Washington ? The building is cold, dim and vacant, except for 200 donkey and elephant figures lined up in neat rows on the second floor. Soon this defunct downtown store will be abuzz with activity.

Artists are coming by the dozens palettes in hand, imaginations in overdrive to turn the ghostly gray figures into art.

The party animals have finally come to town.

Kansas City, Mo., had its cows, Peoria, Ill., had its pigs, Orlando, Fla., its lizards. In the nation’s capital, a public art project that has placed whimsical sculptures in more than a dozen cities is celebrating politics.

Next month, decorated symbols of the Democratic and Republican parties will go on the stump citywide in a campaign to lure tourists, raise money for the arts and show that this town really does have a lighter side.

Tabletop models, already painted, offer a preview of what some of the big ones might look like. One elephant is dotted with pink-and-white cherry blossoms. Another, named “Horny,” balances a French horn on the tip of its upturned trunk and clenches a saxophone in its mouth.

The light touch is paramount. Organizers didn’t want designs that were overtly political or focused on scandal. There won’t be any Monica Lewinsky likenesses.

“We wanted a project that would be fun and whimsical and give us an opportunity to poke a little fun at ourselves,” said Tony Gittens, executive director of the D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities, which is sponsoring the “Party Animals” public art project.

The sculptures will stay on downtown streets and in some neighborhoods through the fall, when they will be sold at a public auction. Proceeds will go to the agency’s grant programs.

Washington hopes for a big turnout for the party animals, which will begin showing up about the same time as the famed cherry blossoms.

Officials had considered panda sculptures, in deference to the city’s popular zoo inhabitants. But the vote went to the bipartisan pairing of 100 donkeys, the symbol of Democrats, and 100 elephants, the Republican Party mascot. More than 1,000 design proposals were submitted by artists from as far away as Australia and Japan.

	www.partyanimalsdc.org

Each polyurethane sculpture is about 4 1/2 feet tall by 5 feet long, weighs about 150 pounds and will be attached to a 700-pound concrete base.

The donkey stands with its ears upright, head and tail appropriately cocked to the left of center. The elephant, about the size of a baby one, has its trunk coiled upward and ears pulled back alongside its head, which leans to the far right.