JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
For the first time ever, Washington, D.C., is hosting an IndyCar race. More than two dozen race cars will speed around the National Mall this weekend on a course that runs right past multiple art and history museums. As NPR's Rachel Treisman reports, that's raised questions about the safety of the works inside.
RACHEL TREISMAN, BYLINE: President Thomas Jefferson celebrated the country's 25th birthday with festivities, including a horse race near the White House. This weekend, the U.S. is celebrating its 250th with an IndyCar race in the same spot.
BUD DENKER: He had one horsepower. I got a lot more horsepower than that here this weekend.
TREISMAN: That's Bud Denker, president of Penske Corporation and the chair of the Freedom 250 Grand Prix, which culminates in Sunday's big race. Drivers will take 147 laps around a nearly two-mile course smack dab in the National Mall. Cars nearing speeds of 180 miles per hour will fly by landmarks like the National Gallery of Art and multiple Smithsonian museums.
DENKER: I provided them engineering studies to talk about decimal levels, noise, vibration levels, peak particle velocity.
TREISMAN: The National Gallery of Art told NPR it conducted its own vibration study and implemented safety measures. It declined to share specifics, but has boarded up some of its outdoor sculptures. Some art and historic preservation advocates worry that valuable works could be at risk. Leading that charge is Mary Okin, assistant director of the nonprofit Living New Deal.
MARY OKIN: The idea that for several hours of racing cars, we might be risking their safety and the access to these extraordinary works for future generations, that caused great anxiety for me.
TREISMAN: Okin is particularly worried about the Wilbur J. Cohen Building, the original home of the Social Security Program and several historic murals. But more broadly, she's concerned that organizers didn't fully investigate these risks or take precautions when planning the race, which Trump only authorized in January. For example, she would like to see them install vibration monitors.
OKIN: The fact that there is an insistence that it has to go by major collections of arts, whether or not those collections get damaged indicates a lack of care about the things that belong to the American people.
TREISMAN: The White House and IndyCar say they are following appropriate protocols and do not anticipate any damage. Denker says the race cars are lighter than passenger vehicles, and other urban races haven't caused issues.
DENKER: There's no vibration, OK? Our decimal levels are lower than those of a siren.
TREISMAN: This is an increasingly hot topic in the art world. Leila Sauvage is a paper conservator in Amsterdam who studies the impact of vibrations on museum collections. Those could be from construction or even concerts.
LEILA SAUVAGE: The objects don't care about whether it's a race or it's singing next to it. It just feels vibrations.
TREISMAN: Sauvage says vibrations can cause damage over time - a growing crack in a painting, a sculptor's arm falling off. Typically, she says, conservators prepare for potential disruptions by running tests and moving vulnerable works to a safer part of the building.
SAUVAGE: And it could be that because of the way the collections hang in the museum, maybe it's OK.
TREISMAN: Even so, Sauvage says she's anxious about the race. The silver lining, she says, is that people are talking more about the risks to art. She hopes that will translate into better protocols in the future.
Rachel Treisman, NPR News.
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