Dupont Underground - Art Space in Dupont Circle's Abandoned Trolley Station

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The Dupont Underground is the latest attempt to do *something* with the abandoned trolley station located beneath Dupont Circle.

Their opening exhibit is "Raise/Raze." The exhibit repurposes the 650,000 three-inch, translucent plastic balls used for the National Building Museum's Beach exhibit last year.  The exhibit is a mixture of walls, blocks, and towers made up of these balls, as well as building block cubes which visitors can stack and arrange.  Needless to say, there were kids running around having a blast stacking up the cubes and knocking them down. 

It is an interesting space. The steps leading down have a dystopian feel as you descend into the bowels of Dupont.  One gets the feeling that Dupont Underground is underfunded and understaffed, and only a small segment of the space is currently being used.  Raise/Raze felt like it wasn't fully realized, not half-assed, just felt like they ran out of time to get the project completed.  In addition, the space has some serious challenges, like no plumbing.  

It will be interesting to see what other projects and events they have planned.  Sounded like they are hoping to run some video installations and music events.  We'll see, fingers are crossed that the Dupont Underground will survive.    

[DonRocks]

10 hours ago, Tweaked said:

One gets the feeling that Dupont Underground is underfunded and understaffed, and only a small segment of the space is currently being used. Raise/Raze felt like it wasn't fully realized, not half-assed, just felt like they ran out of time to get the project completed. 

Intelligence and passion are never underfunded and understaffed. It might be - in accounting terms - but you and I both know that in real life, they're all that matter.

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A couple of photos: