Bryan Cottrell took this picture in college for a photography assignment. It was later used as the inspiration for his submission for the National Law Enforcement Memorial Fund Museum’s art display.
Bryan Cottrell’s art piece titled “Honor” will be on display from now through August 2025 in Washington D.C.
Haddonfield resident Bryan Cottrell retired from a 25 year career in law-enforcement earlier this year and is one of 50 artists chosen to have their art on display in D.C.
Haddonfield artist and recent retiree Bryan Cottrell will have his drawing titled “Honor” featured in the National Law Enforcement’s Memorial Fund Museum alongside 49 other artists. The art piece is a pencil sketch of a black and white photo of a worn American flag leaning against the tombstone that he took in college for a photography class.
“It just reminds me of a lot of things,” Cottrell said, “of patriotism, of those who served, and it crosses over between military and police.”
Cottrell retired from his position as deputy chief of detectives for the Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office in June after a lengthy career in law enforcement. He started out working for the Attorney General’s Office and served in a casino unit, narcotics unit and worked also in the specials victim’s unit. Later he worked with the shooting-response unit in Trenton, and also worked in the homicide unit for many years. He stayed in the field for 25 years.
It was only a few months before he retired that he learned of the call for art submissions by the National Law Enforcement’s Memorial Fund Museum, which wanted to showcase both the therapeutic nature of art and also to paint the law enforcement in a new light, since it is not often associated with creative expression.
Thomas Canavan, executive director for National Law Enforcement Museum, shared that he was surprised by the submissions they received for the display, which is titled “Officers as artists: The Creative Expression of Those Who Serve.” They received 177 submissions and narrowed it down to 50 through a jurying process. Through their intake process, Canavan was surprised to learn that many of the officers had been artists before they joined law enforcement, and was also surprised to see that there was a diverse range of art.
“… A lot of the artwork feels really directly with law enforcement iconography or symbolism or things that you would associate with law enforcement visually … the artwork that was submitted, in most cases had nothing to do with law enforcement whatsoever,” said Canavan. “So I think it really gave us an insight into what officers are interested in and passionate about outside of their job and outside of law enforcement.
” … This really gives people an opportunity to see a different side of law enforcement than they did previously.”
Cottrell was also excited about this aspect – seeing law enforcement officers as people outside of their roles.
“Law enforcement is incredibly stressful at times, it’s hard on the officers, it’s hard on the officer’s family,” he said. “We see very crazy things, and very stressful things, and it’s a matter of can you use art to your advantage in relieving some of that stress and some of the pent-up emotions to create a healthier well-being, and coping skills. … That was my take on it.”
Cottrell acknowledged that there is a stigma for officers to seek help or for officers to do different things.
“I want to encourage people to express themselves to seek help if they need that,” he said. “One way that I’ve found is to utilize your artistic abilities as a stress coping mechanism.”
The museum opened in 2018 as a way to tell the story of American law enforcement from the perspective of law enforcement officers, and features historic artifacts, like weapons, badges and handcuffs that were used in early policing all the way up until the 20th century, and also more digital and immersive experiences.
“It’s comprised of both a historical and more traditional display that you would find in a museum as well as various immersive and digital experiences,” said Canavan. “We have a lot of interactive touch displays and touch exhibitions as well as two simulators they can experience.”
These include a use of force simulator and a driving simulator. The art exhibition is one of the non-permanent displays that the museum features.
The art will be on display beginning Saturday, Sept. 28 and remain up in the museum in Washington, D.C. through August 2025.
To learn more about the museum, visit https://nleomf.org/museum/.
