Fine Arts Specialist - Career Spotlight

In this episode, we visit the General Services Administration in Washington, D.C. GSA has a fine arts program for placing artwork, like paintings and sculptures, in government buildings and courthouses across the country. Meet Kim. I think it's important for government buildings to have artwork because they reach a different audience than museums do. Some museums are expensive and not everybody can afford to go, but government buildings, people can go into them and anybody can see the artwork there. The favorite part of my job is actually just getting to work with artists. They are able to think in creative ways and able to create works that I could never envision in a place and those works, I think, really just add value to the overall building project and are a real plus for the American public. I worked on a project in Yuma, Arizona for a courthouse there and I worked with an artist named John Bisbee. He created a project called Lion Dandies. It's a freestanding sculpture. It's made of these kind of spike-like looking large spheres stacked against each other on top of one another. It was a really, really lovely experience working there. We have a site visit and that's really fun. So the artist gets to walk the project site. We introduce them to the architect. We introduce them to members of the project team so they can learn everything they can about the site. That way they have as much information as possible. They develop a concept that they think is going to make sense for this building and this project site. And if all goes well, the concept will move forward and the artist will go into fabrication and installation. Once everything is fabricated, we try to have the artist install the artwork as close as possible to the end of construction in the building because we don't want the artwork to be damaged. I think it's important to have good project management skills. So just focus on getting one thing done at a time, being able to handle a lot of different types of things, being flexible. You have to be prepared for hiccups in a road. No matter how much you plan, it's important to be a planner too. But no matter how much you plan, there's always going to be a hiccup. And so you have to be nimble and quick and on your feet and ready to handle it at any time. To see artwork at federal buildings across the country, visit gsa.gov slash fa. Learn about art and art history at the National Gallery of Art's NGA Kids Art Zone at www.nga.gov. And to find out about other jobs and careers, visit Kids.gov.