DC's Alternative Art Spaces, Past & Present

DIY -- Do It Yourself. As applied to music and the arts, DIY usually signifies the show, project, or venue is produced by the artists themselves. Even though not always not-for-profit on paper, usually DIY spaces are run without being part of, or subject to direct oversight of a typical corporation, government agency, or overarching bureaucratic framework. Nor would shareholder be profit the main motive.

The idea of having multiple DIY arts spaces in downtown DC is somewhat of an anomaly today. Many of those arts spaces are located outside the downtown core in group houses, places of worship, or underutilized retail spaces.

A new exhibition (D.I.Y. in the District) located on the first floor of the MLK Library highlights alternative DIY arts spaces in DC from the 1970s to the present. From Rhizome (located in a residential setting way uptown), to d.c. space (formerly located in the heart of downtown DC), the exhibition uses venue ephemera, archival photos, and audiovisuals to show how these venues helped shape the usually unrecognized arts culture embodied in DC's local population. That is to say, the arts outside of national or international museums and organizations.

Perhaps a partial "victim of their own success," dc. space closed in 1991 as downtown DC was about to see a 30 year boom of redevelopment and new construction that continues today. That redevelopment boom transformed downtown culture to favor retail and entertainment, but much of the DIY arts scene was left out. There are art galleries, theatres, and entertainment venues downtown, but the cultural scene is dominated by larger entities such as the Smithsonian (SAAM and NPG) and the 20,000 Capital One Arena which is primarily a sports venue. But, smaller artist-run galleries such as Touchstone (1976) do still exist.

MLK Library has grown over the past decade to be a place for so many diverse resources and I'm glad these great hall exhibitions have been a part of that growth.

D.I.Y. in the District is open through December 7, 2025. 901 G St NW, Washington, DC 20001.

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Video: Beyond Granite Reflections

With the Beyond Granite exhibition closing a few weeks ago, I wanted to take a moment to delve into the meaning of commemoration here in Washington, DC. This video offers notes on the specific elements of each of the six installations, but also delves into the motivations behind the artists' design choices.

What truly struck me was the profound way in which these installations connected with the existing commemorative landscape of the Mall. It was fascinating to witness the powerful intersections between history, art, and remembrance, and how they all intertwine to create a tapestry of meaning that —in theory— transcends time. Even if the exhibition was but one month in duration, the reflection on commemoration will continue.

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Exhibition Preview: The Wall/El Muro

The National Building Museum is open Friday-Monday 11am-4pm. 401 F Street NW.

What is a border? I often think about borders living here in the District of Columbia. Since Virginia, Maryland, and the District comprise a dense and diverse metropolitan area, much attention is paid to borders, what living on one side or the other means for your life, and what those borders say about us depending on where we live and work relative to them. Even within DC itself, political borders like Wards and Quadrants are significant markers of identity and policy. 

The Wall/El Muro: What is a Border Wall? exhibition at the National Building Museum is both a swift historical dive into the U.S.-Mexico border as part of our built world, as well as an introduction to understanding the impact of the infrastructure itself. This show is presented in English and Spanish.

The exhibition takes a wide view at the outset, helping visitors define what a border actually is and displaying a fascinating map (c. 1728) of Spanish North America denoting the borders of American Indian tribes before the British, French, Spanish, and others divided up the continent, eventually morphing into the national borders we have today. Of course national borders are not new, and not exclusive to North America, a fact smartly acknowledged here in the first bay, visualizing border walls and barriers across the globe. 

Border wall prototypes c. 2019.

From there the focus is in the U.S.-Mexico border, and not just the physical manifestation of the border wall. The exhibition has a running timeline from the late 1700s to present day on border policy, popular fears around immigrants and immigration, and national immigration policy itself. 

There is a good division among storytelling about the history of the border wall, examination of the physical infrastructure of the many types of walls & barriers, and the impact of the existence of borders including on the people who cross or attempt to cross, the mechanisms around how we ask people to access borders, and the results of the often dangerous and violent process of interacting with the border.

Migrant belongings left behind in the Sonoran Desert.

Complementing the maps, timelines, and infographics are several extraordinary objects.

One ordinary chain link fence with barbed wire atop stood out even before I entered the exhibition because I could see it from the Museum's Great Hall, which has windows into the show. This small section of fence was used by U.S. authorities in 1950 as part of a border wall between Mexico and the U.S. state of California. It was installed in 1950. This fencing had been used before, though. During World War II, it separated internees from the outside world as they were detained in the Crystal City Alien Enemy Detention Facility in Texas. A fence serving two borders, within a different time, space, and affect.

Another was the bright pink teeter-totter, a universal children's play thing and simple machine, but also a protest. The teeter-totter brought children together through the border fence, with each half of the lever on the opposite of the border wall between Mexico and the United States. A short accompanying video shed light on the artists and the installation which was located near El Paso, Texas.

I walked away still thinking about the essence of what it means to have national borders, state borders, even local neighborhood borders. So many questions are still on the table after seeing this exhibition: Do borders necessarily beget violence? Who decides where borders are located? In which other forms, besides lines on a map or fences in the ground do we enforce borders? What would a borderless world look like? And so many others. In this way, I consider the exhibition a success.

The Wall/El Muro opens on Saturday November 6, 2021 and closes one year later on November 6, 2022. It;s located on the first floor of the National Building Museum at 401 F Street NW in downtown Washington, DC. The Museum is currently open Friday-Monday 11am-4pm. Tickets to the museum cost $10 for adults. OYu can still enter and view the Great Hall for free, which I highly recommend!

The Museum’s Great Hall is open to the public whenever the museum is open.

This exhibition preview was made possible by montly supporters on Patreon. Thanks to you all! Get weekly history posts, photos of DC’s most interesting places, and as more museums reopen, exhibition previews and reviews. Check it out—> Patreon: Attucks Adams.