Artist Courtney Mattison sits beneath her site-specific commission for Embassy Jakarta, called “Confluence (Our Changing Seas V).” View the entire version of “Confluence (Our Changing Seas V)” at the end of this article. Photo by Amanda Brooks
By Megan Pannone and Andrew West
“Art is the great democrat, calling forth creative genius from every sector of society disregarding race or religion or wealth or color,” said then-President John F. Kennedy.
Kennedy viewed art as central to a functioning democratic and free society and essential in maintaining diplomatic relationships with the rest of the world. That is why he founded the Office of Art in Embassies (AIE) at the Department of State during his time in office.
In order to provide art on the front lines of diplomacy, AIE curates custom exhibitions for representational residences and permanent collections for chanceries and annexes.
“These exhibitions are guests at every gathering, a part of the conversation that can spur interactions on a visceral level,” said Megan Beyer, director of AIE.
For the newly appointed ambassador or consul general, the temporary exhibition in their residence provides an opportunity to project their goals in a unique voice.
“In getting to know the new chief of mission, we identify threads of who that person is and what they want to do. Then the curation can speak to that thread: democracy’s promise of equality might be seen in an exhibition of works by women artists, or the dangers of climate change could be expressed through 19th-century landscapes. By finding artists that reflect the region, whether in heritage, materiality, or subject, art makes cultural connections,” Beyer explained.
With Kennedy’s legacy in mind, AIE is embarking upon its 60th anniversary by founding the Democracy Collection to give diplomats an even stronger platform for diplomacy around the world. The timing is not coincidental—today’s world faces what Secretary of State Antony Blinken calls a “moment of reckoning” for democracy. While Kennedy faced a Cold War, the Cuban Missile Crisis, and civil unrest, today’s world is dealing with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, increased tensions in the Far East, and continued civil unrest.
At the first Summit for Democracy, President Joe Biden called to action the free nations of the world, describing democracy as “the best way to unleash human potential and defend human dignity and solve big problems.”
The Democracy Collection will unleash the creativity of artists to answer that call with a multi-pronged, year-long art activation that will celebrate 60 years of being an integral part of U.S. diplomacy and sharing democracy around the globe.
The launch of the Democracy Collection reflects where AIE has been while establishing the endeavor’s goals. The event, held at the Kennedy Center in Washington, kicked off 2023’s celebrations for AIE’s 60th anniversary and laid out the plans for the year. Speakers, including Beyer, Ukrainian Ambassador to the United States Oksana Markarova, Overseas Buildings Operations Director Ambassador William H. Moser, and President of the Kennedy Center Deborah Rutter, recalled how art has impacted their own journeys and strengthened their voices for a democratic and free future.
“We congratulate the U.S. Department of State’s Office of Art in Embassies on launching the Democracy Collection initiative to unite international artists around the idea of promoting and defending democracy. As Ukraine defends itself from Russia, Ukrainian artists are on the cultural frontline, inspiring our defenders, healing civilians, and constantly reminding us that freedom and democracy should never be taken for granted. With their strong citizen voices and the power of expression, they make societies stand up in defense of universal human rights to guarantee long-lasting peace, security, and the victory of light over darkness,” remarked Markarova as she introduced a soloist from United Ukrainian Ballet’s performance of “Dying Swan” opening the next day at the Kennedy Center. Following the event, Rutter hosted select guests for lunch.
Following in the footsteps of Kennedy-era Department precedent, AIE is sending artists on cultural exchanges across every hemisphere. Just as the dancers and jazz musicians who embarked on their diplomatic missions in the 1960s, AIE’s artists will participate in dialogues and presentations, meet with local artists, and moderate panels on democracy at cultural institutions, schools, and in the public square.
By hosting the artists with the U.S. diplomatic missions, the exchanges will provide public diplomacy on a new level with a living embodiment of democracy. Artists Charles Philippe Jean-Pierre and Tim Davis’s voyage to Lilongwe, Malawi, will commemorate Juneteenth.
“I consider myself an activist in many ways,” Davis explained. “I like to activate through my work and challenge the viewer … on their experience and life happenings.”
Influenced by his childhood in Chicago during the civil rights movement and integration, Davis’s art concerns the human experience and the Black experience, and his faceless subjects are based on people he has met throughout his life.
Jean-Pierre’s work, too, comments on the political, social, and economic landscape. “I view my painting as a tool to reflect, inspire, and critique society,” he said.
While art thrives in a free society—and a free society thrives with its art—competition is an inherent part of democracy. With an eye to the next generation, AIE is partnering with the National Art Education Association (NAEA) to create a student competition. Soliciting art from middle and high school students around the world, the project will seek to show how young artists view the world and the opportunities for democracy today.
“This sort of engagement, working with students and engaging on such a personal level with their art, is central to today’s democracy. Students will work from prompts about the concepts of democracy, learning as they are inspired to create democracy-focused works,” says Beyer. “We are excited to see what they produce and to share it with the NAEA and at our events.”
The traveling Democracy Collection exhibition launches in late May in democracy’s birthplace: Athens. U.S. Ambassador to Greece George Tsunis will host “Democracy Week,” kicking things off with the traveling exhibition at the Acropolis Museum. The Democracy Summit Athens will feature conversations with artists as a way to share their vision for democracy and how art is integral to sustaining a free world.
A few weeks later, U.S. Ambassador to Portugal Randi Charno Levine will host a satellite celebration of art diplomacy for democracy in Lisbon. The exhibition stops at the United Nations Palais in Geneva for the Human Rights Council summer session hosted by U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations Human Rights Council Ambassador Michèle Taylor.
Each stop features concerts, dinners, symposia, and community-based events, supporting democratic values in real time.
“I believe in art as a bridge between countries and cultures—a way we can create and sustain meaningful connections,” said Levine, who leads her diplomacy with the arts.
The end result of this year’s activities will be the newly founded Democracy Collection, a new repository of artwork that will reference American history and values and be available for U.S. missions everywhere. In preparation for the nation’s 250th anniversary in 2026, these pieces will augment the permanent repository serving diplomats advancing democratic values for generations to come. “The Democracy Collection” will grow over the next two years, with gifts of art from foundations, individuals, and corporations reflecting themes of democracy.
U.S. Director of the Asian Development Bank Ambassador Chantale Wong is gifting a photograph she took of the late Rep. John Lewis’s final procession over the Edmund Pettus Bridge—a piece that connects the struggles for racial justice in the 1960s to today’s struggles. Alma Gildenhorn, philanthropist, community leader, and wife of former U.S. Ambassador to Switzerland Joseph Gildenhorn, is donating a bust of George Washington; and former AIE director Ellen Susman is providing democracy-themed pieces for a traveling exhibition. The Ford Foundation and the Boeing Company have provided significant support, inspiring companies like Microsoft, AT&T, and United Airlines to join the initiative as well.
Recognizing the value of social media as a platform for artists, AIE will be asking artists to finish the sentence, “Democracy is…” This social media campaign puts the artists in the spotlight, giving them a different platform to express their values.
When prompted, contemporary pop art artist Jeff Koons replied, “being able to be part of a group where everybody is respected for their opinion and their contribution and to put the whole in more relevance than the individual.”
For painter and quilter Avis Collins Robinson, “Our democracy breaks my heart. Yet, through it all, I continue to work hard to leave behind the legacy of my Native American, White, and African ancestors. We are America,” said painter and quilter Avis Collins Robinson.
In September, the traveling exhibition returns to the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History in Washington. The museum and the University of Virginia’s Karsh Institute of Democracy will bring democracy to life in creative artist-filled programming that will explore art’s role in the nation’s history and the future of democracy.
The capstone for 2023’s celebration is the 60th anniversary Art in Embassies dinner. Held in the museum’s two-story atrium, when the winner of the National Art Education Association democracy art competition for students will be recognized alongside the Department’s International Medal of Arts winners.
Kennedy defended democracy as fervently as he defended the stature of the arts in the United States.
“I look forward to an America which will reward achievement in the arts as we reward achievement in business or statecraft. I look forward to an America which will steadily raise the standards of artistic accomplishment, and which will steadily enlarge cultural opportunities for all our citizens. And I look forward to an America which commands respect throughout the world not only for its strength but for its civilization as well. And I look forward to a world which will be safe not only for democracy and diversity but also for personal distinction,” he said.
Kennedy asked his country to take the arts seriously and followed through by creating a tool for the Department’s diplomacy and inspiring generations of creative thinkers. AIE is excited to put art on the front lines of the fight for democracy, and the Democracy Collection will be integral as the AIE team works together to achieve the secretary’s goal of “advancing our values of democracy, human rights, and the idea that everyone, everywhere, deserves to be treated equally and with dignity.”
Megan Pannone is an editor/writer in Overseas Buildings Operations’ (OBO) Office of Art in Embassies. Andrew West is a project communications specialist and embassy liaison in OBO.
