- It's an interesting time for you.
You've had so much success for so many decades,
and yet this seems to be a period of time
when you're receiving so much more recognition
with exhibits at Art Basel in Switzerland,
with this work here at the Center,
and at Dia Beacon in New York.
How does it feel to get this recognition
at this time in your life?
- It's the beginning.
- Ah.
- So, it feels right.
It's constant.
- I think that's the sign and the idea of a youthful artist.
- Yes.
- Who's always working towards something more.
(graceful piano music)
(string ensemble music)
It's very important for us to have you here in The REACH.
You came to Washington DC in the '60s.
So, you overlapped
with when John F. Kennedy was in the presidency?
- Yes. Three years.
I actually came around the time of the March on Washington
for King's speech at the Lincoln Memorial.
I came with my new bride who suggested after a few days
that I should go into law.
(both chuckling)
- Not be an artist? (chuckles)
- Well, she knew, she knew that (laughing).
We were lucky is that we moved
into Adams Morgan, Columbia Road,
which was actually the center, music center.
I never left.
I came to a good place.
(beautiful orchestral music)
- This building, The REACH,
was built intentionally to complement the spaces
that we have at The Kennedy Center.
And it is much more open,
it looks right out at the river,
and has much more light.
But intelligently, without planning,
we created these magnificent spaces
that are begging for art.
And I just couldn't be more thrilled
that we have this work of yours
gracing this wall here in the Peace Corps Gallery.
It is a place that is filled with people,
except right now.
- [Sam] Mm-hmm, yes.
- On a daily basis through the evening and the weekends.
And you have no idea how many people
are taking pictures of themselves, or of your artwork.
So I can't ever thank you enough, actually,
for sharing it with us here.
- It's nice.
I think to have known this river
since the '60s, and now it's 2020.
- Yeah.
- I saw this building built. It has a nice theme.
It means coming to this place,
and discovering it.
- Why is it draped exactly the way it is?
I think it's perfect.
It's like, as you say, the performing arts,
it's got a gracefulness, it's lyrical, it's performing.
But how did this idea of a beautiful painted canvas come?
- It's called a Carousel.
- Yes.
- Carousels are just what they are.
They're actually round structures
for younger kids.
Their calliopes, and music,
and our horses,
and motion up and down, and things like this.
For me, it reminds me of living near this fairgrounds,
and preferring the circus,
and what was inside that area to being in school.
My sixth-grade classroom
was less than a mile from the circus ground.
- I see.
- And that's where we spent most time after school.
When you were supposed to be home by five,
you went that way,
and you arrive right in your seat at the table.
And dad would say, "Where have you been?"
"Oh, I've been down. Oh, I've been out. I've been around."
And how nice it would be to run away and to join the circus.
- (chuckles) We all wanted be able to do that, too.
- Oh, yeah. (chuckles)
(angelic choral music)
(choral music continues)
- You have a very impressive education as an artist.
Do you think that your education
is around how to express yourself?
Is it vital for your success
to have had that kind of education,
or is it this larger life education, life experiences,
that brings the greater depth and meaning to your art?
- It was good to have a complete education
in order to have an index,
and actually to feel at home wherever you were.
After the sixth grade,
there wasn't an art program that I could go to.
And in fact, there was an art art program
only in certain places after school.
And then into high school.
- You went to college, and then you later got your master's,
and you had really fantastic training.
If you weren't having art in your school day,
how did you then move on to?
- I had been in the military. I'd been in Japan.
I'd been trained as a pilot.
I had other plans, but then I had to become an artist
because I was drafted.
In leaving the military service when I applied for a job
is that I was asked to teach the sixth grade
in my own sixth-grade school.
- [Deborah] Oh.
- In my own neighborhood
replacing my own sixth-grade teacher.
I think it was exactly the same as it was
when I had gone to school in the '40s.
- [Deborah] Gosh.
- I knew where the paper, the crayons, the batteries,
and things like this.
- When I was in the sixth grade and the seventh grade,
those were the most important grades for me
to decide I loved being in music.
- My music teacher wanted me to sing.
I made certain that was the one thing I wasn't gonna do.
The major thing is that was with Mrs. Brown
is that if you finish your lessons, you could always draw.
And,
I drew.
(angelic choral music)
- You grew up in the south, you longed to be in New York,
and you ended up in Washington.
You traveled the world.
And I will never be able to look at this gorgeous work
without thinking of you
going to the circus after school. (chuckles)
And knowing that that was the genesis of the Carousel.
- Thank you.
(angelic choral music continues)
- Sam Gilliam, it's so nice to meet you.
I just wanted to make a very special introduction to you.
It's really an honor, and a pleasure
to have Mr. Sam Gilliam here with us
whose art is hanging throughout The REACH
in The Kennedy Center.
And he happens to also be (indistinct) uncle.
Welcome.
(audience applauding)
(peaceful angelic music)