Evening star., 1934-09-23
BY FLORENCE S. BERGMAN.

w yASHINGTON as an art
a | center, in the same sense
wv that London and Paris and
other European capitals are
centers of art in their re-
spective countries. long has been a
dream Of many artists and persons in
terested in the arts. Our city has
grown so rapidly during the last dec
ade that as each new season ap-
proaches 1t is natural to speculate
upon the possibilities Of development
in art as in other fields. So decisive
have the changes been that there is
| no wishful thinking or synthetic en-
thusiasm of the booster type involved
in such speculation.
Certain circumstances would appear
to have predestined Washington for
an important role as a home of art
and testing ground of native talent.
| The city is itself a work of art, so
admirably planned in the days of
George Washington, that the Park
/ Commission of 1901 and the National
| Capital Park and Planning Commits
sion of 1926 did little more than
! amplify and extend the original l'En-
fant plan. In the second place
Washington's being the seat of Gov
ernment is Of undeniable Importance
! One notes in reviewing historic art
centers that most of them were or are
, political capitals in some sense. 1t is
! true that these cities also have been
! commercial centers, and that art, like
ether amenities of life, gravitates TO
| places where there is money to be
J spent upon it. But since so large
number of commercial centers are
! not art centers, one concludes that
money alone is not the determining
/ factor.
In such periods as we have been
enduring since 1929. development of
| art, along with other cultural forces
| has suffered most heavily. Erroneous
ly regarded as frills by the masses
! the arts are the first department OF
, life to be abandoned in crises
c. W. A. Starts Experiment..
Unlike other American depressions,
| however, the present one mas pro-
duced an experiment in art of tre-
| mendous importance to the Nation
/ and, incidentally, to Washington as
| growing art center This is the
public works of art project, organized
| under the C. w. A, which put 1921
! artists TO work last December, for
several months, and in April exhibited
! the cream of the results from all over
| the country at the Corcoran Gallery
/ Of Art The implications in the pub
| lie works of art project are far greater
| than these first achievements per Sc
! From earliest historic times works Of
! art have been commissioned by gov
ernments." whether one man or a
group, city, States or vast empires.
and paid for with the peoples money.
How these funds we're secured
whether by confiscation. taxation or
| conquest. has nothing to do with the
! result The artists were put to work
| in the city. which happened to be
| the capital of the Government. what
ever its form. The results of many
of these ancient "P. w. A. P.'s" are
| the glory of the world today, and IN
some instances the only legacies OF
the governments which commissioned
| them.
But excluding all aspects Of the
public works of art project save that
| of its Importance to Washington, one
| finds this alone tremendous. In its
| infancy. the National Capital was the
scene of a definite and desirable re-
| lationship between the Government
and art. The early Presidents of the
United States. particularly Jefferson
and his colleagues. we're men Of
culture. who recognized the value of
art and endeavored to build the city
| beautifully as we'll as efficiently. Early
| officials. empowered TO award public
| commissions for sculpture. secured the
| best advice and engaged the most
| talented artists of the time. But after
| the first quarter of the nineteenth
century. the Government seems to
have been divorced from art; and its
reunions for nearly a century were
infrequent and largely accidental. The
! mural decoration of the Library of
| Congress. for instance. was made pos
sible because of a small surplus in
| the appropriation for the building.
L. S. Recognizes Artist.
Now the Government has deliberate
| ly included the artist in the recovery
program, thus indicating that he is
essential TO the national life. If this
! first step is followed up, one may have
confidence that the country will ex-
perience a renaissance in art, with
, Washington the logical center.
The mere fact that it is the Ma
| tons headquarters, so to speak, has
attracted to Washington some mag
! nificent gifts of art. Despite its past
indifference, the Government has been
the recipient for the Nation. of the
art collections which started the ma
tional gallery; of funds for the Smith
! sonian Institution. in which building
is the National Museums Division of
Graphic Arts: of the F'reer collection
! of Oriental art and works by several
American artists. which occupies its
| own beautiful building: and of various
| collections in the Library of Congress
| division of fine arts. The aforemen-
| tened United States National Museum
Division of Graphic Arts brings to
Washington every year eight or ten
special exhibitions of prints in va
rious media by artists of recognized
ability, thus encouraging contempo-
rarv production. while it simultane-
ously maintains exhibits of graphic
arts processes, from writing to the
latest photomechanical achievements
Other museums and art galleries in
Washington, established by private
citizens and not connected with the
Government. increase the Importance
of Washington as an art center. Nor
| is this imnOrtance merely an hallucina :.