While Congressional Cemetery seeks to connect people with the stories held within our landscape, we also encourage our visitors to embrace their own mortality and enjoy the cemetery as an urban green space. Public art installations are a natural extension of the comprehensive funerary art and symbolism present on our grounds, and we are delighted to offer these programs to our neighbors and visitors.
Please continue to check our social media channels, subscribe to our mailing list, and view the website to see upcoming and ongoing public art engagement opportunities.
The Big Chair Project: Messages of Hope
In 2023, Congressional Cemetery staff looked outside their office windows and found themselves realizing the grand, oversized “Big Chair” was a blank canvas awaiting an artist’s touch. Staff decided to transform the “Big Chair” into a mesmerizing symbol of joy and inspiration by inviting talented neighbors and community members to contribute their hopeful messages and images to it as the cemetery’s first community-led public art project.
Symbolism on Stones
In a manner of speaking, the cemetery has its own permanent public art collection in the form of headstones, mausoleums, and memorials. Visitors are always welcome to explore the expansive collection of funerary art, symbols, and carvings throughout the cemetery by visiting our symbolism guide on the website and touring the grounds.
Public Art Installations
Public art is a newer initiative at Congressional Cemetery which began with the first iteration of the Big Chair Project and continues with temporary instillations meant to inspire deep thought and interactions with the cemetery. In 2024, the cemetery introduced its first collaborative physical art installation as a site-specific wind phone. This project was spearheaded by HCC’s 2024 Curator-in-Residence Ashley Molese and created by artist Tommy Bobo. It was warmly received and confirmed the need for this type of programming on our grounds.
