D.C. arts panel will enliven city streets with PandaMania

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ASSOCIATED PRESS

White, plastic, life-size pandas lined up in spare rooms in a Southwest shopping mall are waiting to be turned into colorful works of art.

The D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities yesterday took delivery of dozens of the sitting and standing creatures. The statues are the focus of PandaMania, a follow-up to the successful Party Animals project in 2002, when painted elephants and donkeys were displayed throughout the city.

One hundred fifty designs were chosen from 1,300 submissions, according to Anthony Gittens, executive director of the commission.

"We wanted quality art, pieces that would be engaging on the street and draw people to stop and look as they go about their daily lives," Mr. Gittens said.

He said the elephants and donkeys proved not only to be a tourist draw, but also got residents to see parts of the city that were new to them.

"We found last time that people wanted to see each and every one," Mr. Gittens said.

What will they see this time?

One of the artists plans a Van Gogh theme, with painted sunflowers and one panda ear missing. Another statue will look like it is made of marble. A "Panda Warhol" design calls for a panda with Andy Warhol-like white hair and a Campbell's soup can painted on its stomach.

Chad Allen, an artist in Adams Morgan, is recruiting friends to help him decorate his panda to look like a designer purse.

"I ordered 18,000 acrylic jewels, but it might take more to make the panda look like a Judith Lieber bag," Mr. Allen said.

When he painted a party animal two years ago, he had 16 friends help him on five Saturdays. "They all had such a good time, they're coming back again," he said.

"There's something neat about working on something as big as you are," said Carla Golembe, a painter and children's books illustrator and author from Rockville. "It's a great scale for me."

Her panda will feature tropical imagery she recalls from a trip to Belize.

The artists will be working on their panda statues this month so their creations can be out on the streets for all to enjoy by mid-May.