Prominent American artist designs 40-foot-high mural to honor General Colin Powell and encourage cultural diplomacy

WASHINGTON, May 13 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Foundation for Art and Preservation in Embassies (FAPE), the leading non-profit organization dedicated to enhancing the United States' image abroad through American art, announced today that it has commissioned Dorothea Rockburne to create a mural for installation at the U.S. Embassy in Kingston, Jamaica.

Honoring General Colin Powell and his family, who are originally from Jamaica, the mural will depict the sky over Jamaica on the night he was born. Instead of creating the work in-situ, Rockburne will paint the mural in Queens, New York, beginning on Monday, May 18, 2009, at the Queens Museum of Art, a vital cultural center in Flushing Meadows Corona Park. The artist will collaborate with EverGreene Architectural Arts, Inc., renowned for award-winning large-scale interior conservation, restoration, and new design work, to present Homage to Colin Powell on a 40-foot-high piece of canvas, which will be stretched on a wall in the museum's Large Triangle Gallery. The work will then be shipped to Jamaica and installed in the atrium of the embassy later this year.

The installation is part of FAPE's Art in New Embassies program. In commissioning work, FAPE is assisted by an advisory committee of prominent arts professionals; Robert Storr, Dean of the Yale School of Art, serves as Chairman. Once an artist has been selected and has agreed to create a piece, the embassy architects, the State Department, FAPE, and the artist work together to ensure that the art is sensitively integrated within the building and its grounds. The works are all donated by the artists, and FAPE provides the funds to pay for their fabrication and installation.

"The wall painting details the position of constellations over Jamaica on the night that Colin Powell was born, April 5, 1937, and taps the art history of the painting of skies to illustrate the connectedness of humanity," said Dorothea Rockburne, American artist. "By creating beauty and honoring a remarkable man and diplomat, we can learn from the heritage of other cultures and encourage conversation among nations. I feel great pride in having been chosen to do this."

"The entire design and installation process of Homage to Colin Powell - painting the artwork in Queens, honoring General Powell, and installing the work at the Embassy in Kingston - illustrates how art encourages cultural understanding of the United States abroad," said Jo Carole Lauder, Chairman of the Foundation for Art and Preservation in Embassies. "FAPE is delighted to bring together artists and architects, as well as the public and private sectors, to create timeless artwork for permanent display in U.S. embassies around the world."

For the past 30 years, the third largest foreign born population in New York City is from Jamaica. Over 25 percent of the total Jamaican community lives in Queens, making the Queens Museum of Art a fitting location for the unveiling of Rockburne's artwork. The U.S. Embassy in Kingston was designed by John Chapman of Karn Charuhas Chapman & Twohey, and opened in 2006. Located on a nine-acre site, it is one of the largest U.S. consular offices in the world.

About Dorothea Rockburne:

Dorothea Rockburne is a leading American abstract artist. Born in 1932, Rockburne draws inspiration primarily from a deep interest in mathematics and astronomy. Since the late 1960s, she has aligned herself with the classical tradition, exploring geometry, and proportional relationships while using materials like cardboard and crude oil and, more recently, gold leaf and pure pigment. Through deliberate choices of color and composition, Rockburne brings together the human desire for transcendence and the mathematical structures that underlie all of nature. Her work has been seen in one-person exhibitions at numerous galleries and in museum collections including the Metropolitan Museum of Art and The Museum of Modern Art in New York.

About the Queens Museum of Art

The Queens Museum of Art was established in 1972 to provide a vital cultural center in Flushing Meadows Corona Park for the borough's unique, international population. Today it is home to the Panorama of the City of New York, a 9,335 square foot scale model of the five boroughs, and features temporary exhibitions of modern and contemporary art that reflect the cultural diversity of Queens, a collection of Tiffany glass from the Neustadt Collection of Tiffany Glass and a cache of artifacts from the 1939 and 1964 World's Fairs. The Museum provides valuable educational outreach through a number of programs geared toward schoolchildren, teens, families, seniors, individuals with physical and mental disabilities, and new New Yorkers. Visit www.queensmuseum.org for more information.

About The Foundation for Art and Preservation in Embassies

The Foundation for Art and Preservation in Embassies (FAPE) is the leading non-profit organization dedicated to enhancing the United States' image abroad through American art. Founded as a public-private, non-partisan partnership in 1986, FAPE works with the U.S. Department of State to contribute fine art to U.S. embassies around the world. FAPE's donations include works by more than 145 preeminent American artists placed in over 70 countries. Headquartered in Washington D.C., FAPE has raised over $42 million in art and monetary contributions to date. For more information, please visit www.fapeglobal.org.