DC: 202Creates Festival

Engaged attendees enjoy D.C.’s first 202 Arts & Music Festival. Photo by Rebecca Dupas

202Creates is a new initiative in Washington, D.C., to showcase the city’s strong creative economy and related arts, humanities and cultural assets. Demonstrating that the nation’s capital is also a capital of creativity, the initiative also is promoting STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts and math) education—a priority of Mayor Muriel Bowser’s administration—and is the launching pad for the District’s new Creative Economy Career Access Program. 202Creates began in September with a full calendar of cultural events and programs presented over the course of the month by the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities (DCCAH) and other city agencies that elevated the best the city has to offer in visual arts, new media, film, music, dance, theatre, spoken-word poetry, literature, opera, fashion design, culinary arts and more. Highlights included the three-night Labor Day Weekend Music Festival, the first-ever 202 Arts & Music Festival, the Annual Mayor’s Arts Awards ceremony and discussions about public-sector support for the creative community—as well as the grand opening of the Smithsonian African American Museum and the Library of Congress’s National Book Festival. For more information, contact DCCAH Program and Communications Officer Jeffrey Scott.