PHOTOS: Dupont Underground Opens First Exhibit, ‘Raise/Raze’
It finally happened.
After years of planning and plenty of fundraising, Dupont Underground officially opened its inaugural exhibit “Raise/Raze” to a small crowd of journalists, artists and local leaders earlier this morning.
Ward 2 D.C. Councilmember Jack Evans, Councilmember At-Large David Grosso, ANC 2B’s Daniel Warwick and members of the Dupont Underground board were among those that attended the event.
“This has been a really long process that started many years ago, almost a decade, with our founder, Julian Hunt and his wife,” said Dupont Underground board member Phillippa Hughes. “They are the ones who had the passion to start the ball rolling.”
The exhibit, a maze of spires and walls, is composed of more than 650,000 plastic balls that Dupont Underground volunteers salvaged from a National Building Museum exhibit last September.
Timelapse of @DupontUndergrnd's first exhibit, opening tomorrow pic.twitter.com/QB11fy5miu
— Tim Regan (@MrTimRegan) April 29, 2016
“The last time I saw these [balls] was last year, I was with my kids, and we jumped off a ledge into these things,” Evans said. “Now to see these being reused in the fashion in which they’re being done is very exciting.”
Grosso in his remarks called the new exhibit “so awesome.”
“I always say that when I go to other cities and you spontaneously come upon an art exhibit or some festival that’s happening, it makes you want to go back to that city,” he said. “This is the kind of art exhibit that’s going to put D.C. on the map for things like this.”
Hughes, Hunt, Evans and Grosso then completed the ceremony by snipping a rope made of balls.
Cutting the ribbon on @DupontUndergrnd pic.twitter.com/5K3uh2jQbZ
— Tim Regan (@MrTimRegan) April 29, 2016
The exhibit will officially open to the public tomorrow. Though tickets for the art show are technically sold out, Hughes said she and her fellow board members will try to “figure out a way to open more slots.”
