Art Bank Collection

In support of local visual artists, District art galleries, and art nonprofit organizations, CAH acquires fine art. The ongoing and annual acquisition of art from metropolitan artists becomes a part of the Art Bank Collection. CAH manages artwork in the collection. It is then loaned to District Government agencies for display in public areas and offices of government buildings. The Art Bank Collection, which started in 1986, has nearly 3,000 artworks.

To inquire about Art Bank artwork placement in a DC government office, please contact Ron Humbertson, Art Collections Registrar, at ron.humbertson@dc.gov.

Public Art Collection

The Public Art program acquires and maintains a quality collection of diverse artworks. This collection creates a dynamic, vibrant, nurturing community through art and design.

Public Art programs support opportunities for residents and visitors to encounter art in public spaces across the District. Sites for public art can be parks, libraries, community centers, government offices, building facades and other public venues. We simultaneously enrich the daily lives of residents and visitors and give voice to artists. The collection includes more than 100 permanently sited and integrated works and nearly 3,000 portable works in District offices.

CAH acquires, funds, installs, and maintains public artworks across the District through the several programs listed below. We do so in accordance with the “Support for Art in Public Places Amendments Act of 1986” (D.C. Law 6-125).

Wilson Building Art Collection

The largest display of artwork from the Art Bank is the City Hall Art Collection at the John A. Wilson Building in downtown DC entitled "The HeArt of DC." In 2006, the DC Creates! Public Art Program acquired 153 works of art representing 100 Metropolitan area artists for the inaugural phase of the City Hall Art Collection. In 2008, the program made another acquisition bringing the number of pieces to over 200. The collection showcases the extent and depth of our local visual arts talent. Over 10 percent of the artists were born in the District, and most have lived here for over 20 years. In addition to supporting the work of living artists through art purchases, we were able to enhance the collection with the work of nationally recognized DC artists including Gene Davis and Alma Thomas. By presenting art outside traditional venues of museums and galleries, the City Hall Art Collection benefits the community and its visitors by increasing access to art, extending our cultural institutions’ reach, and providing artists with opportunities to expand their artistic practice and audience. The collection at the John A. Wilson Building is open to the public.

Browsing the Online Collection

There are a few ways to browse the Online Collection:

Homepage/Collections

On the homepage, you can browse curated selections from our collection.

People Page

On the people page, you can browse individuals and/or institutions related to objects in the collection, along with relevant biographies and objects.

Thesaurus and Terms

On the thesaurus page, you can browse structured vocabularies to find records with specific keywords. You can also see these terms when viewing a search result in detail. Click on these terms to browse other records linked to this term.

Searching the Online Collection
Quick Search/Advanced Search

Enter keywords or names in the search box (Quick Search) to find objects or other records in our collection. To search on specific criteria, you can use the advanced search to search within certain data fields. You can search using multiple criteria, such as the term "portrait" in the title + a date range of "1800-1900". If you are not getting any results with advanced search, try broadening your search by removing criteria.

Search Tips
  • You can use an * (asterisk) as a wildcard in searches, to match partial terms (e.g. draw* will return results for draw, drawn, drawings, etc.)
  • Use quotation marks to get more exact results - e.g. John Doe will return any results with John or Doe, but "John Doe" will return results with this exact phrase.
Viewing Search Results
Types of Results

There are different types of search results, such as object records and people records. When there is more than one type of result, you can choose different types of records to view.

GRID/LIST VIEWS

You can view a set of results in an image grid or list view. Use the dropdown to switch between different types of views.

Filters

You can refine a result set by using filters to narrow down results. For example, you can filter to see only works that have images within any result set. You can also clear each filter to revert to a larger result set, or clear all filters to get to your original result set.

Images
Why is an image shown as not available?

An image may be shown as not available if it is not yet available in our database, or if it cannot be displayed for copyright reasons.

Thesaurus
What is the Thesaurus Page?

The Thesaurus page allows you to browse the online collection through linked keywords. Objects in the collection are linked to terms from The Getty Vocabularies and other authorities, which contain structured terminology for art and archival collections.

How Do I Browse Using the Thesaurus?

To select a thesaurus, click the dropdown for more options. In the thesaurus tree view, you can expand or collapse levels by clicking the triangle symbol. Clicking on any term in the tree will show a preview of objects in the collection which are associated with the term. To view all objects with this term as a search result, click the "View all" button in the right panel.

You can also click on terms in the detail view, which will jump to the associated branch in the thesaurus and show you other objects with this term.