US State Department Seeks Designs ‘Exemplifying America’s Exceptionalism’ for Venice Architecture Biennale
The US State Department is accepting design proposals for the United States Pavilion at the 2027 Venice Architecture Biennale, requiring that submissions “exemplify America’s exceptionalism” and advance US foreign policy and public diplomacy objectives. The deadline is 23 July, and the associated grant is $475,000, an increase of $100,000 from the previous cycle. The 2027 Biennale’s main exhibition theme is “Do Architecture—For the Possibility of Coexistence Facing a Real Reality,” with Wang Shu and Lu Wenyu of Amateur Architecture Studio as artistic directors, and the State Department has provided downloadable drawings of the US Pavilion, a 1929 Palladian building by William Adams Delano and Chester Holmes Aldrich. The call echoes 2025 Trump-administration guidelines that reshaped the US selection process, including appointing the American Arts Conservancy (led by Jenni Parido) and independent curator Jeffrey Uslip, amid reports that artists such as William Eggleston and Barbara Chase-Riboud declined to participate; the pavilion is currently showing an exhibition by sculptor Alma Allen.
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