Evelyn Stokes, Phillip Ratner, circa 1977. Collection of Anacostia Community Museum, Smithsonian Institution.
Anacostia Community Museum
1901 Fort Place, SE
Washington, DC
As he sketched everyday scenes around Washington, DC, Phil Ratner fell in love again with the city of his birth. The exhibit pairs his drawings with the three-dimensional sculptures that they become: a woman feeding the birds…garbage collectors tipping cans into a trash truck…a “Quartet” of three people sitting on a bench and a dog lying beneath. Mr. Ratner also made portraits of distinguished residents of Anacostia, the southeastern neighborhood where he has taught art for almost twenty years. His students at Anacostia High School contribute drawings to the exhibit and collaborate with their teacher to paint a mural on a wall in the museum’s exhibition gallery.
