James Robertson

Portrait Ceremony
Transcript of Ceremony: December 8, 2009

Artist
Born in West Virginia and based in Washington, D.C., Annette Polan (1944 – ) is a professor of art specializing in portraiture. She graduated from Hollins College and studied at the Ecole du Louvre, the Tyler School of Art, and the Corcoran College of Art and Design. She is Professor Emeritus at the Corcoran and CEO of Capital Artports, a series of art workshops that develop innovation and leadership through the arts. She has painted the official portraits of Justice Sandra Day O’Conner, Judge Rya Zobel, and Edward Villella of the Miami City Ballet, among many others.

Ms. Polan has taught and lectured on American portraiture around the world and has had many exhibitions both in the United States and abroad. She participates in the U.S. State Department’s Art in Embassy Program; her paintings appear in the American Embassies of Denmark and Fiji. She was awarded the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Outstanding Public Service Award for her service as Chair of Faces of the Fallen, an exhibition of over 1300 portraits by 230 American artists that honors servicemen and women who died in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Previously, Ms. Polan was Chair of the Corcoran’s Painting Department and served on the boards of many organizations including the Washington Project for the Arts/Corcoran and Smith Farm, a center for Art and Healing.