Pop DC's Paradox!

I’ve got a paradox for you.  Why, if DC is so politically progressive, is our city’s culture so strangely conservative?  And does that affect our art?

I mean, think about it.  DC’s lifestyle—art included—is arguably more buttoned-down than, say, NY, LA, SF, Philly…heck, maybe even Baltimore or Richmond. 

So, here’s something interesting.  I popped the question to two friends—of totally different ages, different careers, different political mindsets, different social circles—and they basically gave me the same answer.  It’s the government.  

“Art can be controversial,” my friend Alexandra Wurlitzer said, who moved to Logan Circle after attending college in San Francisco.  “And people in politics may not want to get involved in controversial matters.”  Fair enough, I thought.

“DC is a very cautious city,” she added.  “In politics, your image is so restricted because of the important decisions you make.  So who or what you associate yourself with is heavily weighed.  In San Francisco, though, everybody goes to gallery openings.”

Now I’m not trying to go hard here, but the reality is that the federal government accounts for roughly half of all DC jobs.  Makes sense.  After all, we are the nation’s capital—which has its pluses and minuses.   To add to that, 80,000 attorneys live here…almost twice the number in all of France.  Not to mention, there’s that unofficial “fourth branch” of government—commonly known as government contractors.  How many of us fall into that category?  No clue.  That’s for you to google.   

The point is, our city’s got lots of “gov” in it. And while the Atlas District, U Street, and Columbia Heights might boast niche groups of uber-creative folks, for the large majority of us, politics rents lots of space in our brains.  So should it surprise us that politics shapes our attitude towards art—especially if so many of our jobs are connected to the government?

Well, Donna Drew Sawyer—the second friend I asked—isn’t surprised.  “The paramount reason,” she said, “for DC’s conservative art culture is federal money.”  After her 20-year career in arts administration—most recently with the Smithsonian—she said, “development drives everything in DC’s museum world.  Even though federal money only accounts for some of the funding, there’s still a fear of getting called out by Capitol Hill.”  Nonetheless, there are times when museums break out with something amazing. And Hirshorn’s After Hours, which Donna helped spearhead, might take the cake for being one of the city’s hottest cultural events.

So, where does this leave us?  Maybe somewhere, maybe nowhere.  The important thing—and the beautiful thing—is that we are a city of passion-driven people who live here because we want to make a difference.  And it’s that fervor—sometimes political, sometimes artistic, and at times both—that bonds us…a fervor that will one day pop DC’s paradox.