Katzen Arts Center
Encyclopedia
The Katzen Arts Center is home to all of the visual and performing arts programs at American University
and the American University Museum
. Located at Ward Circle
, the intersection of Nebraska Avenue and Massachusetts Avenue
, the Center sits atop Embassy Row
in Washington, DC, one of the highest points in the nation's capital. This 130000 square feet (12,077.4 m²) space, designed to foster interdisciplinary collaboration in the arts, provides state-of-the-art instructional, exhibition, and performance space for all the arts disciplines. Its 30000 square feet (2,787.1 m²) art museum exhibits contemporary art from the nation's capital region and the world. The museum gallery is the Washington region’s largest university facility for art exhibition.
The Center houses many academic departments for the university, including Art History
, Graphic Design
, Studio Art, Multimedia
, Arts Management, Dance
, Music
, and Theatre
. The center also features a 30000 square feet (2,787.1 m²) museum, a 6000 square feet (557.4 m²) sculpture garden
, a 211000 square feet (19,602.5 m²) parking garage, 33000 square feet (3,065.8 m²) of performing arts space, and 37000 square feet (3,437.4 m²) of studio space, including theatre studios, a music ensemble room, art studios, dance studios, and the Abramson Family Recital Hall.
The construction of the Center was made possible by Dr. Cyrus and Mrs. Myrtle Katzen, who house much of their modern art collection within the building, which includes pieces by artists such as Pablo Picasso
, Marc Chagall
, Willem De Kooning
, and Roy Lichtenstein
. The museum also includes art by Jean Dubuffet
, Red Grooms
, Amedeo Modigliani
, Larry Rivers
, Frank Stella
and Andy Warhol
.
is a three-story, 30000 square feet (2,787.1 m²) museum and sculpture garden located
within the university’s Katzen Arts Center. The region’s
largest university facility for exhibiting art, the museum’s
permanent collection highlights the holdings of the
Katzen and Watkins collection. Rotating exhibitions
emphasize regional, national, and international
contemporary art.
Upon completion, the Katzen Arts Center was immediately received as an architectural gem at American University
, not only for its design but also for its purpose to encourage student innovation in media, concept, and approach by uniting facilities for creating, displaying, and performing art under one roof. Designed by EYP Architecture & Engineering, the Center is situated on a very long, narrow site abutting Ward Circle
. Its form acts as a cultural bridge between the university and the surrounding neighborhood. Other architectural highlights include the piazza
with a skylighted rotunda
at the center of the facility, which refers and responds to the campus across the street as an informal gathering place for talks, critiques, poetry readings, and impromptu discussions and performances.
American University
American University is a private, Methodist, liberal arts, and research university in Washington, D.C. The university was chartered by an Act of Congress on December 5, 1892 as "The American University", which was approved by President Benjamin Harrison on February 24, 1893...
and the American University Museum
American University Museum
The American University Museum is located in the Katzen Arts Center at the American University in Washington, DC. It is a three-story, museum and sculpture garden located within the university’s Katzen Arts Center. The region’s largest university facility for exhibiting art, the museum’s permanent...
. Located at Ward Circle
Ward Circle
Ward Circle is a traffic circle at the intersection of Nebraska Avenue and Massachusetts Avenues in Northwest, Washington, DC. The land on three sides of Ward Circle is owned by American University, the fourth is temporary home to the headquarters of the Department of Homeland Security. The circle...
, the intersection of Nebraska Avenue and Massachusetts Avenue
Massachusetts Avenue (Washington, D.C.)
Massachusetts Avenue is a major diagonal transverse road in Washington, D.C., and the Massachusetts Avenue Historic District is a historic district that includes part of it....
, the Center sits atop Embassy Row
Embassy Row
Embassy Row is the informal name for a street or area of a city in which embassies or other diplomatic installations are concentrated. Washington, D.C.'s Embassy Row lies along Massachusetts Avenue, N.W., and its cross streets between Thomas Circle and Ward Circle, although the vast majority of...
in Washington, DC, one of the highest points in the nation's capital. This 130000 square feet (12,077.4 m²) space, designed to foster interdisciplinary collaboration in the arts, provides state-of-the-art instructional, exhibition, and performance space for all the arts disciplines. Its 30000 square feet (2,787.1 m²) art museum exhibits contemporary art from the nation's capital region and the world. The museum gallery is the Washington region’s largest university facility for art exhibition.
Art history
Art history has historically been understood as the academic study of objects of art in their historical development and stylistic contexts, i.e. genre, design, format, and style...
, Graphic Design
Graphic design
Graphic design is a creative process – most often involving a client and a designer and usually completed in conjunction with producers of form – undertaken in order to convey a specific message to a targeted audience...
, Studio Art, Multimedia
Multimedia
Multimedia is media and content that uses a combination of different content forms. The term can be used as a noun or as an adjective describing a medium as having multiple content forms. The term is used in contrast to media which use only rudimentary computer display such as text-only, or...
, Arts Management, Dance
Dance
Dance is an art form that generally refers to movement of the body, usually rhythmic and to music, used as a form of expression, social interaction or presented in a spiritual or performance setting....
, Music
Music
Music is an art form whose medium is sound and silence. Its common elements are pitch , rhythm , dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture...
, and Theatre
Theatre
Theatre is a collaborative form of fine art that uses live performers to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place. The performers may communicate this experience to the audience through combinations of gesture, speech, song, music or dance...
. The center also features a 30000 square feet (2,787.1 m²) museum, a 6000 square feet (557.4 m²) sculpture garden
Sculpture garden
A sculpture garden is an outdoor garden dedicated to the presentation of sculpture, usually several permanently sited works in durable materials in landscaped surroundings....
, a 211000 square feet (19,602.5 m²) parking garage, 33000 square feet (3,065.8 m²) of performing arts space, and 37000 square feet (3,437.4 m²) of studio space, including theatre studios, a music ensemble room, art studios, dance studios, and the Abramson Family Recital Hall.
The construction of the Center was made possible by Dr. Cyrus and Mrs. Myrtle Katzen, who house much of their modern art collection within the building, which includes pieces by artists such as Pablo Picasso
Pablo Picasso
Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso known as Pablo Ruiz Picasso was a Spanish expatriate painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist, and stage designer, one of the greatest and most influential artists of the...
, Marc Chagall
Marc Chagall
Marc Chagall Art critic Robert Hughes referred to Chagall as "the quintessential Jewish artist of the twentieth century."According to art historian Michael J...
, Willem De Kooning
Willem de Kooning
Willem de Kooning was a Dutch American abstract expressionist artist who was born in Rotterdam, the Netherlands....
, and Roy Lichtenstein
Roy Lichtenstein
Roy Lichtenstein was a prominent American pop artist. During the 1960s his paintings were exhibited at the Leo Castelli Gallery in New York City and along with Andy Warhol, Jasper Johns, James Rosenquist and others he became a leading figure in the new art movement...
. The museum also includes art by Jean Dubuffet
Jean Dubuffet
Jean Philippe Arthur Dubuffet was a French painter and sculptor. His idealistic approach to aesthetics embraced so called "low art" and eschewed traditional standards of beauty in favor of what he believed to be a more authentic and humanistic approach to image-making.-Life and work:Dubuffet was...
, Red Grooms
Red Grooms
Red Grooms is an American multimedia artist best known for his colorful pop-art constructions depicting frenetic scenes of modern urban life...
, Amedeo Modigliani
Amedeo Modigliani
Amedeo Clemente Modigliani was an Italian painter and sculptor who worked mainly in France. Primarily a figurative artist, he became known for paintings and sculptures in a modern style characterized by mask-like faces and elongation of form...
, Larry Rivers
Larry Rivers
Larry Rivers was an American artist, musician, filmmaker and occasional actor. Rivers resided and maintained studios in New York City, Southampton, New York and Zihuatanejo, Mexico.-Biography:...
, Frank Stella
Frank Stella
Frank Stella is an American painter and printmaker, significant within the art movements of minimalism and post-painterly abstraction.-Biography:...
and Andy Warhol
Andy Warhol
Andrew Warhola , known as Andy Warhol, was an American painter, printmaker, and filmmaker who was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art...
.
American University Museum
The American University MuseumAmerican University Museum
The American University Museum is located in the Katzen Arts Center at the American University in Washington, DC. It is a three-story, museum and sculpture garden located within the university’s Katzen Arts Center. The region’s largest university facility for exhibiting art, the museum’s permanent...
is a three-story, 30000 square feet (2,787.1 m²) museum and sculpture garden located
within the university’s Katzen Arts Center. The region’s
largest university facility for exhibiting art, the museum’s
permanent collection highlights the holdings of the
Katzen and Watkins collection. Rotating exhibitions
emphasize regional, national, and international
contemporary art.
Architecture
American University
American University is a private, Methodist, liberal arts, and research university in Washington, D.C. The university was chartered by an Act of Congress on December 5, 1892 as "The American University", which was approved by President Benjamin Harrison on February 24, 1893...
, not only for its design but also for its purpose to encourage student innovation in media, concept, and approach by uniting facilities for creating, displaying, and performing art under one roof. Designed by EYP Architecture & Engineering, the Center is situated on a very long, narrow site abutting Ward Circle
Ward Circle
Ward Circle is a traffic circle at the intersection of Nebraska Avenue and Massachusetts Avenues in Northwest, Washington, DC. The land on three sides of Ward Circle is owned by American University, the fourth is temporary home to the headquarters of the Department of Homeland Security. The circle...
. Its form acts as a cultural bridge between the university and the surrounding neighborhood. Other architectural highlights include the piazza
Piazza
A piazza is a city square in Italy, Malta, along the Dalmatian coast and in surrounding regions. The term is roughly equivalent to the Spanish plaza...
with a skylighted rotunda
Rotunda (architecture)
A rotunda is any building with a circular ground plan, sometimes covered by a dome. It can also refer to a round room within a building . The Pantheon in Rome is a famous rotunda. A Band Rotunda is a circular bandstand, usually with a dome...
at the center of the facility, which refers and responds to the campus across the street as an informal gathering place for talks, critiques, poetry readings, and impromptu discussions and performances.