Q. What is the story with the Beethoven portrait in the Michelle Smith Performing Arts Library

It was painted by Javier Cabada and is dated 1969. Mr. Cabada is a DC-based artist who does many portraits of composers, among other things. He has done multiple portraits of Beethoven, often titled Beethoven I, Beethoven II, etc. Ours is simply called "Beethoven." It was a gift of Charles Fowler, a very influential advocate for arts education whose collection of papers resides in the Michelle Smith Performing Arts Library.

Here's Javier Cabada's Web page:

https://cabada.art/