Integrating local artists into arts museums doesn't happen very often

It is an issue everywhere that "local artists" tend to be ignored by (seemingly) local arts museums, when it comes to collecting and presenting their work.

I have become particularly clued into this problem in DC, where all the major "arts" museums are national institutions like the National Gallery of Art, the Hirshorn Museum, the Smithsonian American Arts Museum, etc., and they mostly collect and present the best of the dead artists.

There is no local museum that collects and displays local artists and works to support and development the local community of artists.  Instead, most artists who achieve prominence do so by going to NYC.

So while I am not in favor of how Miami-based artist Maximo Caminero destroyed a vase by Ai Weiwei displayed at the Pérez Art Museum Miami ("Miami artist destroys $1 million Ai Weiwei vase in protest," CNN), I can see his point.

Some cities where you have the juxtaposition of national, provincial-state, and local interests do have both "local" and "national" museums, and the local museum, such as the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts in Montreal, collects and displays local arts.

Last Friday, I happened to go to the Museum of the Shenandoah Valley in Winchester, Virginia and I was surprised to see that they have two galleries where they make a point of displaying contemporary art by regional artists.

That is very rare, but is more likely to occur in a museum in a small town, rather than in a museum in a big city, except maybe in the gift shop.