Will the family coat of arms being prepared for Colin Powell reflect his role as a federal arts
patron? Not according to a report that the family crest he’s requested from the Lord Lyon, “which
bestows coats of arms in Scotland,” will have a banner saying “Devoted to Public
Service” instead of “Devoted to Public Service for the Arts.”
But we happen to know (from a press release) that next week Secretary of State Powell and
the U.S. State Department are to celebrate 40 years of the ART
in Embassies Program, with help from the White House and Laura
Bush. Fat cats — sorry, art collectors — have been invited to a panel discussion, “Art as
Diplomacy: 21st Century Challenges,” co-sponsored by the State Department and the independent
Center for Arts and Culture based in Washington.
You probably didn’t know the State Department creates art exhibitions worldwide and shows them in
nearly 200 American embassies and diplomatic
residences from Abidjan, the Ivory Coast (where a single silkscreen by
Jacob Lawrence is currently on display), to Zagreb, Croatia (where the exhibition comprises 17
paintings, sculptures or photographs by seven artists). Well, now you know.
A sculpture exhibition, “Around the World in Forty Years,” highlighting American artists who
have loaned works to the ART in Embassies Program over the years, also will be on view at the
State Department in Washington (through July 6). The biggest names in the art biz have had their
works exhibited over the years, among them: Louise Bourgeois, Bruce Nauman, Isamu Noguchi,
Claes Oldenburg, Cindy Sherman, Kiki Smith and Robert Wilson.
Oh by the way, the idea of wanting to have a family coat of arms seems a little creepy to us. It
smacks of, well, royalist pretensions. But never mind. In this great democracy of ours, an
immigrant nation of the tired, the poor, the “huddled masses yearning to breathe free,” it’s each to
his or her own weirdness. (The Powell coat of arms will feature “a lion, an eagle, crossed swords
and four stars symbolizing [his] status as a retired four-star general.”)
