ALT-DC

Video + Stills
Exhibition

ALT-DC presents a layered and provocative portrait of
a city too often reduced to headlines and stereotypes.
Because we actually live here.

The exhbition will be closed for a private event Friday, September 26 from 2-5 pm and all day Saturday, September 27.

On View:
Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays
September 6-October 5, 2025 11-5pm
($5 entrance fee)

TICKETS

 ALT-DC explores Washington, DC through the lens of its artistic community — a city seen not as a symbol of power, but as a living, shifting place full of tension, beauty, contradiction, and potential.

POSTCARDS ARE FOR TOURISTS BUT THIS ART DIGS IN.

  • About the Exhibition

    The exhibition challenges the dominant narratives of the nation's capital by foregrounding alternative visions rooted in the everyday, the imagined, and the overlooked. Through digital projections of video and photography artists reinterpret the city’s layered identity — illuminating untold stories, reimagining public spaces, and questioning what defines DC beyond its federal façade.

    Set within the raw, industrial environment of Dupont Underground, ALT-DC transforms the physical space into a platform for expanded storytelling. The site itself — once a transit hub, now an experimental cultural venue — becomes part of the narrative, echoing themes of transformation, reclamation, and hidden histories.

    ALT-DC positions DC as a place in motion, where art becomes a tool for revealing what is, imagining what could be, and advocating for what should be.

  • Themes the Artists Explore

    Memory and erasure: what's been bulldozed, gentrified, or "conveniently" erased.

    Infrastructure and invisibility: what lurks under, around, or behind the surface (yes, even the Metro, though you don't have to be literal).

    DC as muse: futures and dreams inspired by DC's urban framework.

    Irreverence and absurdity: the dry and not so dry humor, snark, and gentle weirdness that makes this place home.

FEATURED ARTISTS

Thirty-five DMV area photographers and videographers answered the call to artist and were accepted into the ALT-DC show in 2025. See their profiles, read about their background and read about their work.

ARTIST PROFILES

And a big thank you to our sponsors!

We are highlighting artistic work with attitude - art that has something to say. Emphasis on being real, raw, humorous, arguably subversive, & wonderfully weird