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Thousands gather, stream along H Street for annual arts festival

WASHINGTON — It was postponed in September because of the severe weather Hurricane Florence was expected to bring to the area, but the one-day H Street Festival had the area teeming with life on Saturday.

Folks streamed through the H Street Corridor, walking lanes on that usually usher cars and over rails that guide street cars — all to the sounds of music from DJs, drums and the lilts and tones of hundreds of lively conversations.

“I have come here since it started. It was very small, people could come out and roam like they are now, but it was nowhere as this size is,” a photographer named Valerie told WTOP. She’s attended this event each year since it started 12 years ago.

Vendors from the D.C. area and beyond sold their artistic wares and artwork at tables and underneath tents.

“Washington is a dope city,” exclaimed Rodd Quinn, a traveling artist from Austin, Texas. He had only seen photos and videos of the city in the past. “It makes me even prouder to be an American just to be in this city.”

See scenes from the festival.

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National Museum of the American Latino to be housed in historic Smithsonian building

The Smithsonian Institution has decided to put the National Museum of the American Latino into an existing, historic building, rather than constructing a new one. The Smithsonian Board of Regents on Monday designated the Arts and Industries Building, a 145-year-old redbrick Victorian structure located between the Smithsonian Castle and the Hirshhorn Museum, as the permanent site of the National Museum of the American Latino, which Congress authorized in 2020. In 2022, the Smithsonian narrowed its survey for permanent locations for the National Museum of the American Latino and the American Women's History Museum to four locations near the National Mall on land owned by the National Park Service. The Arts and Industries Building, located at 900 Jefferson St. SW, was one of the four sites. New construction on National Park Service land would require congressional approval. However, since the Smithsonian already owns the Arts and Industries Building, the institution can place the National Museum of the American Latino in the existing building without additional legislation.
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