Thursday, May 08, 2008

Corcoran cancels party

Dear Art Anonymous Participants,

Thank you so much for helping the Corcoran College of Art + Design with Art Anonymous. Each of your amazing pieces has been installed in Gallery 31 and the space looks absolutely fantastic. If you haven’t had the opportunity to come by and see the Gallery, please make certain you do. We cannot tell you how much we appreciate your donations and your generosity.

As you know, we had planned to hold a party after the Art Anonymous sale on May 10. Unfortunately unforeseen circumstances mean we have had to cancel the party and are now holding the sale only. The event has been switched and will be open to current ticket holders only from 6 to 8 p.m. on Saturday night. Proceeds from the sale will still be dedicated to the College’s BFA Scholarship Fund.

Again, please know how grateful we are for your support of Art Anonymous. As a token of our thanks, we do hope that you will join us for the Exhibition Preview Evening for Richard Avedon: Portraits of Power, to be held on Wednesday, September 10. Please accept our apologies for canceling the party at the last moment. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to get in touch with us at (202) 639-1753.

Thank you again for your support of the Corcoran College of Art + Design.

Best regards,

Corcoran Membership
Update: The Corcoran follows up with this email:
Dear Art Anonymous Participants,

We would like to take this chance to explain the situation further and extend a special invitation to all of you (in addition to the Avedon preview) for all of your dedication and support of the Corcoran during Art Anonymous.

Please understand that since the party after the Art Anonymous sale has now been canceled, we no longer have the space to hold participants other than the already registered ticket holders. We do understand that we offered all participating artists complimentary entry into this event. However, we had an overwhelming response to this offer, and without the extra room, Gallery 31 is too small to hold all potential attendees.

What we would like to offer all artists however, is the chance to join us from 4pm – 5pm sharp in Gallery 31 to mingle with each other, share some wine, and get a preview of the show before the works go on sale (these works are also up now, and can be viewed in our Gallery 31 until 9pm tonight, and from 10am – 5pm tomorrow and Saturday).

We look forward to hosting all of you at 4pm this Saturday in our Gallery 31 (please remember to use the New York Avenue entrance). If you had a guest accompanying you to the 6pm sale, they may still come to the sale, or we can refund their ticket and they may join you from 4pm – 5pm this Saturday. Just have them call (202) 639-1753 to get their refund. Please also note that the registration for the sale from 6pm – 8pm is now closed, and no walk-ins will be allowed.

Thank you again for your support of the Corcoran College of Art + Design, and please accept our invitation for the artist-only sneak preview.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to get in touch with us at (202) 639-1753.

With much appreciation,

Corcoran Membership

5 comments:

John M. Adams said...

Lenny - I would like to hear your thoughts on this development, I also got the emails. Feel free to email me if you would rather do that.
johnmadams75@yahoo.com

Chris Combs said...

As a Corcoran graduate -- UGH!

Steve Hay said...

Lenny,
I really like how you just presented their two emails without any commentary and letting the emails speak for themselves. That is art.
However, I will inject a little opinion in this, without even divulging my own opinion. As a participating artist in this event I have emailed with a number of the participating artists and their feelings vary from being downright furious, to merely disappointed, to even being happy for the Corcoran that the event was such an overwhelming success that space restrictions prevent them from allowing the artists admission.

Steve Hay said...

Ask not what Jesus would have done if he were a participating artist in this show, but rather what would Michael Moore have done. He would have been pissed off, and he would have walked downstairs in the Corcoran and got in some peoples faces, but he wouldn't have lost his temper. That's how I felt yesterday, but today I pussied out and was diplomatic on the phone with them. Which I don't regret.
I said it was some consolation that they were holding a special preview event for the artists on Saturday at 4pm, but were they going to provide the artist's contact info to any interested parties at the fundraiser? I was told "the steering committee" was working on that, which sounds promising, but not definite. So any participating artists who read this and feel the same way, PLEASE call the membership office and voice your request to have our contact info provided to interested collectors or inquirers. If they only hear from me they'll think I'm a jackass, if they hear it from two people they may think it's maybe a valid request, but if three or more ask, then maybe it will get done. If they do this for us, then I would be consoled.

Anonymous said...

bait and switch.