Last night's panel

I must admit that I was a little surprised to find around 100 people show up for last night's panel at the Arlington Arts Center, including a few well-known DC area artists... but it was a good topic, and the panel was loaded with good talent.

After a brief introduction by Washington's own glass lordmeister (Tim Tate) and by the fair Claire Huschle, who runs the Center, we all got into the issue at hand very quickly, and soon it was clear that we had an audience that had come ready with a lot of good questions.

And I'm going to reveal the gem that came out of the panel...

A few years ago I was interviewing a curator from the Hirshhorn Museum for some art magazine; that particular curator revealed to me a fact that dropped my jaw with excitement, and she must have noticed, because it was clear that she had just revealed a HUGE secret that few know about.

She must have seen the excitement in my eyes, and also my tonsils, and she gasped, and begged me not to mention the secret that she had just revealed.

And I pondered and struggled -- we were in a Cuban restaurant that (thank God) no longer exists, as it was run by pseudo-Cubans and the food was not only bland and so so, but also culturally incorrect (they actually served the Moros y Cristianos already mixed!) -- and I poked my sweet fried plantains around, and she continued to plead, and I finally said "Fine!!!! I won't mention this in the article!"

"And you can't write about it anywhere else," she demanded.

"OK, OK," I agreed, already thinking that she had not specified "talking about it" (and over the years I've told this fact to the thousands of people who have taken the Success as an Artist Seminar).

And last night, one of the panel members revealed the secret.

I was astonished!

"Did you all heard that?" I almost shouted to the audience. "Write that down! That alone is worth the forty bucks that youse paid to come here!"

A murmur swept through the room as pens and pencils emerged. "What was that?" shouted several voices from the back, "we couldn't hear!"

And she repeated the secret! In a loud voice too! She did look at me a little funny and added that "maybe she shouldn't be revealing that..."

Too late!

Crap! I smell my chicken dinner (boneless chicken breasts, mojito sauce, plantains, olives, yucca, nyame root, sweet potatoes, olives and olive brine, adobo seasoning, onions, carrots, tons of garlic cloves, peas, mushrooms, and salt) in the oven burning!

Gotta run... but I promise to tell you the secret (since now it has been discussed publicly) in the next posting.

Hannah House Auction

Chris Goodwin is auctioning off a painting to benefit Hannah House.

Hannah House of DC is dedicated to serving homeless women and families.

Bid for the painting here. 30% of the final price will go to Hannah House of DC.

More on panel later

Last night's panel went great, with around 100 people packing the Arlington Arts Center.

More later.

Russian art in Reston

Evan Frank tells us about Russian artists at Galerie Europa in the Reston Town Center.

Read the article here.

13,000 a day

My opinions on the power of the new DCist art writers has been getting a lot of attention (and a lot of emails).

And I am told that DCist gets about 13,000 unique visitors a day and the numbers grow weekly.

Case closed.

Tonight: "How to Get Noticed" Panel at the Arlington Arts Center

I'll be leaving soon forthe Arlington Arts Center to take part in the workshop titled "How to Get Your Work Noticed by the press, galleries, and museums." The workshop runs from 7-9:30 pm on Wednesday, March 15, and will be held at the Tiffany Gallery in the Center and is hosted both by the Arlington Arts Center and the Washington Glass School.

The panelists are:
Michael O'Sullivan - Washington Post Art Critic
Lee Lawrence - Contributing Editor for American Style Magazine
Claire Huschle - Executive Director- Arlington Arts Center
Phylis Rosenzweig - Former Curator, Hirshhorn Museum
and Me!

The panel will take questions from the audience, as well as answer the following questions from the moderator (which I think are quite good):

1) In what context(s) do you come across a new artist’s work? (Press release? Gallery visit? Art or craft fair? Referral?) Do you have one way that you prefer?

2) What is the most effective "marketing" tool that an artist can have today, besides high-quality slides and/or images? Website? Blog? Resume? Etc.

3) Is there more than one person at your publication/business/project that covers similar material? How important is it to get the right information to the right person from the start?

4) How aggressive is too aggressive for an artist to be in trying to get a review/ exhibition?

5) The biggest faux pas an artist can make in approaching a reviewer/gallerist/curator is ___?

6) The most important thing an artist should, but probably doesn’t, know about the press, galleries, or museum exhibitions is ___?

7) Do you recognize any trends in your field that artists should pay attention to?

Cost: $40 in advance - $45 at the door. To register, call the Arlington Arts Center at 703-248-6800. They will take credit cards over the phone.

Location:
Arlington Arts Center
Tiffany Theater
3550 Wilson Boulevard
Right across from the Virginia Square subway
Arlington, Virginia

See ya there!

William Safire And Art That's Good for You

That's the title of today's essay in the WaPo by Philip Kennicott.

I've read it twice, and I still haven't got the foggiest idea what Kennicott is truly trying to say or convey in this essay.

New Gallery in Town

Soon we can all go to the grand opening of Heineman Myers Contemporary Art, a brand new art gallery opening next month in Bethesda.

Zoe Myers has been working really hard to find a good, large space to realize her goal of becoming one of the power art galleries in our area.

Their first show is "Re-Formation" by Baltimore-based photographer Connie Imboden, without a doubt one of the most influential photographers in our area.

Opening reception: Saturday April 8, 2006, 5-8pm. The gallery is located at 4728 Hampden Lane, Bethesda, Maryland 20814.

For more info contact the fair Zoe Myers at 202/415-6547.

See ya there!

Tape Dude's Pandymania

I think that even Blake Gopnik may have liked this panda as tape dude Mark Jenkins goes triple X with an escort Panda (I think) as part of the Itsy Bitsy Bollocks opening event at Transformer.

Itsy Bitsy Bollocks, with artists Mr. Eggs, Mark Jenkins, Travis Millard, and Kelly Towles has an opening reception this Saturday, March 18, 2006, 7-9 pm and runs through April 22, 2006. There's an Artists’ Talk on Sunday, March 19, 2006, at 3PM.

Materia Populi

I know this intelligent art collector in our area who has an amazing art collection, a large number of which is comprised of exceptional work by work by art students, some of which are now well-known artists.

And he is not a super rich guy, but a regular blue collar guy who just loves art. And (with a mistake here and there) he has developed a really good eye for spotting early talent.

This collector has one of the largest art collections in our area - easily pushing 3,000 paintings and a few hundred sculptures. But what makes his collection interesting is the large number of work that he acquires at University student shows and MFA shows.

And one of the best MFA shows is coming up: the Maryland Institute, College of Art (MICA) presents Materia Populi, their MFA Thesis exhibition, with an opening reception, this Friday March 24, 5:30-7:30 pm, and Artists' Talks on Wednesday March 29, 2:30-4 pm. The MFA candidates are Laura Amussen, Ian MacLean Davis, Emily Denlinger, Allison Lincoln Turrell and Cory Wagner.

At the Meyerhoff & Thesis Gallery, MICA Fox Building, 1303 Mount Royal Avenue, Baltimore, MD 21217. Hours & directions: 410.669.9200 or visit www. mica.edu.

Wanna Have Your Own Solo?

MOCA in Georgetown is renting their "annex" space to artists interested in having a solo there. Cost is $750 for three weeks. There are other options available.

For more info contact Dave Quammen at 202.966.0366, 202.361.3810 cell or email him at figuremodel@verizon.net.

Another Nail in the Coffin

The WaPo's Sara Kehaulani Goo writes that the WaPo plans to eliminate "80 newsroom positions over the next year by offering an early retirement plan to eligible employees and through attrition of full- and part-time workers."

She writes that:

Like many newspapers suffering from declining circulation, The Post's revenue has remained flat for several years. The number of paid subscribers has declined 4 percent a year.

The Post is trying to extend its reach by adding features to its Web site, such as blogs and podcasts, and with the launch of a Washington Post radio venture later this month.

In meetings yesterday with staff members for each section, Executive Editor Leonard Downie Jr. said The Post is doing better, financially, than many of its competitors. "But it is obvious that a significant change is taking place in our readership, with a sizable portion of it migrating to the Internet," he said.

As the WaPo has been already slashing visual arts coverage over the last few years, I think we all know where those those readers have been going. Let's hope that they don't cut the visual arts coverage anymore - if that's even possible.

PostSecret Sweeps the Bloggies

Frank Warren's amazing PostSecret project has won every single category that it was nominated for in the 2006 Bloggies!

It won:

Best American Weblog
Best Topical Weblog
Best Community Weblog
Best New Weblog

and most important: Weblog of the Year!

Frank Warren will be doing a book signing at the Fraser Gallery on Saturday April 29, 2006 from 7pm - 9pm in conjunction with the 2006 Bethesda Literary Festival.

The PostSecret Book, "PostSecret: Extraordinary Confessions from Ordinary Lives," is now available from Amazon.

Order the book here or bring your own and Frank will sign it.

Congratulations to Frank Warren!

Bootcamp for Artists

The next seminar will be held on Sunday, March 26, 2006 in partnership with The Arts and Humanities Council of Montgomery County and will be held at the Round House Theatre Education Center located at 925 Wayne Avenue, Silver Spring, MD from 10:30AM - 6PM. This seminar is open only to Montgomery County residents.

Please visit this website or e-mail us or call 301/718-9651 if you would like more details. Register using this form (limited to 50 attendees).

The seven hour seminar, which has been taken by over 2,000 artists and arts professionals from all over the Mid Atlantic is designed to deliver information, data and proven tactics to allow artists to develop and sustain a career in the fine arts. The seminar normally costs $80 (includes lunch), but this version is done in partnership with The Arts and Humanities Council of Montgomery County and only costs $50 for county residents.

Sometimes called "Boot Camp for Artists" by the attendees, people as far as Arizona, California, New York and South Carolina have attended, including many, many university level art professionals.

In its seven hour format, the seminar covers a wide range of structured issues including:

1. Materials - Buying materials;strategies for lowering your costs, where and how to get it, etc.

2. Presentation – How to properly present your artwork including Conservation issues, Archival Matting and Framing, Longevity of materials, a discussion on Limited editions, signing and numbering, Prints vs. Reproduction, discussion on Iris Prints (Pros and Cons).

3. Creating a resume - Strategy for building your art resume, including how to write one, what should be in it, presentation, etc.

4. Juried Shows – An Insider's view and strategy to get in the competitions.

5. How to take slides and photographs of your artwork

6. Selling your art – A variety of avenues to actually selling your artwork, including fine arts festivals, corporate acquisitions, galleries, public arts, etc.

7. Creating a Body of Works

8. How to write a news release

9. Publicity – How to get in newspapers, magazines, etc. Plus handouts on email and addresses of newspaper critics, writers, etc.

10. Galleries – Discussion on area galleries including Vanity Galleries, Co-Operatives, Commercial Galleries, Non-profit Art spaces, etc.

11. How to approach a gallery – Realities of the business, Contracts, Gallery/Artist Relationship, Agents.

12. Outdoor Art Festivals – Discussion and advice on how to sell outwork at fine arts festivals, which to do, which to avoid, etc.

13. Resources - Display systems and tents, best juried shows and ones to avoid.

14. Accepting Credit cards – How to set up your art business.

15. Grants – Discussion on how to get grants in DC, Regional and National, including handouts on who and where and when.

16. Alternative Marketing - Cable TV, Local media

17. Internet – How to build your website at no cost, how to establish a wide and diverse Internet presence.

The seminar has been a spectacular success, and the feedback from artists can be read online at here and we continue to receive tremendous positive feedback on the practical success that this seminar has meant for those who have taken it.

Hurry, as the 50 spaces usually book very quickly, and we already have several eople signed up.

Register using this form.

The Power of the Web: Art Bloggers

Update: I was a little unclear in one of my points, so I've clarified and revised it a bit.

---

There has been an online ruckus for a while now because some some bloggers who write about art are understandibly miffed because they are not getting press passes and press invites to some upper crust media events (mostly in NY and at some art fairs).

While this is not a problem here in DC (we all get press invites to nearly everything that goes on in the visual arts scene around here, and so do most other bloggers who write about art, as I see them all at the media events), it is an amazing lack of understanding from anyone in the arts establishment to deny, or most likely, ignore the important presence of some art writers from the Blogsphere.

Granted, at least one of the most vocal complainers is more of a petty, mean-spirited muckracker with a huge inferiority complex who delights in exposing the dirty laundry and woes and flaws and generally the negative side of the art museum scene, and is also somewhat of a regurgitating art writer superbly trained at Google University.

And I'll admit that he's is pretty good at what he has learned to do over the last couple of years in dissecting and exposing the insides of museum's less than kosher dealings and problems. And I'll even add that the cultural tapestry that makes up the visual arts arena, needs a muckracker or two.

Thus, if I was a museum PR person I would be tempted not to invite this Jack Anderson of the artblogsphere either (it would be like a Republican official asking Michael Moore to videotape their wedding, or Halliburton asking for Air America to come do an interview).

But he is still an online arts presence and merits a press pass.

And a sizeable number of the other cyberpeople out there who write about the visual arts, do exactly that: write about art shows, do regular reviews, commentary, etc. And a significant number of them, do add intelligent, and fresh critical, and constructive conversation, and regular reviews to the contemporary arts dialogue.

So it is stupifyingly backwards-thinking to ignore the fact that them/us bring to the artmosphere a refreshing new breath of words -- and here's the main reason why it is stupid to ignore art bloggers as press entity: publicity.

Putting my art dealer hat on: PUBLICITY!

It's all in the numbers, and the new demographics that these cyber writers are now reaching.

Let's take DCist for example.

I don't know how many hits DCist gets a day, as they hide their counter, but I am certain that it is in the thousands. Certainly more than all other visual arts online blogs combined. I repeat: more than ALL of us art writers, art critics, art observers and art muckrackers combined.

This potential fact presents the interesting possibility that Heather Goss and Adrian Parsons may be now the two most widely read art online local writers/critics in the Greater DC area, and (depending how DCist ranks with all the other ists) in cyberspace!

Simple numbers: Goss and Parsons.

Not Campello nor Kirkland or Silverthorne or the rare Capps review or Jack Anderson, or anyone else on the blogroll who may write every once in a while about a DC art art show (although combined we probably all add up to 2-3 thousand hits a day).

And because not everyone who picks up a Washington Post reads Gopnik or Dawson or O'Sullivan, and not everyone who picks up the City Paper reads Cudlin or Jacobson, that immediately seems to put both Goss and Parsons as one of the top seven most-read art writers in the capital city of the United States of America, and I would venture to say that they are (by the virtue of whom they write for) the most widely read Washington-based online art writers on the planet (and they're unpaid!).

And I would submit that (because of the format and demographics of a site like DCist), a large percentage of people who visit the DCist website, read or at least glance at any and all new posts; that's the nature of Blog "reading."

And thus... is it so far of a stretch to realize that DCist's art writers are reaching more people on a daily, immediate basis, than Dawson or Gopnik, et al. do on a twice-a-month basis?

Do they carry the same "umpf"? Not yet.

But "umpf" is often only good for the artist's resume and for the critical standing of a gallery or museum show's attendance numbers, and (in DC anyway) to a lesser extent, for art sales.

And if a museum director or PR person "knew" that a DCist review would get them an extra 200 visitors, or a gallerist knew that the same review would get them an extra 25 visitors and an additional potential sale... would they invite those bloggers to a press preview and/or give them "press passes"?

In DC it's already done, so it's not an issue here.

Somehow, in the center of the art universe, in that little island near Brooklyn, it seems to be an issue.

Wake up.

Art Deal of the Week

Starting this Sunday I will commencing showcasing artwork that I think are great deals. My call and opinion(s), but will gladly take recommendations and submissions; just email me with the details.

The first pick is this intelligent photograph by Russian photographer Aleksei Pechnikov.

It is titled "The Swing" and the photograph measures 20x20 inches and then it is matted in a white pH-balanced acid free white museum mat and framed in a black metal moulding under plexiglass to a framed size of 34x26 inches. Photo is signed by the photographer on verso. The price (including frame): $300.



To buy it call 301/718-9651 or email the gallery.

Still brewing

As the Peter Panse story continues to cause a cyber storm all over the blogartmosphere, it brings forth the quote by Lewis Black that "a child will never be as damaged by seeing a tit as they will be by adults going insane over a child having seen a tit."

Wanna go to a couple of openings today?

Then head down to Old Town Alexandria and there are a couple of openings happening today from 2-4 inside the Torpedo Factory.

One is for the monthly Art League group show on the ground level of the factory and the second one, also from 2-4PM, is for new photographs by Danny Conant (one of the most innovative photographers in our area) and Colleen Spencer at Multiple Exposures Gallery on the upper level of the factory.

Curate Your Own Museum

The WaPo's Linda Hales has an interesting article that describes the project that the Smithsonian's Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum is about undertake. She writes:

The Smithsonian's Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum is about to take its Web site where no museum has gone before.

Where that is isn't absolutely clear, but it merits getting excited about. The so-called "online national design museum" promises to open the museum and its vast collection to visitors anywhere in the world. What's more, if development can keep up with vision, the site will turn museumgoers into participants in a bold cultural experiment.

Essentially, they're putting the power of the curator out to the masses (I already hear the elitists gasp)

The Cooper-Hewitt's existing site offers a glimpse of what's on view at 91st and Fifth Avenue. Exhibitions can be sampled, but only 500 items from the 250,000-piece collection of decorative arts, industrial and graphic design and fine art are viewable.

The revamped site will allow curators to play catch-up. The museum also wants to enable Web visitors to curate shows and build virtual collections, to circulate favorite digital photos. Web visitors also might be able to fill in the blanks on works that have yet to be researched fully. Shifting the curatorial responsibility might seem risky, but in 2002, a visiting researcher helped the museum by discovering an unsigned Michelangelo in a box of drawings.

"There are experts in the field who have spent whole careers studying a single period," says Matilda McQuaid, who, as deputy curatorial director, will have a leading role in online content. "Put it out there. See what comes."

She wasn't worried about an onslaught of bad taste from amateur curators and would-be designers.

"If enough people think they're awful, they get voted out and deleted from the site," she says. "Majority rules."

Hales takes a curious dig at the Smithsonian's blog Eyelevel when she writes:

The Smithsonian's only museum blog, EyeLevel, was launched by the American Art Museum in September. It drew 50,000 visitors over the first three months. But entry after entry is followed by a tally of "0 comments." There is little of the rat-a-tat-tat of cultural engagement that interactivity promises.

Read the whole article here.

The Art of Compromise (or Compromising Art?)

This St. Paul, Minn. school struggled with a quandary: How do they teach art to Muslim students who are not allowed to create human images?

According to this article:

That presented a challenge for Higher Ground Academy, a K-12 school just west of Central High School on Marshall Avenue that has about 450 students. About 70 percent of them are Muslim immigrants from eastern Africa.

Executive Director Bill Wilson said he had concerns for some time about how to reconcile the school's art curriculum with the views of Muslim families, but the departure of the art teacher at the end of last school year gave him a window to act.

This fall, he hired ArtStart, a St. Paul-based nonprofit organization, to offer more options for about 150 kindergartners through second-graders, including visual arts and drumming. But parents were still upset that their children were drawing figures, Wilson said, and some pulled their children out of art class altogether.

Wilson then sat down with teacher and parent liaison Abdirahman Sheikh Omar Ahmad, who also is the imam at an Islamic center in Minneapolis, to work with ArtStart in determining how to meet state standards without running afoul of Muslim doctrine.

Part of me is glad that we live in a society that can accomodate and adjust, and respect cultural beliefs that have become religious dogma (and that we can serve as an example to societies that have zero capacity to adjust), and yet, part of me is a little concerned, although I am not really sure why.

Read the whole story here.