Heinlein and me

I met author Robert Heinlein and his wife Virginia when I was a student at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California in the 1980s.

They lived close by and would often drive to the school, as it had a great research library, and also both of them were former Navy officers... they'd also bring Heinlein foreign language edition books to the Defense Language Institute (also in Monterey) and donate them to the institute. I would sometimes help Mrs. Heinlein lug those boxes around, as he was quite frail... I got a letter from him or her somewhere about that...

He died the second year that I was at NPS.

His classic A Stranger ina Strange Land remains one of my all time faves.

Questionable Wording in Exhibit Prospectus

Would you apply to this call if this was a clause in the call for artists? I wouldn't...

Rights in Materials Submitted
All exhibitors forfeit the right of reproduction of their work to the _____________. The ____________ reserves the right, and all exhibitors grant the ______________ the right, at the discretion of the ___________, to use all works of design or art, and any related materials provided to the _____________ by any exhibitor, for its own business, promotional, and archival purposes.

On this 4th of July

The American flag that I sometimes hang outside my house has a most interesting story. As you can see below, it is a gold-fringed flag, which we used to call "a Navy flag" back in the days, because of who knows why... when I was an Executive Officer at the Naval Security Group Activity Skaggs Island, California in the 1990s, I was told that it was because it represented the ability to execute/hold a Captain's Mast.

But I meander away from the history of this flag... my flag.

In 1983 I was the OZ Division Officer for USS Virginia (CGN-38), and the ship was assigned Naval Gunfire Fire Support (NGFS) patrol off the coast of Beirut, Lebanon, in support of the US Marines ashore in Beirut as part of the Multi-National Peacekeeping Force.

We would routinely fly ashore for meetings, etc., and one day I will scan and show you a description that I put on my journal (in pre-blog days) many years ago where I described one such meeting and the interesting event that happened, with 50 cal bullets flying all over the place. Below is a picture of me, ashore in Beirut with the USMC.

From HistoryNet:

At 6:22 on Sunday morning Oct. 23, 1983, a 19-ton yellow Mercedes stake-bed truck entered a public parking lot at the heart of Beirut International Airport. The lot was adjacent to the headquarters of the U.S. 8th Marine Regiment’s 1st Battalion, where some 350 American soldiers lay asleep in a four-story concrete aviation administration building that had been successively occupied by various combatants in the ongoing Lebanese Civil War. Battalion Landing Team 1/8 was the ground element of the 1,800-man 24th Marine Amphibious Unit (MAU), which had deployed to Lebanon a year earlier as part of a multinational peacekeeping force also comprising French, Italian and British troops. Its mission was to facilitate the withdrawal of foreign fighters from Lebanon and help restore the sovereignty of its government at a time when sectarian violence had riven the Mediterranean nation.

... Marine sentries initially paid little attention to the Mercedes truck. Heavy vehicles were a common sight at the airport, and in fact the BLT was expecting one that day with a water delivery. The truck circled the parking lot, then picked up speed as it traveled parallel to a line of concertina wire protecting the south end of the Marine compound. Suddenly, the vehicle veered left, plowed through the 5-foot-high wire barrier and rumbled between two guard posts.

By then it was obvious the driver of the truck—a bearded man with black hair—had hostile intentions, but there was no way to stop him. The Marines were operating under peacetime rules of engagement, and their weapons were not loaded. Lance Corporal Eddie DiFranco, manning the sentry post on the driver’s side of the truck, soon guessed the driver’s horrifying purpose. “He looked right at me…smiled, that’s it,” DiFranco later recalled. “Soon as I saw [the truck] over here, I knew what was going to happen.” By the time he managed to slap a magazine into his M16 and chamber a round, the truck had roared through an open vehicle gate, rumbled past a long steel pipe barrier, threaded between two other pipes and was closing on the BLT barracks.

Sergeant of the guard Stephen Russell was alone at his sandbag-and-plywood post at the front of the building but facing inside. Hearing a revving engine, he turned to see the Mercedes truck barreling straight toward him. He instinctively bolted through the lobby toward the building’s rear entrance, repeatedly yelling, “Hit the deck! Hit the deck!” It was futile gesture, given that nearly everyone was still asleep. As Russell dashed out the rear entrance, he looked over his shoulder and saw the truck slam through his post, smash through the entrance and come to a halt in the midst of the lobby. After an ominous pause of a second or two, the truck erupted in a massive explosion—so powerful that it lifted the building in the air, shearing off its steel-reinforced concrete support columns (each 15 feet in circumference) and collapsing the structure. Crushed to death within the resulting mountain of rubble were 241 U.S. military personnel—220 Marines, 18 Navy sailors and three Army soldiers. More than 100 others were injured. It was worst single-day death toll for the Marines since the World War II Battle of Iwo Jima.

Aboard USS Virginia, the ship's crew went into action, and within minutes our helo was airborne, carrying our ship's doctor and his Navy corpsmen to help with the wounded Marines. Minutes later the helo came back, looking for people and equipment to help assist with digging out the people from the collapsed building. Because my division was the only one that had an Arabic linguist, they came to us to see if he (Sgt. Bobby Jack Irvin, an amazing linguist and as far as I know the only Marine ever to qualify for the Enlisted Surface Warfare pin) could go ashore to help facilitate our doctor's mission, as he had radio'd that several Lebanese doctors had already come up to help him, and he might need language help.

Irvin and I had been ashore the day before (that's him in the photo a few paragraphs above - Irvin is to my left and to my right is Warrant Officer Carnes), but because of our shipboard mission, I felt that he could really help more by staying on the ship and doing what he did best.

Later on, they asked for volunteers to help ashore, and together with some other crew members, we headed to Beirut - other than Irvin, I was the only person on the ship who routinely flew back and forth between Beirut and the ship, and thus I wanted to ensure that I was part of the volunteer crew.
When we arrived at the airport, it was essentially controlled chaos, and dozens of bodies were already being tended to, and our ship's helo - along with others - began taking the wounded to a hospital in Sidon. There were also plenty of black body bags already filled.

With our doctor (whose last name I recall as Warner) frenetically working to triage the wounded Marines, and since most Lebanese doctors actually spoke English, after donating blood, I left the medical area and began to help with the digging operations.

This story is not about that part, which was brutal and heart-breaking. This story is about the flag that I found in the rubble.

My American flag.

At the time, it seemed like a natural thing to "rescue" it from the rubble. I brought it back to the ship, where it flew often, as our mission shifted from routine patrol to Naval Gunfire Support (NGFS). When I left the ship, it was given to me, along with a ship's plaque. When I retired from the Navy two decades ago, I used it as my retirement flag and it was presented to me again, after flying over the Capitol - I never put it in a shadow box, as is the custom, but kept it flying every once in a while, as a flag deserves to do.

A few years ago, when I hung it outside, it dawned on me that the history of this flag should merit some notice, and reached out to the Marine Corps Museum to see if they wanted it as a gift, but they declined, so now I'm actively seeking a place of honor for it.

To me that flag represents all those young Marines (average age 19) who died in that cowardly attack. It is one more reason why I stand, put my hand on my heart, take my cover off, and face the flag when the National Anthem plays at an event.

Artist Resource Bulletin: Call for Artists Opportunities

The MSAC Online Resource Bulletin, maintained by Maryland Art Place, is where you can find regional, national, and international exhibition opportunities, grants, fellowships, and residencies as well as information on available studio spaces in the area. Updated on a weekly basis, the bulletin lists hundreds of arts opportunities, organized by subject and deadline date. Here are some current opportunities:

BAZAART HOLIDAY ART MARKET: Deadline July 13

Be a part of Bazaart –​ ​American Visionary Art Museum's annual holiday marketplace of original creations by regional artists and craftspeople. The market features the artsiest arts & craftiest crafts, ranging from painting to sculpture to jewelry to handmade clothing and accessories. For more information, click here.

GEORGIA AVENUE PUBLIC ART MURAL PROJECT: Deadline July 30

Through a unique public-private collaboration between the Silver Spring Urban District, Silver Spring Arts and Entertainment District, DGS, and Washington Property Company, the Silver Spring Arts and Entertainment District is seeking design proposals for a two-dimensional, outdoor, large-scale public art mural. For more information, click here.

DECORATIVE LIGHT FIXTURE - The Maryland Theatre Expansion Project: Deadline September 14

The Maryland Theatre in Hagerstown seeks an artist to create a permanent indoor light fixture to be installed on the top floor event space within the expansion of the historic theatre. Work should be completed or well underway by Winter 2019. The call is open to all artists living within a 100-mile radius of The Maryland Theatre. For more information, click here.

Email naomi@mdartplace.org with information you would like included in the Resource Bulletin.

MSAC wants to hear from you!

The Maryland State Arts Council (MSAC) is listening and wants to hear from you! Four sessions of "We Are Listening" were conducted and MSAC received an overwhelming response for each session. Participants were able to voice their feedback on the Individual Artist Awards, Arts in Education initiatives, Accessibility, Veterans and the Grants for Organizations programs.

All the information is being compiled and reviewed for the strategic planning process. Feedback is still being received. If you have comments you would like to share, please email msac.commerce@maryland.gov with the subject heading FEEDBACK and the name of the program. Session feedback can be found here.

Atomic Dog and Consequential Cat

"Atomic Dog and Consequential Cat" Art Exhibit at the VCA Alexandria Animal Hospital

Exhibit Dates: June 11 - September 30, 2018

The Atomic Dog and Consequential Cat art exhibit at the Veterinary Clinics of America Alexandria Animal Hospital (VCA Alexandria) features Del Ray Artisans members’ artwork of our furry friends. The exhibit is part of Del Ray Artisans’ Gallery Without Walls (GWW)program in partnership with VCA Alexandria and includes a selection of canine artwork from this past May’s Atomic Dog exhibit, plus hand-picked artwork honoring our feline companions. The artwork will be displayed on the walls of the VCA Alexandria Animal Hospital from June 11 through September 30, 2018.

Patrons may view the artwork at VCA Alexandria during regular business hours and at the discretion of hospital staff. All artwork is available for purchase through Del Ray Artisans. Artists are donating 20% of the purchase price of sold pieces in an equal split between Del Ray Artisans and the VCA Alexandria’s charity of choice, Veterans Moving Forward. Veterans Moving Forward helps veterans lead more productive lives through partnerships with trained assistance animal. Del Ray Artisans and Veterans Moving Forward are 501(c)(3) nonprofit organizations. For more information, visit DelRayArtisans.org/event/dog-and-cat

VCA Alexandria Animal Hospital is located at 2660 Duke Street, Alexandria, VA 22314. For questions, contact VCA Alexandria staff at 703-751-2022 or 703-823-3601 or Del Ray Artisans’ GWW curator, Monica Hokeilen, at GWW@DelRayArtisans.org.

Frida in London

Can an exhibition of her most intimate possessions bring us any closer to Frida Kahlo?

Frida, your personal possessions have been exported to London from the house you lived in most of your life, Casa Azul (the Blue House), which is now a museum in the Coyoacán area of Mexico City. Do they shine a light on how you constructed your multiple identities?

Read the article here. 

Maegawa and Hoysted at the Betty Mae Kramer Gallery

Opening Reception
Friday, July 6, 2018.  6pm - 8pm

Join the Arts and Humanities Council of Montgomery County (AHCMC) as we celebrate the opening of FREE SPACE with a public reception at the Betty Mae Kramer Gallery and Music Room on Friday, July 6, from 6 to 8 p.m. 

The exhibition FREE SPACE includes artists Akemi Maegawa and Jackie Hoysted, who have collaborated to create a series of installations intended for public activation.  These works invite visitors to play, create, and experience a space where opposing realities converge. 

The opening reception is free and open to the public. FREE SPACE will be on view at the Kramer Gallery from Friday, July 6 through Friday, September 7, 2018.​

RSVP for reception here.

Jack Rasmussen to chair the Maryland State Arts Council

Jack Rasmussen, director and curator of the American University Museum at the Katzen Arts Center, has been named chair of the Maryland State Arts Council (MSAC). In this role, he will drive the strategic direction of MSAC programs and funding for the state of Maryland.

Now... that great news! Jack Rasmussen essentially carried the DMV artists singularly unique and only presence in the DMV museum art scene.

As I've noted a million times before, here on this blog, in articles in mags and newspapers, and on the air at WAMU 88.5, nearly all the DMV museum curators that I've known in the three decades that I've lived in the DMV... would rather take a cab to Dulles to fly to Berlin, or London, or Madrid, or Miami, or Seattle, or LA to visit an emerging artist studio, than take a cab to Bethesda, or Alexandria, or Georgetown, or Rockville to visit a DMV emerging artist.

Why? Because most of them are (a) not DMV area "bred" directors/curators and know zip fuck about the DMV art scene, (b) tend to "pick-up" other museum shows (rather than curate one from scratch, which is a LOT more work), (c) view their capital region museums are "national" museums, rather than Washington are museums and thus, a stepping stone to their next, higher paying job.

Jack is different, waaaaay different, because he has managed not only to place the "newish" Katzen Museum on a world stage, outshining much bigger and older DMV museums in the process, but also has focused (clearly helped by the amazing Alper Initiative) to spotlight DMV area artists and in the process give them their very first museum show.

The Katzen Museum is the crown jewel of the DMV museum art scene and 93% of that success is owed to Jack Rasmussen and his second in command, the equally hard-working Kristi-Anne Caisse.

Congrats Jack!

Read the whole quoted article here.

Nine Productivity Tips for Artists Working from Home

In the studio, you are the boss—there is no answering to anyone else. Your time is your own, and you get to decide how to spend it. How refreshing, right?

It’s one reason why so many choose to go down the creative path!

And yet, with great freedom comes great responsibility. Having such flexibility on your own can prove difficult for artists to adjust. Sometimes the work just doesn’t get done. The problem is, between making new work, marketing, selling, applying to calls, managing contacts, showing, inventorying, and staying organized, there’s a TON that needs to get done—and, you’re the only one responsible for it.

This freedom has now turned into a major thorn in your side, especially if you’re relying on your art to make a living.

So, what is an artist to do? How are you supposed to stay motivated and get all your to-dos accomplished when you’re the only one in the room? Especially when it’s so easy (and fun) to procrastinate.

We’ll let you in on a secret: it gets easier with a little practice. Follow these nine tips to help you stay productive as an art boss on your own.

Read the whole article here.

$50,000 to develop digital art projects

Deadline: July 15, 2018

Up to $50,000 to develop digital art projects in collaboration with Silicon Valley tech companies.

The Tech+Arts Incubator welcomes proposals for participatory digital art projects that will be produced in collaboration with some of the world’s most innovative tech companies, and be hosted at The Tech Museum of Innovation in San Jose, California. 

The Incubator awards grants of up to $50,000. 

Applications will close on July 15, 2018. 

To learn more and apply, visit this website.

$1000 Working Artist Purchase Award

Deadline: June 30, 2018. 

This organization offers a small art purchase award to help serious artists keep working. The award is open worldwide to all visual artists, including but not limited to those working in traditional styles, ie., painting, drawing, printmaking, mixed media, sculpture, glass, installation, or with digital/new media, photography and film/video. 

See the complete submissions guidelines here. 

Also look out for their Spring Quarter Photography Award (Deadline: July 17, 2018!).

Working Artist Org. is dedicated to discovering, collecting, and promoting great contemporary art and artists.

2019 S&R Foundation Washington Award

Deadline: August 3, 2018

The S&R Foundation Washington Award recognizes talented emerging artists working in visual arts, music, and dance. This year we are excited to announce the amount of the Washington Award will be increased to a cash prize of $10,000. In addition, the Awards Committee may designate a Grand Prize winner who will receive an additional $5,000. 

Additionally: Award winners become part of the S&R Foundation network of artists, scientists, and social entrepreneurs. Award winners will be invited to the Washington Award Ceremony in Washington D.C. in Spring 2019. 

To learn more and apply visit https://bit.ly/2LIrAig

Call for Solo or Two-Person Exhibition Proposals

Deadline: June 30th, 2018

Indiana University East is accepting exhibition proposals for solo and two-person exhibition proposals for their 2018-2019 academic year. 

The university has three exhibition spaces in Richmond, IN with regularly rotating exhibitions that last 8-10 weeks. 

If you are interested in submitting your work or an exhibition proposal for review, please submit a resume or CV, a one-page artist statement, exhibition proposal, and a maximum of five images formatted to 300 dpi. 

Please combine these materials into one single pdf to not exceed 5 MB. All materials should be submitted via email to clongley@iue.edu. Solicitations made in person, by fax, or by phone will not be considered. 

For further information about our galleries and past exhibitions, please visit this link.

CMD + F

HEMPHILL has announced the exhibition CMD + F opening on Thursday, June 28, with a reception from 6-8pm. The exhibition will remain on view through August 10, 2018 and features digitally created media and installations by Tommy Bobo, James Huckenpahler and Rachel Schmidt. The gallery will be closed July 1 - 4 in observance of Independence Day and will resume regular hours on July 5.

The world is changing. As such, we put forth constant effort to synthesize the digital and organic in day-to-day life, seeking meaning, seeking connection, seeking answers. The means by which we search can take many forms. In spirituality, a prayer; on a date, a question; on the web, a google search; on a computer, CMD + F. This exhibition presents three new media artists who examine the means by which we seek to know more about ourselves, what is here, and what is beyond. 

Rachel Schmidt’s “Tension” provides the viewer with an exercise in perception, compelled to use our senses of sight and sound to navigate an experience meant to portray the artist’s own during a residency at the Taipei Artist Village in Taipei, Taiwan. The viewer encounters a video depicting various environments from Schmidt’s time in Taipei scored with a juxtaposition of natural and industrial sounds, as a field of ice-like illuminated floor structures call attention to the physicality of the space. 

Tommy Bobo shifts his focus from video to light-play, composing nuanced wall-scapes of projected light and materials that disrupt and refract it. The light becomes sculptural, compelling the viewer to reexamine existing notions of the medium. James Huckenpahler merges classic photographic portraiture from the Brady-Handy collection of American Civil War era society portraits with a cache of images stored on his own computer. The result is an eerie pop-futurist fusion of human portraits and tech-distortion.

Tommy Bobo’s art practice is deeply interested in the physicality of light and sound. He received his BFA in Expanded Media Art from the University of Kansas in 2006 and his MFA in Studio Art from the Mount Royal School of Art at the Maryland Institute College of Art in 2014. His work has shown in Baltimore, MD and Washington, DC and has been covered in the Washington City Paper and the Washington Post.

James Huckenpahler is an artist, educator, curator and lifelong Washingtonian. He has taught extensively at The Corcoran School of Art and at George Washington University. He is a member of FURTHERMORE, a research and development lab for visual culture and for sustainable art communities, is a fellow of Provisions Research Library and currently serves on the advisory board of Transformer. Huckenpahler received a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Corcoran College of Art + Design in 1990.

Rachel Schmidt is an installation artist based in the Washington, DC region. She uses time-based media and installation to explore themes related to urbanization and its impact on ecosystems. Rachel received her MFA from the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore before moving to Warsaw, Poland for a year of artistic research. She has been an artist in residence at the Arlington Arts Center, Taipei Artist Village, Vermont Studio Center, and the Taller Portobelo Norte in Panama. She has exhibited throughout the US and Internationally, and has been reviewed in Sculpture Magazine, Washington Post, and numerous other print and online publications.

GALLERY HOURS
Tuesday–Saturday, 10:00am–5:00pm, and by appointment.

AUGUST HOURS
Monday-Friday, 10:00am–5:00pm 
**Please note the gallery will be closed July 1 - 4 in observance of Independence Day and will resume regular hours on July 5. 
For More Information Contact:
Caitlin Berry
HEMPHILL Fine Arts
1515 14th Street NW
Washington, DC 20005
202.234.5601
caitlin@hemphillfinearts.com
www.hemphillfinearts.com

For comic book artists

Unpublished Comic Book artists, 3-5 pages full story, finished pencils, inks or colors. Sci-Fi/Fantasy theme. Individual work, no collaboration. 

Juror: Jeremy Haun, jeremyhaun.com/therealm.com 

No Entry Fee. Details: http://www.instagram.com/artofleviqualls?utm_source=dailycampello

Call for artists

Deadline: July 22, 2018

Target Gallery invites artists working in all visual media to submit artwork to the Art of Armistice, a group exhibition that explores the after effects of war. This exhibition will focus on the physical, mental, and cultural effects war has on the world through the perspective of both civilians and veterans alike. 

This exhibition will be paired with different public programs in honor of the 100th year anniversary of the ground breaking of the former munitions plant that the Torpedo Factory Art Center now calls home. 

To apply, click here.

Cathy Abramson at Gallery OonH

Please come to the reception at Gallery OonH featuring two floors of Cathy Abramson's oil paintings of DC and other cities. Although these paintings were inspired by Kennedy Street, NW, when fused together the works in this show evoke the feeling of a composite walk through the District's smaller, ever changing neighborhoods.

Reception

July 20, 2018

7:00-9:30PM

The exhibit runs from July 13–August 3.

Tuesday–Saturday noon to 5PM

The Lewis Keys duo will perform "Neo Lounge Grooves" during the reception. Cool jazz and local art is the best way to celebrate summer in the city. Check out the music at facebook.com/JohnGlewismusic. 

Gallery OonH
1354 H Street NE

Washington, DC
202.649.2020

galleryoonh.com

info@galleryOonH.com

Cathy Abramson

cabram02@gmail.com

cathyabramson.org

Three concurrent exhibitions in the Mansion at Strathmore

Artists featured in three concurrent exhibitions in the Mansion at Strathmore take their mediums in decidedly offbeat, unconventional, and surprising directions. On view from Saturday, June 16 through Sunday, July 29, 2018, visitors are first met with the 40th Anniversary Exhibition of the Washington Calligraphers Guild on the first floor of the Mansion, for which members were encouraged to mine ideas expressed through surrealism and the work of surrealist poets as inspiration. This is a complement to Visions on the second floor, in which four artists blend realistic components with fantastical elements and imagery, creating distinct and dream-like environments.

In the Invitational Gallery’s Buried Wild: Adam Griffiths, the Takoma Park illustrator and cartoonist creates an archeological capsule show that offers a glimpse into his artistic process and aims to question social conventions—with drawings and digitally altered illustrations alongside personal objects from his studio.

A free Opening Reception will be held Thursday, June 21, 2018 at 7 p.m. For more information, visit www.strathmore.org.

The 40th Anniversary Exhibition of the Washington Calligraphers Guild demonstrates that the most elegant and harmonious calligraphy can be a highly-disciplined act or gestural, capturing the impulses and emotions of a moment in time. Founded in 1976, the Washington Calligraphers Guild is an organization of more than 500 lettering artists from around the world. The juried 40th Anniversary Exhibition features works by 25 artists, combining compelling design with textual meaning to interpret the spirit of texts, poems, and quotes. 

Artists Kim Abraham, Kathryn Freeman, Jordan Franklin, and Elaine Thompson transport viewers into four separate worlds through whimsical, nonsensical, and trippy imagery in Visions. Their paintings, drawings, and digital prints are both playful and contemplative, rendered in oil, watercolor, graphite, charcoal, and digital tools.  In Visions, strange happenings contrast with familiar interiors, blurs of light suggest otherworldly horizons, a menagerie of beasts at play skew proportion, and celestial abstractions resemble microbes, creating a blend of earthly and cosmic realms.

In the Invitational Gallery— Buried Wild: Adam Griffiths

With an eye on the unbalanced and unjust characteristics of the world around him, illustrator and cartoonist Adam Griffiths uses the surreal and ridiculous to provoke societal examination. Skating the edges of contemporary art, illustration, outsider art, and underground comics, Griffiths imbues his work with various symbolisms and mutabilities of historical imperialism and class systems. Griffiths drafts caricatures, exaggerated gestures, luxurious interiors, and man-made objects in razor-thin pencil lines. By digitally coloring his illustrations in vivid hues and placing them against computer generated backgrounds, Griffiths places the familiar in strange settings.

Shelved among the work is personal ephemera from his studio, both made and found. Together, they frame Griffiths as an investigator, and his findings as archeological evidence of a flipside to the everyday world.

Artina 2018: INTROSPECTIVE, Exhibition at the Sandy Spring Museum

Washington Sculptors Group and Sandy Spring Museum Announces
Artina 2018: INTROSPECTIVE
June 20 – October 6, 2018

Opening Reception:
Thursday, June 21, 6-9pm

Participating Artists: Lynda Andrews-Barry, Adam Bradley, Elsabe Dixon, Bobby Donovan, Mary Annella Mimi Frank, Billy Friebele, Chas. Foster, Howard Goldfarb, Sanzi Kermes, Elizabeth Miller McCue, Sharon Pierce McCullough, Donna McCullough, Mike Shaffer, Diane Szczepaniak, Ira Tattelman, David Therriault, Michael Thron, Jenny Wu

Ira Tattelman's Screen

Exhibition Juror: Cecilia Wichmann,
Assistant Curator of Contemporary Art at The Baltimore Museum of Art.

In the Sculpture Garden

Artist Reception and Public Opening: Thursday, June 21 from 6-9 pm

Talk and Tour with Cecilia Wichmann: Sunday, July 8 at 3:30 pm

Performance by Sinclair Dance, TogethR A Part: Sunday, July 29 at 7 pm

Now in its third year, the Washington Sculptors Group’s Annual Artina exhibition at Sandy Spring Museum will provide a sylvan venue for sculptors to display their work. Artists were invited to propose works that respond to the museum’s rustic grounds, exploring the landscape as a vehicle for human introspection. How does the outside world shape one’s inner life, and how do our imaginations, both collective and private, filter our perceptions of the environments we encounter? Artists were encouraged to engage the topography of the site, to incorporate time as an element of their work, and to elicit direct participation by visitors. The result is a sculpture garden created on the museum’s seven-acre, woodsy grounds.

The exhibition, juried by Cecilia Wichmann, features 18 works by 18 artists that reveal the varied and poetic ways humans can come to make and know ourselves in relation to our ideas about nature. Visitors will find numerous ways to connect with the work on view, from adding objects to an interactive, open-air museum to feeling the breeze from an oversized rocking chair. Human beings are, after all, inextricable from the natural world—part of its larger ecology. This exhibition is an open invitation to spend time with this concept, engaging it with all our senses. This outdoor exhibition will remain on view through October 6, 2018.

Cecilia Wichmann is Assistant Curator of Contemporary Art at The Baltimore Museum of Art. Prior to joining the BMA in fall 2017, Wichmann led the University of Maryland's Stamp Gallery, an experimental exhibition space for contemporary art, and served as curator and advisor of its innovative Contemporary Art Purchasing Program.

About WSG: The Washington Sculptors Group (WSG) is a volunteer, non-profit organization dedicated to promoting awareness of sculpture and fostering exchanges among sculptors, sculpture enthusiasts and the public. Organized in 1984, membership has grown to include almost 400 area artists. The WSG presents frequent public programs and organizes professional sculpture exhibitions juried by prominent curators. Visit www.washingtonsculptors.org to join the WSG, view images of members' work, and to subscribe to the WSG newsletter.

About Sandy Spring Museum: The Sandy Spring Museum is a catalyst for community building by allowing opportunities for community-driven creative engagement in a range of cultural arts. Sandy Spring Museum provides the environment and inspiration for artists and community members to create and host events, performances, activities, and exhibits that engage, stimulate, and bring people together.