By F. Lennox Campello
For many years now, off and on, I have been a member of the advisory panel that recommends to the City of Washington which art to acquire for its city collection via its ART BANK program.
I am always shocked how few submissions we get each year! And the artists who “know about it” keep it up every year to the point that by now, there are artists with almost twenty works of art in the collection of the District of Columbia!
Interested?
Each year, The DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities (CAH) acquires fine art from metropolitan artists to grow its Art Bank Collection. Artwork in the collection is managed by the Public Art Department of CAH and loaned to District government agencies for display in public areas and the offices of government buildings. Now in its 39th year, the Art Bank Collection includes nearly 3,000 artworks in various media.
For the purpose of this grant, metropolitan artist is defined as a legal resident of Washington, DC, or a legal resident of within a 50-mile radius of the Washington, DC boundaries, for at least one (1) year prior to the application deadline.
The DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities usually requests applications from qualified artists and District nonprofit art galleries or organizations for its Fiscal Year Art Bank Program early on the year. Award amounts vary but eligible individual applicants may be awarded up to $15,000 and nonprofit art galleries or organizational applicants may be awarded up to $25,000.
How do you get on the list? Contact the Commission and ask them to put you on their email list; do so by sending Kerry Kaleba (Grants Program Associate) an email to kerry.kaleba@dc.gov and tell her that Lenny sent you.
How do you apply? It’s all done online at the CAH website (https://dcarts.dc.gov) and it’s all free! Do not leave it to the last minute, as they require a lot of stuff besides images; the applications are usually due by mid-May each year.
Some inside trader stuff that CAH won’t tell you, but that I do from my multi-decade experience as a panelist:
- They are too embarrassed to admit it, but I have never, ever seen any nudes accepted. Not one itty bitty… ahhh. This is (of course) their prerogative, but in a city surrounded by nude statues everywhere that we look, it’s a little odd that we’re more prudish now than in the 1800s when most of those mostly nude women statues (except for the mostly naked 46 Roman Legionnaires in Union Station) went up.
- They will accept work that requires electricity – such as Tim Tate’s magnificent work in the ART BAK collection – but they are usually in storage because of the potential liability of a work requiring electricity in a public space (at least that how it was explained to me).
- Anything that can be remotely offensive to anyone… ahhh…
You can see all the works in ART BANK, as well as all other work in the collection of the city at https://dcarts.emuseum.com – by the way, there are no Campellos in the collection… cough… cough…
In ART BANK you can find work by all the DC area blue chip artists: Gene Davis, Tim Tate, Yuriko Yamaguchi, Michael B. Platt, Sam Gilliam, Lois Mailou Jones, Willem de Looper, Percy Martin, Lou Stovall, Jacob Kainen, and others.
There are tons of Gilliams, but the king of the collection seems to be the immensely talented Joseph Craig English, who has several dozens of works in the collection.
Some of my faves are a gorgeous Xerox, chine colle’ on pulp, and paint by the late Michael B. Platt titled “Olga”, also “Bonfield’s, A Farewell” by Joseph Craig English, and “Snowfall” by Alessandra Torres.
About the Author: F. Lennox Campello’s art news, information, gallery openings, commentary, criticism, happenings, opportunities, and everything associated with the global visual arts scene with a special focus on the Greater Washington, DC area has been a premier source for the art community for over 20 years. Since 2003, his blog has been the 11th highest ranked art blog on the planet with over SIX million visitors.
