the 20^th century,” Diane Waggoner, the National Gallery’s curator of 19th-century photographs said in this video. “His sensitive studio portraits presented a prosperous, cosmopolitan view of Black modernity.”

The National Gallery shares that view through 40 works from its collection featuring Van Der Zee’s studio portraits as well as his photographs of Harlem nightclubs and storefronts, religious, social, political and athletic community groups. His carefully composed photographs conveyed the personalities, aspirations and spirit of his sitters.

An enormous trove of Van Der Zee’s pictures–tens of thousands of photos and negatives–were jointly acquired by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the Studio Museum of Harlem earlier this month assuring greater attention will be forthcoming for this underappreciated artist.

A home for the future curious, the Smithsonian’s Arts and Industries Building reoponed this November for the first time since 2004 after undergoing a massive renovation. It did so with the building-wide exhibition, “FUTURES.” As part of the fun, visitors can speak directly to the future and have real-time holographic conversations across the world with people in Doha, Qatar.

Passersby at a paired portal site in the district of Msheireb in Doha, Qatar, are connected to those in D.C. allowing participants in each location a unique opportunity for cultural exchange.

“The holo-capsule will connect Americans and Qataris like never before, serving as a symbol of our commitment to continued dialogue between our nations,” H.E. Meshal Bin Hamad Al-Thani, Ambassador of the State of Qatar to the United States, said.

For overnight stays in D.C., barring an invitation to crash at the Bidens,’ consider making reservations at the Kimpton Banneker Hotel.

The Banneker takes its name from Benjamin Banneker, an inventor, mathematician and astronomer born to a free African American woman and former slave father in 1731. Among countless noteworthy achievements, he helped survey what would eventually become the city, in the process, establishing its meridian line, now 16^th Street, along which the hotel sits.