The hype surrounding cultural entertainment and the DC museum After Party has taken the District by storm. Defining a new social norm, a new generation of Arts promoters have presented themselves and redesigned the philanthropic model.
Now, museum’s festivities, exhibit openings/ store openings, and happy hours with an artistic twist are ultimate socializing events. Cultural institutions and free-lance organizations are all competing for the fickle affections of the coveted Young International Audience (YIA) who represent one third of the ever transient DC identity. So how does one win the attention of these art hungry YIA?
This is a no brainer. The public is invited to sip champagne and visit Masterpiece collections while local museums enlarge the scope of their audience by bringing a vibrant crowd to their institution. Now, promoting artists becomes a tempting work prospect in a city that is reputed to offer drab, conventional social activities for its congressmen, lobbyists and lawyers.
Nonetheless, in this social economy of fleeting fad, the critic is rare and some of these still successful programs seem to slowly but surely lose their early artistic sense and become quite repetitive.
One of the most striking examples of this copy/ paste effect is perhaps the most famous; the After Hour of the Hirshhorn Museum which has abandoned their coherent artistic program from their initial series to make way for 80’s DJ sets which could be seen as shameful for a contemporary art museum. For most of these museums that have played the after party card, the noteworthy exhibits of these renowned institutions are reduced to Disney-like décor, hardly appreciated by the hordes of drinkers who don’t necessarily fit with the museum trustees’ vision.
Among all the praise worthy cultural and entertainment initiatives which are thriving in our town, we can notice that some of their coordinators keep stirring the same and very basic recipe to draw their constituents; a cultural marketed title, reduced price on drinks and admission to an artistic moment which can be far from that. In fact, most of the time culture is a pretext to make an evening attractive for guests who don’t really care about its cultural content as long as it can be fun.
Fortunately, recent propositions have appeared to engage a more consistent cultural dialogue between artists, their pieces and a larger audience.
Next September, a group of cultural entrepreneurs and neighborhood associations will present the first Nuit Blanche (Sleepless night) in the nation’s capital. Based on the Parisian edition created in 2002 and now expanding to more than 120 cities in the world, this event aims to showcase the work of local and international artists. Set within a nocturnal spectrum, the exhibits will run until the early hours of the morning. Although this first edition may be modest, we can be excited to see how the Arts will take over parts of the city during this unusual timeframe and change our concept of urban environment. Maybe more inspiring could be the reaction of an audience who will see their city in a different light.
In the same manner, DC Microfiction, which has taken place last May in two DC neighborhoods with two circuits of free dramatic readings, expanded the limits of traditional theater as far as the audience could reach. After an artistic residence of one week, French theater collective and local artists trailblazed through the city carving a path of short stories in unconventional places for an hour of face to face performances. Here again, the audience had the opportunity to rediscover their usual neighborhoods through the apparition of the actor and shared ideas of the performances as a new way of communicating.
Will the After Hours “see and be seen” crowd of cursory consumers leave the glam of the already esteemed institutions and challenge themselves with the free cutting edge arts in unexpected places? What can be certain is that projects recognized as high art in Washington DC can now be found not only in the most hip institutions or parties, but on the streets of the nation’s capital with innovative projects which are redesigning our perception of the city and relation with others.
In addition to entertaining their audience, new caretakers of artistic substance have set for themselves and their city a noble challenge: bring the artists and their pieces directly to the greatest audience in the district; all three thirds.
