An Art Show in Washington That’s Out of This World

02 June 2011

"Fluid Dynamics" by Tina York, 1995

DOUG JOHNSON: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC in VOA Special English.

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I'm Doug Johnson. On our program this week, we read some of your comments about our recent shows…

And we listen to music from two southern bands…

But first, a report on an art show that is out of this world…

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NASA Art

DOUG JOHNSON: An art exhibit opened last week at the National Air and Space Museum building in Washington. The show documents fifty years of space exploration through painting, sculpture, and other media. Artists include Annie Leibovitz, Norman Rockwell, Nam June Paik and many others. Christopher Cruise takes us to the exhibition.

CHRISTOPHER CRUISE: In nineteen sixty-two, the head of America’s space agency, NASA, had an unusual idea for documenting space exploration. Why not ask artists to capture the excitement of space exploration through paintings, drawings and sculpture? From that question, the National Aeronautics and Space Agency Arts Program was born. For almost fifty years, the space agency has requested and paid artists for their works.

The artists are given freedom of movement throughout many NASA facilities. For example, one of the early artists in the Arts Program, Franklin McMahon, spent hours in a NASA medical exam room. He studied the equipment and instruments doctors used to examine astronauts just after a flight. The exam room was on a ship that picked up the astronauts after they returned to Earth.