♪ Hi, everybody.

I'm Felicia Curry, and welcome to "WETA Arts," the place to discover what's going on in the creative and performing arts in and around DC.

In this episode... a tower in a National Park houses an ancient musical instrument.

The Park Service is really creating the next generation of carillonneurs.

Curry: Latino street murals are at risk.

Woman: We are here, we were here, we are still here.

♪ Wow.

Curry: And I seek beauty in Brutalist architecture.

Man: Granularity and texture--those are the kinds of things that I appreciate as a photographer.

It's all ahead on "WETA Arts."

[Theme music playing] ♪ [Bells chiming] Curry: On the Virginia side of Memorial Bridge, on a hill called Arlington Ridge, stands a 127-foot structure that houses 53 bells called a carillon.

♪ Curry: Musician Ed Nassor has been playing it for over 30 years.

Nassor: The reason it functions so well outdoors is that it's-- it's purely mechanical.

When I press this baton, it pulls a wire that pulls a clapper to strike the bell.

There's a feeling I get when I look to the west and there's a sunset, and I'm playing "Stairway to Heaven."

What could be better?

♪ Curry: This particular instrument is called the Netherlands Carillon.

Woman: It is a gift from the Netherlands people, the Dutch people to the American people to thank them for the assistance during the Second World War and afterwards.

♪ Curry: The Netherlands commemorates its liberation from Nazi occupation on May 5th with a ceremony at the Netherlands Carillon.

[Carillon chiming] Tazelaar: It's something to remind us, both America and as well as the Netherlands, that something like freedom should not be taken for granted.

Curry: The tower sits between the Marine Corps War Memorial and Arlington National Cemetery.

Man: ...when the Netherlands wanted to thank all the countries that helped to liberate them.

Curry: And it's managed by the National Park Service.

Scott Hill: The most commonly asked question, though, is, "Can I get up there?"

and, unfortunately, I have to be the bad person and say, "No, I'm sorry, you cannot."

And when they ask why, I just say that it is for the carillonneurs to play at and to practice at.

Hill: Thank you for coming out here today.

[Carillon chiming] Nassor: I have been the director and carillonneur of the Netherlands Carillon since 1987.

Curry: Nassor first studied on the Virginia War Memorial Carillon in Richmond while a student at Virginia Commonwealth University.

Nassor: I moved back up here wondering if I would ever play a carillon again.

A friendly park ranger told me I should come to the Netherlands Carillon to meet the director of the Carillon, Frank Law, which I did, and he accepted me as a student.

♪ By allowing young carillonneurs to practice, the Park Service is really creating the next generation of carillonneurs.

[Carillon chiming] Hill: In this area, there are a number of individuals who are mid-twenties who had practiced at carillons at the University of Michigan, at Princeton University, and others.

I sign them on to play on this wonderful instrument.

♪ I met Ed at the Netherlands Carillon in 2022.

I introduced myself to him and said I'd played at the University of Michigan.

He said, "Great, we need people to play this summer during recitals.

Do you want to play?"

And I appreciated that-- I appreciate him a lot.

Man, voice-over: I knew of Ed Nassor, so when I came to DC for an internship, it was my goal to meet him.

We are not professional musicians as, like, a primary occupation.

I work in the area as a data engineer.

Flood: I started in 2017 at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, which has a chime, which is like a carillon, but it has fewer than 23 bells, and it has a wildly different keyboard than this one.

♪ When I graduated, I toured all of the carillons that I could get to, and I said, "I need to learn how to play this instead."

♪ Lieberman: Nice.

That's exciting.

♪ Lieberman, voice-over: The way I got involved was that I had been a leader of the Jewish graduate student community at the University of Michigan, and we would sometimes hear the carillon on campus play Jewish songs, and I was delighted and surprised and wanted to learn more.

I don't think I ever thought of myself playing the carillon or bells, probably because, being Jewish, I always associated it with churches and thought you had to be involved with the church in order to play.

So I enrolled in a class in January 2020, not knowing COVID was about to happen, and then there really wasn't much else to do but practice.

Nassor: Like me, they've learned in university and, like me 40 years ago, they came out and said, "Am I ever going to play the carillon again?"

Now they have the opportunity, thanks to the National Park Service and the generosity of the Dutch people.

Heh!

All the way up.

Get our steps in for the day.

Ha ha!

♪ Lieberman: Each of the bells here has different decorations and different poems inscribed on them to represent the different segments of Dutch society who contributed money for the Netherlands Carillon.

♪ You can see how much love was put into the bells and how they were personalized and made in a way to make it feel special, because not every bell tower is like this.

It's not like every bell is decorated differently in every carillon.

Curry: The newest bell commemorates 75 years since the liberation of the Netherlands.

♪ Nassor: The Netherlands Carillon means a lot to me as the son of a World War II veteran.

My father had passed away before I learned to play the carillon.

But my uncle, also a World War II veteran, came up to the tower in the days when you could, and I played "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" for him.

He was looking out over the monuments of Washington, the tears came streaming down his face, and then he began to sing.

So...that's what it's all about.

It's reaching people in their hearts.

[Chimes echo] Playing music on bells has this incredible, powerful ability to bring about memories.

One of my friends brought his young child, and I started playing "The Moon Represents My Heart" by Teresa Teng.

And he texted me, "I sing this song to her every single night.

Like, this means so much to me."

♪ I will play music from Jewish culture and I'll also play pop songs.

And when you hear these recognizable songs, like, "Oh, no, this is part of the community.

It's part of us."

I decided to play a Pride-themed program tonight because I know there is a significant queer community in the DC area, and I hope people are excited about it, so we'll see.

I met a few young carillonneurs, and I don't know how to describe the feeling that they gave me.

I mean, being so young, and playing an instrument from the 16th, 17th century, I mean, it's quite something.

I am not musically inclined by any stretch of the imagination, but listening to them and seeing their passion in these young carillonneurs just really inspires me.

Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Netherlands Carillon and the 2024 Netherlands Carillon Concert Series.

♪ Woman: Whoo!

Man: Yeah!

[Sustained cheering and applause] Flood, voice-over: So we got some cheers, which is fun.

Yeah.

Oh, I'm ready to eat.

Woman: And you get to just hear the music, you can see the monuments.

It's just, like, a great way to spend a summer evening.

Woman: People are always like, "Oh, there is a person up there?

And I can actually recognize this tune."

It's not just "America the Beautiful," but it's, like, "You've Got a Friend in Me" and other things that they recognize and that they can enjoy as well.

Nassor: It's no longer such a solitary, one-person-in-the-tower endeavor for decades.

They're developing a carillon culture in this town, and I'm so happy to see it.

It's a gift that keeps on giving.

This Netherlands Carillon tells a story that we need to keep around for our future generations.

That's why I'm here.

That's why I do what I do.

Tazelaar: I hope that the carillonneur is also a symbol for the future.

In the Carillon, you've got small bells and you've got big bells, and it symbolizes so well that to have a good, functioning multilateral order, yes, you need big countries that have power, but you also need the small ones, and together, there is the harmony.

♪ Curry: You can hear the Netherlands Carillon played live on Sunday afternoons.

And, to hear Ed Nassor perform, keep an eye on the Washington National Cathedral's Concert Series at cathedral.org/calendar.

♪ Washington, DC is home to hundreds of murals, some of them decades old.

Hola Cultura, an organization celebrating Latino arts and culture, is documenting the history of Latino murals in the city.

I met with Christine MacDonald and Yoana Reyes-Zapata from Hola Cultura to hear more about these public works.

Hi, Christine and Yoana.

Hi!

Tell me a little bit about why you chose this particular corner.

Well, we're here because of the "Unity Mural," a beautiful mural that was painted by members of the community in 1982.

What's so special about this particular mural?

So I guess what's so special about the mural, really, in my opinion and, I guess, just overall, is the symbols within the mural.

You get a mix of Aztec symbols, Jamaican culture, and then even some of the Central American flora and fauna that combines together the unity of Adams Morgan.

MacDonald: It was also an effort to bring African-American and Latino youths together at a time in the early eighties when there was tension in the schools between these two groups.

♪ Was the idea that Hola Cultura works with murals something that excited you about working with the organization?

Reyes-Zapata: Definitely.

Being Mexican-American and growing up in rural South Carolina, you don't know much about your history back over there, just from what your parents tell you.

I like that the murals in DC tell a story within the Hispanic community.

Although I didn't grow up in the area, it still somewhat tells a story that's part of me.

MacDonald: We've researched and documented more than 50 murals painted by Hispanic muralists in the community, and most of them have been demolished.

There was a beautiful mural called "America Discovers Itself" that was up in Columbia Heights on 15th Street.

In the center of the mural are some of the famous Mexican muralists like Diego Rivera, who really started this public muralist movement, like, a century ago.

What other themes do we find in Latin murals here in the city?

MacDonald: "Un Pueblo Sin Murales" mural, the oldest in the city, was almost demolished twice, but the community was able to save and restore that mural twice.

There are many symbols of the city: the Washington Monument, children playing on the streets, the Latin band playing, but you also have folks playing Monopoly in the corner, but really, they represent developers who were gentrifying this neighborhood.

Gentrification was a major concern in this neighborhood, all the way back to the 1970s.

♪ Hi, BB and Elizabeth!

Thank you so much for meeting me here at this incredibly gorgeous mural.

What is the history behind this beautiful piece?

CentroNia became home to a lot of families and children who were finding their way in this community.

You have a poor African-American community, and then you've got an influx of immigrants.

The mural is an expression of our young people at that time.

Elizabeth, what is this mural about?

The young people themselves wanted from a kind of graffiti art, sort of urban aesthetic.

The center pieces are Olmec heads, which is representative of Central American culture.

♪ The names, of course, of all the young people who participated is kind of a declaration, a presence, a sort of affirmation that "we are here, we were here, we are still here."

Obviously, it takes up an entire alleyway, so you can see the community is coming through and walking by.

What do you hope they take from it?

That this is a place for community and that it's respected, and you can see that.

It's got a couple of tags here and there, but people have respected it.

And kids have come back over the years and helped refurbish it, paint it up again.

This mural was a collaborative one between the teaching artists who led the project, CentroNia leadership, as well as the young people, as well as the DC Commission on the Arts.

I am actually going to head off to have a conversation with some of the folks over at the Commission on the Arts and Humanities.

Thank you for sharing this beautiful mural.

Thank you for the work that you continue to do to keep community alive and in place.

Thank you.

Curry, voice-over: I'm meeting Deirdre Darden for the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities.

She'll be with artist Joel Bergner, who is painting a NASA-sponsored mural at the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority-- WMATA for short.

Hi, Deirdre and Joel.

Hi.

Thank you so much for meeting me here.

Deirdre, I know you have been with the Commission on the Arts and Humanities for quite some time.

What does the Commission do?

DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities-- sometimes called "The Commission" or CAH-- is the District's granting agency.

We have two mural-based grant programs-- Murals DC and Color the Curb School Safety Project-- and in that program, we specifically paint murals on the ground to increase pedestrian safety around elementary schools in DC.

And, Joel, I know that you have worked with the Commission on the Color the Curb mural project.

Yes.

Is that true?

Yes, that's true.

Last year, we created a entire ground mural in an intersection by Brightwood Elementary School, where we actually worked with fourth-graders to make a beautiful and more safe intersection.

I love that.

How do you think mural-making, from the Latinx perspective, has changed over the years?

It's still a very strong tradition.

You look more in graffiti and street art, there was a big Latino influence in that as well.

That's why it's so important that the Latin-American community is celebrated as part of this process and continues to be many of the artists that create this work.

A lot of the community is-- like, I mentioned Brightwood, that we did the Color the Curb mural--those kids, most of them were from Latin American immigrant backgrounds.

We had the opportunity to go over to the "Unity Mural," and we know that it is in danger and in disrepair and in trouble.

What kind of work does the Commission do to save murals that otherwise might be destroyed?

We try to get on the front side of it, where we issue best practices to our artists on what materials to use, how to prep the site to protect the longevity of the mural, and if something is at risk, that is a concern of us, and we do our best to help support that community to save the mural.

And, Joel, as an artist, is that something you're concerned about?

So, for me, as a mural artist, I just have to take the perspective that art is ephemeral when you put it out on the street, but they're going to reach so many more people because they become part of the community.

So that's why I think it's so special and kind of reaches people that wouldn't usually get to experience art.

I completely agree with you.

It's not just art that's on a wall, but we're changing lives, essentially.

How does that make you feel?

Well, it makes me proud, you know, to be at the Commission and to be able to support artists like Joel, that have that commitment to community engagement and to community wellness.

So, when we hear that positive thing, that's what it's about, it makes us feel really good.

Thank you both for the work you're doing to make public art accessible to the entire community.

It means so much, and thank you for chatting with us today on "WETA Arts."

Thank you.

Thank you.

Curry: You can find the latest murals supported by DC's Commission on the Arts and Humanities on muralsdcproject.com and information about DC's Latino murals at holacultura.com.

♪ Washington, DC is home to massive buildings in an architectural style called Brutalism, which many condemn as ugly.

But it has fans, and one of them helped me see Brutalism through his eyes.

Hey, everybody.

I am here in downtown Northwest DC.

This is my old stomping ground.

I used to work over at Ford's Theatre and would walk this strip of Pennsylvania Avenue all of the time, but today, I'm here for a different reason.

I am meeting the founder of Brutalist DC, Deane Madsen, to tell me a little bit about the Brutalism that is here in Washington, DC.

Hi, Deane!

Hi.

How are you?

Thank you so much for meeting me here.

I have to ask, why did you decide that we should meet at this particular location?

Well, it's kind of looming over us.

The FBI Building is the starting point for a discussion about Brutalism in Washington, DC.

When you say Brutalism, what exactly is that?

The term Brutalism comes from the French, "béton brut" meaning "raw concrete."

"Béton" is the concrete part, "brut" is the raw part, and it's a style that mashes together immense quantities of concrete.

It usually involves exuberant structural forms, recessed windows, and, as you can see, the FBI Building has all of that and plenty more.

Everything you're saying right now is exactly what I think people don't love about Brutalism.

Am I right in saying that?

Sure.

Sure, yeah.

Brutalism gets a lot of flak for feeling imposing, sounding like it's menacing in nature.

What I appreciate about it is a rhythm of the windows, the senses of proportion and scale, and also, kind of the way that the windows are recessed from the outside wall, you get a lot of interesting, diagonal shadows crossing the windows themselves.

Now, I noticed there is some netting on the top of the building, way up top.

Right.

A safety concern?

That tall part is wrapped in netting because chunks of concrete had started to fall from the building down onto the sidewalk below.

♪ There's a lot of talk about the FBI Building as being an example of demolition by neglect.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Building, the HUD Building, the Hirshhorn--all of these are buildings that have taken a look at their concrete, recognized that some seams are starting to show, and taken measures to start to prevent erosion of the material.

So, as we talk about these buildings and renovation and crumbling...

Right.

I have to ask, why do you love them so much?

I come from a minor, like, adoration of photography, and with Brutalism, what I like to see is the light getting cast across the windows at different times of day, in different seasons.

You don't necessarily see that from this vantage point.

It's really getting up close to the buildings.

We'll take a closer look at the FBI Building, but I also want to take you down to L'Enfant Plaza, which is probably ground zero of Brutalism in DC.

I am excited to see it.

♪ [Camera shutter clicks] Curry: The next stop on our Brutalism tour is across town in Southwest DC.

♪ Welcome to L'Enfant Plaza.

[Chuckles] Wow.

We are surrounded by Brutalism.

That's right, yeah.

I know.

Whenever anyone asks me, "Where can I max out on Brutalist architecture in DC?"

I say right here in L'Enfant Plaza.

And as you can see, there's concrete everywhere you look.

Everywhere.

It's amazing.

Yeah.

♪ I'm seeing a lot of buildings that are concrete, raw... Mm-hmm.

the windows are identical.

If I see all of that, can I immediately assume that it's a Brutalist building?

Well, a big part of it is the time period within which they were created.

In the sixties and seventies, when most of the Brutalism in DC arose, the government was expanding.

It needed to house all of these government employees in new departments that were arising around.

This brings us to a rather rough patch in DC history.

There was urban renewal, which is not a positive term.

It refers to the displacement of tens of thousands of residents of Southwest.

With federal architecture came an idea that the buildings should be grand edifices that were functional for the federal workers who were inside them.

Everything in L'Enfant Plaza is this stacked layering of infrastructure, so you have buildings on top, but then there's a parking garage, freeway on-ramps, and below all of that, the Metro system.

[Camera shutter clicks] I have to ask, do you have a favorite building amongst all of these Brutalist buildings here-- Amongst these?

Yeah, sure.

Yeah.

Well, you know, they're like children, right?

Of course.

You can't say they're favorites out loud, but I do like L'Enfant Plaza North and South, which are these paired, mirrored office buildings.

What I like about these is they have this corduroy concrete.

There's almost a striping on the facade of these deep grooves that are inset in the concrete, practical in the sense that they help moisture flow down the exterior so that it doesn't stay and penetrate the concrete, but also, from an aesthetic standpoint, it provides a lot of sort of granularity and texture.

Those are the kinds of things that I appreciate as a photographer.

And they're not all government buildings, either, in the Brutalist style, correct?

Yeah, absolutely.

There are plenty of other types of Brutalist buildings around, like the Arena Stage, which is kind of encapsulated in glass now, so it no longer faces the weathering problems.

I also had no idea-- I worked at the Arena Stage, and didn't know that it was a Brutalist building.

Oh, yeah, there are even Brutalist residential towers, where people actually live beyond just their workday.

I love that.

I can't wait, but I first want to take a picture of all the Brutalist buildings in one spot.

Ha ha ha!

[Camera shutter clicks] So I have to say, Brutalism, or being in a Brutalist structure, is not meant to be aesthetically pleasing.

It's aesthetically pleasing to me, anyway, and I want to take you down to Reston.

Maybe that'll help you see the softer side of Brutalism.

Oh, I'm looking forward to seeing that.

Let's go.

♪ This is beautiful.

[Camera shutter clicks] Look at the difference between this and L'Enfant Plaza.

I mean, shorter buildings, obviously, and it looks like people live here.

Yeah, absolutely right, so welcome to Lake Anne Plaza, and you're spot-on about the different feel of the scale here, and that's by design.

Lake Anne is a fully constructed environment.

There was a developer, Robert E. Simon, who purchased 6,700 acres of land, including an artificial lake, and put planned communities around it.

Why the Brutalist style for this community?

Concrete was, at the time, very cheap to build with and easy to do.

You could, for example, create a module, almost like a Lego brick, but at a much larger scale, and repeat it several times with concrete.

Here, you start to see the modularity play out, even in the curve of the set of buildings around us, but also in the repeated structures along the water's edge.

There is a nice mix of low-rise and mid-rise here that I think helps develop the scale and proportion of the place.

Now, does being in a place like Lake Anne excite you?

Because I can say it is so inviting.

Yes, and I hope that through my rambling on about it, you've found a little bit of appreciation, too.

Absolutely.

We are so lucky to have had the opportunity to travel around to all of these places.

Thank you for taking us on this tour.

We should probably take a few more pictures and maybe get a cup of coffee?

Sounds great.

[Camera shutter clicking] Curry: Here's some concrete advice-- tour the city, guided by Deane Madsen's web site, brutalistdc.com, and check out the National Building Museum's exhibition "Capital Brutalism," which runs through February 17, 2025.

Check out their website, nbm.org, for details.

Here's a thought from former President Dwight D. Eisenhower on the 25th anniversary of the opening of New York's Museum of Modern Art: "Freedom of the arts is a basic freedom, "one of the pillars of liberty in our land.

"As long as our artists are free to create "with sincerity and conviction, there will be healthy controversy and progress in art."

Thank you for watching "WETA Arts."

Be well, be creative, and enjoy the art all around you.

I'm Felicia Curry.

Slash's signature guitar song... Man: Yeah.

"Sweet Child o' Mine," that would sound good on the bells.

The idea behind the plan for this space was a new civic realm that would reflect the monumental stature of the nation's capital.

♪ Announcer: For more about the artists and institutions featured in this episode, go to weta.org/arts.