The nation’s capital has a wealth of art museums and galleries, but sometimes, you don’t have set foot in the building to see the art. In D.C.’s “Vacant to Visual,” works of art are created on the exterior of vacant buildings.
“Think of the building that is now empty, as a canvas,” said Ernest Chrappah, acting director of the D.C. Department of Buildings.
The goal of the program is to accelerate the return of vacant properties to productive use. There’s not much beautiful about an empty building, said Chrappah.
“It is an eyesore, it is a blight,” he said. “They’ve been neglected for a while, and they can become incubators for crime.”
Now, in its second year, Chrappah said the Vacant to Visual program has several goals: “To improve the quality of life for residents in our communities, and also provide a platform for artists of color to be able to showcase their work.”
For neighbors, the program helps minimize the unpleasantness of seeing boarded-up buildings: “Murals are installed on the plywood, so when you go by a house, it is much more beautiful.”
In this year’s program, members of the public can buy NFTs — minted non-fungible tokens — which allow customers to economically support the artists by buying digital copies of the art being used on vacant buildings.
