The Washington Post's Critics Shame
Artomatic 2008 attracted a record-breaking 52,500 visitors as the Washington, D.C. area's homegrown arts extravaganza came to a triumphant close this month, setting new records and breaking new ground for artists in the region.
"Artomatic 2008 was a phenomenal event and it exceeded even our expectations," said Veronica Szalus, Artomatic president. "We are glad to be able to provide this opportunity for artists and to enrich the D.C. creative community."
In all, about 1,540 individual artists took part in Artomatic — also a new high. The total included 740 visual artists — such as painters, sculptors and photographers — who showed thousands of artworks. The event also included individual 800 performing artists, such as dancers, poets, theatre groups, drummers, comedians, fire troupes and musicians. Highlights of Artomatic 2008 included an art-themed fashion show, blood drive, art car foot race, marketplace, book signings and on-site tattoo parlor.
For the first time, Artomatic had a full schedule of free children's events every weekend, including popular workshops on mobile-making, Peeps dioramas, drawing and sculpting. More than 20 children's events were held, attracting hundreds of participants and budding artists.
Adult educational workshops and lectures were also held, focusing on topics such as art collecting and photography techniques. I participated in a couple of these...
And kudos to the Washington Post's Lavanya Ramanathan for providing most of the Post's scant critical coverage of the city's largest arts event.
How my good friend John Pancake, the Arts Editor of the Washington Post, can justify the fact that his two art critics can ignore the largest homegrown arts event in the city, is beyond me. As critical as I am of the WaPo's visual arts coverage, this apathy towards such a large event is beyond belief for even the Post, allegedly the world's second most influential newspaper.
Somewhere in the apathy is a mix of disdain for almost anything that smells of open, public, hands-free, artist-run, uncurated democratic event. The officers and shock troops of the contemporary salons cannot allow such an event to be a success.
Too bad that it is, even with their antipathy.
You reap what you sow; if you don't get it, you don't get it.
Update: John Pancake, the long time Arts Editor of the Washington Post is on the way out, as he took the recent set of buyout offerings from the WaPo administration.
Lenny, thank you for posting this entry. I was also very disappointed by the WP's lack of coverage of Artomatic. Their other story "Artomatic: A Universe Unto Itself" begged for an explorer to say which artists make the universe go round. But alas there was no such article. In my opinion, it was a slap in the face of all the artists who participated.
ReplyDeleteWith very few but welcome exceptions, WaPo only covers exhibits and events in major museums. They have a very high "snob factor". I am hopeful that the integration of the staffs of the website and the "old school" traditional paper will bring some much needed local coverage of the many wonderful art events that take place in the city and surrounding areas. However, I am not holding my breath. Thank goodness for this and other blogs that cover the mid Atlantic art scene.
ReplyDeleteWith all due respect, while Artomatic is certainly a significant social event, that does not make it a significant arts event, as the Lavanya Ramanathan article you cite makes perfectly clear. I have never know WaPo art critics to shun "artist run" events, but I have never seen coverage of "pay to play" events, and that's what we have here.
ReplyDeleteBRAVO! Indeed. Artomatic was one of the most amazing events I have seen since moving to DC 3 years ago. I don't know how they pull it off and don't know how the post could ignore such a HUGE event.
ReplyDeleteUsing Mr Licht's opinion to categorise what makes an art event is an insult to the artists that participate in art events like Art-O-Matic. Whether or not an artist pays to play does not determine the nature of what art is. Many of the artist at AOM are highly regarded in the local and international arts. He is, in effect, beliittling major artists like Lynden Cline, Matt Sesow, Dana Ellyn, Tracey Lee, Amy Marx, Michael Platt, Scott Brooks, and, of course, Lenny Campello.
ReplyDeleteI stopped reading WaPo's Arts section years ago because of the lack of coverage of Washington artists until they get shown in New York. It's as if a New York show determined the legitimacy their work as Art. No one place in the world is the center for all art. Art, like the old saying about Beauty, is in the eye of the beholder and the art world would be better off if people relied more on their own senses to decide what is Art to them instead of taking art critics' "reporting" at face value.
Mike's a good guy... he just has an opinion on this issue on the same side as many others who just seem to miss the key achievement of AOM in bringing all these artists and people together....
ReplyDelete