Inaugural Exhibition of 2016 Coast Guard Art Collection

The Coast Guard Art Program (COGAP) makes use of fine art to educate diverse audiences about the Coast Guard.  Today, more than ever, the service addresses an abundance of challenges as it works to maintain the nation’s security at home and abroad and execute its 11 statutory missions such as search and rescue, defense readiness and drug and illegal migrant interdiction. COGAP art provides visual testimony to the unique contribution the service makes to the nation in its multifaceted roles as a military, humanitarian and law enforcement organization.

Art from the program is exhibited at museums around the country. It is also displayed in offices of members of Congress, Cabinet secretaries, senior government officials and other military services and Coast Guard locations nationwide. 

Coast Guard artists—a talented cadre of professional artists—donate their work to the program. Today, the collection comprises some 2,000 works showing the missions performed by the service’s force of 40,400 active duty members.

Credit: Exhibition overview from museum website