For 50 years, the State Department’s Office of Art in Embassies has selected and displayed American art, mostly behind locked doors in highly secure buildings. The pieces AIE purchases for embassies, and borrows for ambassadors’ residences, are usually seen only by official guests. “It may not be something specifically that the American citizen can experience,” […]
Embodying elements of performance art, sculpture, and fashion, the work of artist Nick Cave is hard to fit into one box. He’s best known for his SoundSuits, slightly silly (and scary) wearable fabric sculptures crafted from found objects like beads, fur, and flowers. Cave put this aesthetic diversity to use last January, when he traveled […]
Art In Embassies (AIE) is a program of the U.S. Department’s of State and Defense that promotes cross-cultural dialogue and understanding around the world through the visual arts, sponsoring dynamic artist exchanges. For five decades the public-private partnership program has played a big role in U.S. diplomacy. This month, in commemoration of Veterans Day, the […]
Serving Abroad…Through Their Eyes Best in Show Announced – In commemoration of Veterans Day, the U.S. Department of State’s Office of Art in Embassies (AIE) and the U.S. Department of Defense proudly announce the 12 “Best in Show” featured in AIE’s 50th anniversary “Serving Abroad…Through Their Eyes” photography exhibition. A year ago on Veterans Day, […]
Questions for Offbeat Materials Artist Jim Drain by Allison Meier. Q: It’s been eight years since you’ve had a major exhibition in Los Angeles. What do you have planned for “Drain Expressions” at PRISM? It is a homecoming of sorts. I moved to L.A. after school for a year. Allison Miller and Kerry Tribe were […]
Boston Globe – Students at the Rhode Island School of Design are getting a crash course in international diplomacy as they work with a professional sculptor on artwork for a new U.S. embassy in Morocco. The collaboration with the U.S. State Department’s ART in Embassies program is a first for the premiere arts school in […]
The U.S. Department of State Commemorates Art in Embassies 50th Anniversary – The Bureau of Overseas Buildings Operations’ Office of Art in Embassies (AIE) proudly celebrates 50 years of facilitating the Department of State’s public diplomacy through the power of the visual arts. The AIE 50th anniversary features programming, events, and performances, including celebrations on […]
Nick Cave is into fabulous. Take the black marks that scar the floor of his 3,500-square-foot loft in Chicago. “Fabulous,” he says. Or the haunting portrait by the English artist John Kirby that Cave found at an art fair. “Isn’t it fabulous?” So is the porcupine-needle vestment from Cameroon that serves as a dividing screen […]
Sleeping with Anemones – Fused glass triptych “Sleeping with Anemones” by Fort Collins artist Mary Barron is her whimsical depiction of life on the sea floor. It was selected by the U.S. Department of State as the basis of a new work to include cichlids, a type of fish found in Lake Tanganyika, on the […]
Reed College Magazine – The art of Geoffrey Pagen, director of Reed College’s ceramic program, will grace the exterior of the new U.S. embassy in Bujumbura, the capital city of Burundi. Pagen has previously exhibited his work in Nouakchott, Mauritania, and the Democratic Republic of Congo as part of the State Department’s Art in Embassies […]
Where the Wild Things Are – Batman might have a hard time recognizing the kaleidoscopic suit that he inspired artist Nick Cave to make; for one thing, there are spinning globes instead of a cape. “When Batman hits someone, there are all these words and images that explode,” explains Cave, 53, whose lair is in […]
Jim Drain shares some images with Art in Embassies, of the process up until casting of the new sculpture for the U.S. Embassy in Rabat. The images were taken from his time with RISD students throughout the process.
Art is a language that requires no translation. On June 15, Ambassador Krol hosted a reception at the Ambassadorial Residence to showcase American artwork displayed under the auspices of the U.S. Department of State’s ART in Embassies program. This program gives American ambassadors the opportunity to select works contributed by American artists, illustrating a theme […]
USTA.edu – A photograph by Arturo Infante Almeida, art specialist and curator of the UTSA Art Collection, is part of a permanent exhibition of works by 38 American artists in the U.S. Consulate in Tijuana, Mexico. The photo (above), “Barrio Baroque,” was selected by the U.S. Department of State Art in Embassies (AIE) program. “I’m […]
Brice Marden inaugurated the “American Artist Lecture Series” at the Tate Modern Museum in London on May 14, 2012. He is shown speaking with Marjorie Susman, wife of U.S. Ambassador to the UK Louis Susman, about the “ART in Embassies” (AIE) exhibition of modern art at Winfield House, the Ambassador’s official residence in London. In […]
Brice Marden inaugurated the “American Artist Lecture Series” at the Tate Modern Museum in London on May 14, 2012. He is shown speaking with Marjorie Susman, wife of U.S. Ambassador to the UK Louis Susman, about the “ART in Embassies” (AIE) exhibition of modern art at Winfield House, the Ambassador’s official residence in London. In […]
