SELECT 2015: WPA Art Auction Exhibition and Gala

SELECT 2015: WPA Art Auction Exhibition and Gala   

GALA: March 7, 2015, 7-11pm   

EXHIBITION: January 29 through March 6, 2015 

OPENING RECEPTION: Thursday, January 29, 7-9pm 

CURATOR TALKS: Thursday, February 12 and Thursday, February 19, 6:30-8pm

   

at Artisphere: 1101 Wilson Blvd, Arlington, VA 

Free parking with validation on evenings (after 5pm) and all day on weekends 

Metro: Rosslyn 

Circulator: Georgetown - Dupont  

Exhibition, opening reception, and curator talks are free and open to the public.

For Auction ticket information, please CLICK HERE TO PURCHASE or contact
Nathalie von Veh at 202.234.7103 x5 or nvonveh@wpadc.org

  

WPA's Annual Art Auction Gala is the highlight of DC's contemporary art world season! DC's longest running and most-established contemporary art auction, SELECT is an annually anticipated event that supports WPA and the artist community.  

SELECT 2015 features works available for purchase chosen by 8 of the region's top and emerging curators as well as selections by WPA's Board of Directors. Featuring works by established and emerging artists from DC, Baltimore, Richmond, and beyond, WPA's selection of exquisite, engaging, and exciting art works offer something for collectors both seasoned and aspiring.  

    

Auction Co-Chairs: Jessica Naresh, Judy & Andrew Sherman, and Robert Shields

Auction Host Committee: Martha Blalock, Heather Davis, Ayanna Dunn, Eric Hilton, Dr. Giselle Huberman, Jessica Naresh, Jill Pearlman, Amanda Phillips, Judy Sherman, Robert Shields, Henri Siblesz, Jessica Stafford-Davis, Vikki Tobak, and Blair Wunderlich

Emergency! Emergency!

I have just learned that The Gazette newspapers intend to terminate Dr. Claudia Rousseau's visual arts review column this coming Friday.  This is part of an apparent planned decimation of arts coverage in general by the Gazette newspapers (owned by the Washington Post).

We cannot just stand by and meekly allow this to happen. It is time for supporters of the visual arts to react by calling The Gazette, emailing them, writing them an old-fashioned letter, etc.

I suggest that you contact Will Franklin at wfranklin@gazette.net and send him an email on the subject. Here's a copy of the email that I sent this morning to Mr. Franklin:

Dear Mr. Franklin,

This note is to express both my disappointment and even outrage at the news that The Gazette intends to terminate Dr. Claudia Rousseau's visual arts coverage in The Gazette as part of an apparent decimation of its arts coverage in general.

While I suspect that the reasons behind these planned coverage cuts are all economic and due to reduction in overall coverage and reduction in size, I shouldn't have to remind anyone in the newspaper business that a newspaper's mission has several critical components that make it a newspaper and not just stuff printed on newsprint.

And coverage of the visual arts is a key one.

Unless you also plan to eliminate restaurant reviews, movie reviews, local events, etc. and reduce The Gazette to coverage of local High School sports, the idea that a "neighborhood" newspaper can be a contributor to its readership and part of the cultural tapestry of that neighborhood without critical components such as Dr. Rousseau's columns on the visual arts is a barbaric lack of understanding of what your readers deserve.

I also suspect, since The Gazette is owned by The Washington Post, that perhaps some of this "guidance" has come from above, most probably from bean counters as far removed from newsprint as possible. This is predictable, as the Washington Post is the only major newspaper in America (and possibly the world) without a visual arts critic in its permanent staff, and for the last two decades, since its last full-time gallery critic retired, has used a dizzying set of rotating freelancers to cover the Greater DC area visual art scene in an ad hoc manner.

Claudia Rousseau has been covering The Gazette's areas visual arts for over 11 years - that span is equaled by just one other published visual arts critic in the region. Ms. Rousseau's knowledge, access and insight into the area's visual arts cannot be lost by a simple reason of economics.

I plan to help rally the DC area's artists, gallerists, curators, collectors, donors and supporters to make sure that The Gazette (and the Washington Post) hear about Dr. Rousseau's termination. And for the first time in the many years that we've known each other, I plan to mix business with friendship and bring this to the personal attention of Jeff Bezos, whom as you probably know, is an ardent supporter of the arts.

I also intend to publish this note in DC Art News, and in the event that I receive an answer from you, or anyone else in The Gazette, will offer the opportunity to also publish your response.

Let me close this note by asking you to bring this issue to the attention of whomever is making this ill-advised decision; it will not happen without a lot of resistance from the DMV's visual art scene.

Warm regards,

F. Lennox Campello