In D.C., a truly underground arts scene
Tunnels built for trolley service now offer a needed cultural space
WASHINGTON — Roaming the streets of the Dupont Circle neighborhood about 20 years ago, Julian Hunt spotted a grimy staircase leading down from the pavement to a boarded-up door.
He spent many hours on the phone and in the city’s archives, which led Hunt to crawl through filthy tunnels with a flashlight to discover an old trolley tunnel inhabited by a small group of homeless people.
Since the city’s trolley service shut down in 1962, the 75,000-square-foot labyrinth had been the site of a subterranean murder, rumored ’80s rave parties and a Cold War-era bomb shelter. Now, Hunt, an architect who was a founder of the Hunt Laudi Studio, has turned the tunnels into the Dupont Underground art space, which draws 3,000 visitors every month.
“It’s one of those spaces in the city that becomes mythical because it just hasn’t been open to the public for so long,” said Brianne Nadeau, a member of the City Council.
Washington is often portrayed as the staid bureaucratic center of the United States, where a transient young population is drawn only by the job market, and where rocketing property prices limit the fringe art scene. Artists earn their spot at a Smithsonian exhibition only when they have proved themselves elsewhere.
Yet, the tunnels are now part of a wave of spaces — from small galleries that host artists to sitting rooms that accommodate musicians — where local talent can showcase work in the capital rather than fleeing to New York. And Dupont Underground is looking at other ambitious projects as inspiration, like the Serpentine Galleries in London and the Lowline underground park project in New York.
“We’re this intermediate opportunity,” said Noel Kassewitz, director for arts programming at Dupont Underground. “We’re a young nonprofit so we have the flexibility to host more experimental works here, while at the same time having the space that is often not available.”
The Dupont Circle neighborhood has developed as part of the spread of gentrification across the capital over the decades and now is home to fashionable bars and restaurants surrounding a circular park with an imposing fountain. In decades past, those streets were known for crime and drug use.
The tunnels belong to the District of Columbia government. But after much haggling with authorities, delayed further by the turmoil of the global financial crisis, Hunt won a five-year lease in 2014.
His nonprofit has since spent about $300,000 — raised through crowdfunding and private donations as well as ticket sales — to clean the space and install basic lights and ventilation. Local officials are watching its success closely after an attempt to draw people to the tunnels with a food court on another platform failed in the 1990s.
For Hunt, the project is a form of activism in a city where, when people think of beautiful architecture, they think mostly of the preservation of historic buildings.
“It’s not the kind of activism where you actually do things, new things and where you experiment,” Hunt said.
Those in Washington’s established art institutions see spaces like Dupont Underground as a much-needed addition. Adriel Luis, curator at the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center, said the capital lacked “a bridge between the galleries and the museums” to foster local talent.