WASHINGTON 鈥� It was 1962 when D.C. pulled the plug on the city鈥檚 trolley system and shuttered the Dupont Circle station.
Other than a short stint as a fallout shelter in the 1960s and a food court in the 1990s, the station remained largely unused for more than 50 years.
For months now, the Arts Coalition for the Dupont Underground has been in the forgotten tunnels with tracks, with the聽goal of adding art and welcoming the public in聽this year.
鈥淚t鈥檚 a way to show the world that this is a top-tier art city,鈥� says Philippa Hughes, with the Arts Coalition for Dupont Underground.
The group is leasing the station from the city and plans to open its doors on April 30. The first exhibition is called “Raise/Raze,” which will consist of 650,000 plastic balls used during the Beach Exhibit last summer at the National Building Museum.
鈥淧eople will be able to come down and see cubes everywhere and they can build them into different structures,鈥� Hughes says.
Hou de Sousa, a firm from New York, won a design competition聽for聽the exhibit, and they will begin putting it together this weekend.
Hughes said making the cubes which will be used to assemble the exhibit.
Getting the tunnel to this point has involved countless volunteer hours and has uncovered some interesting items, including tin cans with crackers from its time as a fallout shelter.
鈥淭here was a dentist chair … who knows why that was here,鈥� Hughes says.
mostly through crowd funding and is part of a five-year lease from the city to Arts Coalition for the Dupont Underground.
Tickets for聽the first event, which runs聽from April 30 through June 1, are $15 and聽.
