D.C. Alley Museum — Attraction in Washington

The DC Alley Museum is a “neat” place on a surface level. If I had a job in the small business community it was located in, it would be a cool place to hang around during break hours. But that is it. It is hardly a museum and clearly exists for money. Although actual museums do suffer from the same profitization of art that this “museum” does, this place is an exaggeration of it.

The place itself has a very superficial, shallow feeling to it. There are few art pieces. The few of them that there are seemingly have little maintenance and care done to their preservation. Their only protection seems to be security cameras hanging above these paintings which you just have to walk into an alleyway to experience. While the murals are well-crafted, they all have this shallow progressive theme to them. A good example is its “LOVE” mural. The “LOVE” mural is a simple painting of rainbow-colored rectangles on garage doors spelling out the word “LOVE.” The “LOVE” mural is obviously there to promote queer inclusiveness and respect, but is not very profound, new, nor thought-provoking in doing so. I wish I could call this “LOVE” mural by its actual artwork title, but none is listed; in fact, every piece has little to no information or context provided to them. This reveals the lack of serious commitment that a true museum should have.

The “museum” is obviously there just for profit. It’s there to raise the land value of the surrounding business buildings. Being next to something listed as a museum would do this. Also, by listing itself as a museum, it shows up as one on tourism registries next to actual ones like the Smithsonians, increasing the number of people who visit and fall for this clear tourist trap. The profitization also shows in the shallow artwork. As Hito Steyerl pointed out in her essay “Politics of Art: Contemporary Art and the Transition to Post-Democracy,” the increasingly neoliberal and profit-driven world reduces the quality of artwork to shallow pieces which offer no real profoundness to them.1

Although, actual museums rely on profit incentives too. Since the 80’s, museums everywhere in America have had to rely on donations from the wealthy and from corporations. This is because of the Reagan-era reforms that greatly slashed the amount of money the government was putting into the arts.2 This raised concerning problems for the world of art and museums, and how our own public culture is shaped and represented. Before the neoliberal reforms of the 80’s, the government used to be more involved in art. As John F. Kennedy said on the matter: “Government can never take on the role of patronage and support filled by private individuals and groups in our society. But government surely has a significant part to play in helping establish the conditions under which art can flourish.”.3

I agree with JFK. There needs to be a balance of how much private individuals and groups can influence art and how much the public can influence art. Otherwise, when you have very profit-driven museum scenes, you end up with the DC Alley “Museum.”

1Hito Steyerl, “Politics of Art: Contemporary Art and the Transition to Post-Democracy,” e-flux, December 2010. 2吳金桃 Chin-tao Wu, "Embracing the Enterprise Culture: Art Institutions Since the 1980s." New Left Review, Summer 1998. pp 28-29 3Cher Krause Knight, "A Short History of Official Public Art." Public Art: Theory, Practice, Populism....

It's most definitely a hidden local gem. You won't see it from the corner of 9th and M St. What you will see is a street sign for Blagden Alley NW. Just walk through what looks like a dead alley. It was a weekday, and there were only a few people walking around the businesses inside. We passed by many murals on walls, garage doors, wooden sidings, and in all different art mediums. Our first encounter was a mural of large carrots along the privacy fence of Calico. We could hear people having a good time inside the bar's outdoor patio. That was the only group we encountered when continuing on our journey to find more art. After that, it was pretty desolate. We came across many cool murals. The "Love" mural by Lisa Marie Thalhammer is at the center of it all. There is one by Miss Chelove who has many beautiful murals throughout the DC area. The one that stood out to me the most was "Let Go" by Rose Jaffe. We were fortunate that the garage door was down for us to see it. I think it was the vibrant colors that caught my eye.

It's definitely an interesting and obscure place that has sparked a movement of creativity. I don't really know the true history behind it all. Just that it's part of a historic district that comes with strict development guidelines that are in place to preserve the Victorian buildings and alleyways. There are some very unique restaurants and bars in and around Blagden Alley in Shaw. We walked through the alley after a great meal at the Unconventional Diner. It was cool to see some public art along the way.

Just one thing to note. Don't expect this alley to be well-kept and beautiful. I think it's still a work in progress (or that was my impression of it). At the end of the day, it's a working alley with garbage cans, private parking spaces, and delivery trucks. You will see gardens in front of the restored row houses surrounding this unique alley destination. There are even a couple of Michelin star restaurants at Blagden Alley. It's just cool...

DC Alley Museum is so cool. I love the beautiful murals in the alley. There are restaurants there too. The museum art exhibit that I saw featured some Chicago Jazz musicians. It was nice to see Chicago Jazz highlighted during the DC...