Art Works Blog

Arts and Military

a painting of Operation Steel Curtain by Michael D. Fay

From the NEA Arts Archives: "Seeing is Believing"

November 13, 2013
In spring 2012, we devoted an issue of NEA Arts to looking at the ways the arts and the military intersect. One of our features focused on combat artists--visual artists who are embedded with troops to capture their day-to-day experiences on the battlefield. In an excerpt from his blog quoted in...
Man standing in front of book shelf

The Things They Still Carry

November 8, 2013
During his service with the 3rd Infantry Division from 2002 to 2006, Hector Ocampo served two tours of duty in Iraq, the first in 2003 and the second in 2005. His experiences there are never too far from the surface, particularly on his birthday, which triggers memories of an earlier birthday...
Lynn Hill performing in "Holding It Down. "Photo by Marc Millman Photography, courtesy of  Atlas Intersections Festival

Art Works Podcast: Lynn Hill

April 11, 2013
This week's podcast introduces Lynn Hill, an Air Force veteran, author, and performer. I saw her last month, at the Atlas Theater's annual Intersections Festival here in Washington, DC, where she performed her own poetry in Holding It Down . Holding It Down is an extraordinary theatrical...
Commander Moira McGuire. Photo courtesy of Walter Reed National Medical Center Bethesda

How the Arts Can Heal the Military

April 10, 2013
I don’t have a single childhood memory that does not, in some way, include the arts. As the daughter of an opera singer turned voice teacher and a painter/pianist/playwright and elementary educator, my early life was saturated with visual art, dance, music, and drama. I would wake on Saturday...

Art Talk with Suzanne Asher of Veterans in the Arts

November 9, 2012
Suzanne Asher. Photo by Joseph D.R. OLeary "Art constantly enriches my life and secures me to my own humanity." --- Suzanne Asher Suzanne Asher has always believed in a life of service, which initially meant serving her country in the U.S. Air Force in both operations and as a researcher...

Brian Turner and the Poetry of War

August 29, 2012
Brian Turner. Photo by Kim Buchheit, courtesy of Blue Flower Arts. In support of our recent issue of NEA Arts , we're featuring a fresh perspective on war by another artist, poet Brian Turner. It's no secret that writers, playwrights, and poets have been capturing the wartime experience...

Spotlight on the Art of the VA

August 22, 2012
Looking Into a PTSD Mind by Bill McCormick. Photo courtesy of Bill McCormick "It's not so much about the art; it's what the art represents." --- Liz Mackey, on artwork by veterans The photo framed above features, quite literally, a pile of junk. The glasses, barbed wire, rusted...

Art Works Podcast: Bryan Doerries

August 16, 2012
Elizabeth Marvel and Bill Camp in Theater of War. Photo by Howard Korn This week's podcast pulls back the curtain on Theater of War . Its artistic director and founder, Bryan Doerries, is a classicist and translator, who was convinced that the Greek tragedies still had the power to move...

Singing Through the Wounds of War

August 13, 2012
Rehearsal for Fallujah . From l-r: Willy Miles-Grenzberg as "Lalo," Nickolas Meyer as "Rocks," Christopher Mayell as "Taylor," and Ken Lavigne as "Philip." Photo by Chad Galloway / Opus 59 Films / City Opera Vancouver When U.S. Marine Corps Sergeant (Ret)...

NEA Arts: "The Art of Giving Back: The Blue Star Museums Initiative"

August 10, 2012
Helen Blake, daughter of a Marine Corps aviator, marvels at a crystal during a 2011 visit to the National Mining Hall of Fame and Museum in Leadville, Colorado, a participating Blue Star Museum. Photo by Molly Blake "I think we truly are creating an enormous generation of museum-goers from...

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