Sydney McGee Part II

A few days ago I discussed the issue of teacher Sydney McGee in Frisco, Texas getting fired from her teaching post after 28 years allegedly due to complaints that one of her students saw a nude sculpture during a museum trip. Read that here.

A reader from Frisco, Texas has responded to the report by offering the other side of the story. Angel writes:

I am very disappointed in the one-sided slant to the news stories regarding this Fisher Elementary Art Teacher who is being put on leave WITH pay with a recommended non-renewal of her contract next spring. Frisco, Texas citizens and one of its' largest employers - FISD - support the arts!

I do not want to have a debate on the subject of nude art at the DMA as I know very well that the district would never put a teacher on a growth plan solely for this reason. I know that the administrators, school board members, principals, and teachers support the visual arts in a very positive way.

Many districts have cut their art programs, but not FISD.

FISD’s art programs have received several award winning recognitions in the visual arts. Our district was honored for the Outstanding Youth Art Month Observance Award from the Texas Art Education Association for involvement on a state level. One can go to the district’s website at www. friscoisd.org and find several news articles on art endeavors and art student recognitions.

Each year the district puts on a district wide art show in honor of Youth Art Month which is celebrated in the spring. The district allows budget monies for the art program including not only supplies but fine art prints to share with students in the classroom. They support and allow field trips to such places as the Dallas Museum of Art, Hall Office Park’s outdoor sculptures, and the like.

Student artworks are continually displayed in our community. The City of Frisco voted to pass a proposition regarding public art being an integral part of our city. Our city has the highly regarded Hall Office Park collection of outdoor sculptures open to the public for ground tours. One can drive around various locations in Frisco and discover public works of art everywhere.

You cannot tell me that we are some culturally-insensitive group of citizens and that our school administrators are as well. It is simply not true!

I feel bad that the media attention (including forums like this, talk radio, newspapers, and television broadcasts) brought on our town has put us in such a negative light.

This is pure smoke and mirrors brought on by this teacher in an attempt to take the heat off of the real issues at hand. She was never fired, only asked to improve. Instead of trying to improve, she went straight to the media bad-mouthing her principal and her employer which is FISD. I think they have every right not to renew her contract at this point.

Thank you for hearing my opinion which is factually driven and personally driven for me to want to communicate.

By the way, her 28 year tenure was NOT all served in the FISD and not all of those years were as an ART teacher.

Some observations:

I'll agree that generally there are always two sides to most stories, but I still have some reservations with this story, the flavor of which comes to us strictly through what is published in the press. Either everyone in the printmedia is doing, as Angel alleges, "smoke and mirrors," or FISD is doing one of the worst information (lack thereof) campaigns of all times to address an obviously sensitive subject.

As a reader in Wordpress.com commented, "if Frisco ISD has been having a problem with this teacher it should have been put down in-writing on previous performance reviews. Where are they?" By the way, there are loads of good comments, both pro and con the issue at Wordpress.com.

I'd like to add that if the issue for not renewing the contract was NOT as a result of the parent complaint over the nude sculpture at the museum, then the board, or the school or FISD should have explained it immediately and come out and said "this award winning, experienced teacher's contract is not being renewed because "fill-in-the-blank" and not because of the complaints raised by a parent as a result of the museum trip."

Then we'd all know why she's being let go, and also know (at least officially) that it was not as a result of the parent's complaint over the museum trip.

Until that happens, the museum trip and the subsequent complaint, immediately followed by the events reported in the press, continue to shed a bad light on FISD.

Opportunity for Mid Atlantic Photographers

Deadline: Friday, October 6, 2006

PhotoGenesis: McLean Project for the Arts - All Mid-Atlantic artists (DC, VA, MD, PA, NJ, DE, WV) are invited to submit up to 20 slides or digital images of 2 or 3 dimensional, installation or video works completed within the last two years and not previously exhibited at MPA.

Works that spring from photographic images, ideas or techniques will be considered. Work may, but need not necessarily remain within the realm of photography to be included in the exhibit. Works that move beyond the traditional forms of the medium are encouraged.

The jurors will consider the first four images for exhibit. These four must be available. Works must fit through a 81” x 65” doorway.

Awards: Cash prizes totaling $1,500 will be awarded by the jurors.

Jurors: Stephen Bennett Phillips is currently curator at the Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C.; Claudia Bohn-Spector is a freelance writer and curator specializing in American and European art and photography. Charles Brock is associate curator of American and British Paintings at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

Entry Fee: $25. Fee waived for current MPA members. Fee includes one-year artist membership to MPA. Make checks payable to: McLean Project for the Arts.

Images: Artists may submit up to twenty 35 mm slides in a slide sheet or twenty digital images on a CD or up to 10 minutes of recorded material.

For further information, visit: www.mpaart.org, email Nancy Sausser: nsausser@mpaart.org, Phone: 703.790.1953, TDD 703.827.8255.

McLean Project for the Arts
1234 Ingleside Avenue
McLean, VA 22101

Tonite in Philly

Tonite, starting at 6PM at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Print Center is sponsoring a lecture by internationally renowned camera obscura artist Abelardo Morell.

He will discuss his career and the recent work he has made in conjunction with The Print Center and The Philadelphia Museum of Art. A book signing of his recent book, Abelardo Morell published by Phaidon Press, will immediately follow the lecture. Books will be available for purchase in the Museum Store.

Abelardo Morell transformed Gallery #171 in the Modern and Contemporary wing of The Philadelphia Museum of Art into a camera obscura. Through a small hole in one of the gallery’s windows the image of the museum’s East Entrance becomes a piece of art on display along with The Soothsayer’s Recompense (1913) by Surrealist artist Giorgio de Chirico.

When I lived in Scotland in the late 80s, one of my favorite places to visit when in Edinburgh was the 1850's Camera Obscura in the Outlook Tower, which shows constantly rotating panoramic views of one of Europe's most beautiful cities.

New DC gallery

Galerie Myrtis announces its grand opening with an exhibition featuring works by African-American and African artists including: Selma Burke, Ed Love, Folusho Akomlede, Sylvester Mubayi, Joseph Holston, William Tolliver, Edward Chiwara, Velphia Mzimba, Lois Mailou Jones, Danny Simmons, Ben Macala, Hargreaves Ntukwana, Viola Burley Leak, Charles Sebree, Thokozani Mathobela, Winston Saoli, Samella Lewis, Ellen Powell Tibernio, and David Mbele.

Date: October 20, 2006
Time: 6:30 PM - 8:00 PM
Location: Galerie Myrtis
500 9th Street, SE
Washington, DC 20003

RSVP: Phone: 202/548-7575
Email: collectors@creativeartisans.net

Please RSVP by October 10, 2006

Warren Craghead at GRACE

New work from Warren Craghead opens tomorrow, Friday Sept. 29 at the Greater Reston Arts Center in Reston, Virginia, easy to find right off the Dulles Toll Road. The Opening Reception is tomorrow, Friday September 29, 6pm - 9pm with an Artist's Talk at 7PM.

Craghead likens his studio to "a bomb crater where pieces of notebook paper, cardboard, post-its, and foam lie in piles surrounded by scraps of pen and pencil drawings, string, plastic, old junk mail, and magazines."

Also showing is "The Suburban Excavation Project: Recent Work by Adam Grossi."

Kudos to GRACE, whose exhibition program this past year has been vigorously renovated and has certainly offered some exciting new work. Don't miss this show!

Miya Ando Stanoff at Ligne Roset

Bay area artist Miya Ando Stanoff's minimalist works on steel canvas make their DC area debut with an exhibition at Ligne Roset DC.

There will be a champagne reception for the artist on September 30, 2006 from 12-6PM. Ligne Roset is at 3306 M Street NW, Washington DC 20007.

Miya is a graduate of UC Berkeley and attended Yale University where she studied East Asian Buddhist Iconography. Half-Japanese and half-Russian, she was raised bilingually and in two cultures, living both in her family's Buddhist temple in Japan and in Northern California. She comes from a tradition of metalworking, as she is the descendant of Bizen sword maker Ando Yoshiro Masakatsu.

Freedom at Heliport

In an exhibition titled "Freedom," Gateway's Heliport Gallery in Silver Spring, Maryland, features the works of four artists that have left their respective countries due to socio-political strife. According to the news release, the exhibit is not overtly political, nor does it shout oppression. On the other hand, it shows four artists at different stages in their careers that have each used art and their new found freedom as a means for emotional release and chance to redefine themselves.

An example is Dr. Kyi May Kaung. While growing up in Burma, Dr. Kaung was only allowed to paint realistic images because the government could understand them. Abstract art was more or less forbidden. Conversely, now living here in the US, Dr. Kaung is now exploring the boundaries of abstract art for the first time.

The exhibit includes work by Machyar Gleunta, Dr. Kyi May Kaung, Win Pe and Hatim Eltayeb Mahmed Ali Elmaki.

The opening reception is Friday, October 6 fro 6-9 PM.

Ellyn Weiss at Nevin Kelly

The Nevin Kelly Gallery will host a solo exhibition of new works by Bethesda artist Ellyn Weiss from October 4 until October 29, 2006. The exhibition, titled "Circular Reasoning," includes two series of new works. The first is a series of oil bar paintings on wood that shares its title with the show itself. The second is a series of woodblock monoprints on paper called "Bioelectronics." An opening reception with the artist will be held on Thursday, October 5 from 6 until 9 o'clock p.m. The public is invited. The gallery is located at 1517 U Street, NW, Washington, DC.

Sydney McGee

I've spent all day in the DC area, and when I returned home tonight I had my inbox full of emails from readers asking if I had seen this.

Sydney McGee is an art teacher (with 28 years of experience) who has been fired by the Frisco, Texas school board because this Fisher Elementary School art teacher took 89 fifth-graders on a field trip to the Dallas Museum of Art last April and then some of the fifth graders reported to their parents that they had seen "a nude sculpture at the art museum."

Then the parents "raised concern..."

And then she was put on paid administrative leave...

And now the Frisco, Texas school board has voted not to renew her contract after 28 years.

[Anger]

Does the Frisco, Texas school board realize that these actions appear to put them a century or two ahead of the Islamofascists that I am sure they all abhor?

According to the Dallas Morning News:

Ms. McGee, who has taught in various Texas districts for 28 years, said she visited the museum and spoke with museum staffers before the trip to ensure that it was appropriate for the fifth-grade class. Ms. McGee said she does not know which piece of art offended the parent, and the district did not identify it.

Ms. McGee said principal Nancy Lawson called her into a meeting the day after the trip to admonish her about the parent's complaint. Shortly thereafter, she received a negative review and a series of directives about displaying student artwork and creating lesson plans.

"You have to start somewhere when you've seen things you don't believe are in the best interest of the students," Superintendent Rick Reedy said.

Quick to appear to shift the blame, "board members said there were other performance issues in question beyond the trip complaint."

Aw Texas... can't take you anywhere...

Options:

1. Frisco School Board immediately should prohibit any and all school trips to any museums or any other venues where any art nudity or nudity in any other form is present.

2. All Texas museums within school bus driving distance of Frisco, Texas should immediately (a) get rid of all nude artworks or (b) cover them up whenever the Frisco kids show up.

3. Frisco voters should fire all these Friscidiots on the Board.

Here's what we can do:

Email a note of support for Sydney McGee to Buddy Minett President of the Frisco School Board. Or write to him at:

Buddy Minett
President
8548 Scott Circle
Frisco, TX 75036

If you write, be courteous and intelligent.

Tapedude in Holland

Dutch television with a really good clip on DC's Mark Jenkins' street installation in the Netherlands .

See it here.

And see Jenkin's babies first words here. The installations were curated by Fleur Kolk in Rotterdam.

I wonder when DC museum curators will "discover" Jenkins.

I've said it before

Whatever you do, never piss off Bailey.

Bailey, who has spent (and documented) a ton of time in New Orleans, does a Bailey on Robert Polidori's After the Flood.

Read it here.

Art by Students

The AP's Joan Loviglio had an interesting article in the Philly Inquirer about art by students being the latest rage.

"If there's an art to collecting art, Susan Guill just might be considered an old master.

For about 15 years, she has been attending the annual student exhibition at the esteemed Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. Nearly every wall in her Bala Cynwyd home is adorned with the work of an academy student; she purchased five student paintings at this year's show alone.

But in recent years, the crowds have become larger and the art gets snapped up even faster."

Buying student artwork has always been a great idea for young collectors and collectors on a limited budget. Savvy collectors and smart art dealers have always known that keeping an eye on what the art schools are delivering is a proven way to stay fresh and ahead of the game.

"Tilton Gallery in New York City has successfully brought the work of art students to its commercial gallery. Gallery director Janine Cirincione told The New Yorker that a show this year called "School Days" featuring art by 19 graduate students from Hunter College, Columbia and Yale University was 70 percent sold before the opening. Prices ranged from $2,000 to $16,000."

In the Greater DC area, over the last few years, Conner Contemporary, Fraser Gallery and Irvine Contemporary have all regularly had student shows and consistently included work by art students in their exhibition schedules. In the Greater Philly area, according to the article: "this year, the Pennsylvania Academy's 105th annual student show broke all previous sales records, raising $313,000 in its three-week run... and about 350 works of art were sold, some priced as high as $15,000."

I know of at least one major ubercollector, based in Maryland, who regularly attends students shows aroun the Mid Atlantic region, and happens to have an excellent eye (and one of the largest private art collections that I have ever seen - literally numbering in the thousands of paintings and sculptures (and lately even some videos) and who has been doing this "student art" practice for many years now.

For example, he started collecting Erik Sandberg and Andrew Wodzianski while they were both students, and has many, many paintings by Sandberg and a gigantic Wodzianski acquired while Andrew was a student at MICA.

Sandberg's latest is currently at Conner Contemporary until Oct. 28 and Wodzianski just recently had two very successful shows following his last solo at Fraser: one in Philadelphia at the Rodger Lapelle Galleries and one at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, and he has twice been a finalist for the Bethesda Painting Awards.

Needless to say, both those two young artists have gone on to bigger and better things and higher prices.

The fly in the ointment could be that:

"Some art school professors worry that early success could inappropriately influence students still defining their voice and their style to play it safe and commercial, so their works can easily sell.

"The danger is where you have critics coming into (students') studios looking for new talent; that's when it can be very disruptive," said Carol Becker, dean of faculty for The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. "You want students finding themselves, not trying to find what the market wants."

I would be curious to hear Dean Becker tell me and the rest of the world "what the market wants"?

Employment in the arts - Public Art Projects Curator

Closing Date: October 5, 2006.

Arlington County, Virginia Department of Parks, Recreation & Cultural Resources.

The Public Art Projects Curator structures and leads the implementation of public art and design enhancements of capital and infrastructure projects in support of the goals of the County's Public Art Master Plan and Policy.

The position entails communication and project-related activities to elevate the profile of public art and design enhancements in the County. Duties include: management of the public art design/enhancement component of capital projects; liaison to the Arlington Commission for the Arts Public Art Committee (PAC); caretaking of the Public Art Collection; education of County staff and residents; initiating/ supporting other visual arts projects such as temporary public art, exhibitions, publications and other projects. Strong organization, self-motivation and communication skills are essential. The position is located in the Cultural Affairs Division's Public Art Section, supervised by from the Public Art Administrator.

Online application required. Salary Range: $45,906 - $75,899 annually. Announcement No: 7102-7A-PRC-GW. Apply here.

The College Art Association

Deadline is ongoing

Assists artists financially in completion of MFA and Ph.D. programs. Grants of up to $5,000 are awarded to individual artists. For information, contact:
The College Art Association
Fellowship Program
275 7th Ave., New York, NY 10001
Phone: (212) 691-1051; or check website: www.collegeart.org

Art-O-Matic News

In 2004 Nils Henrik Sundqvist brought the DC area designers community into Art-O-Matic with AOM's first official poster show.

It was well received by the public, the artists and the designers, in fact, my good friend Kristen Hileman, Assistant Curator at the Hirshhorn Museum, recognized the effort by adding the poster exhibit to her recommended viewing list for the 2004 show.

As we all know, this year's AOM is delayed to 2007, but they already have some amazing art contributions by 23 DC area designers and I wanted to share these with you; see them here. For more info email Nils at info@fiskdesign.net.

New PostSecret Book

The worldwide phenomenom that is Frank Warren's PostSecret project continues to grow.

A new book - My Secret: A PostSecret Book - which is a collection of secrets from young people in their teens and twenties is due out next November 1, 2006.

Order it online here and save $6.32!

And yet another new gallery

New to me anyway!

A Woman Story Gallery, is an arts venue in Alexandria, VA which primarily promotes immigrant women’s art and educates foreign-born and American artists in entrepreneurial skills for the arts market.

They're having an opening this coming Friday, Sept. 29, 2006 from 6-9PM. RSVP to Marga Fripp at cfripp@aol.com.

The featured artist of this month is Padma Prasad, an Indian-born artist whose collection depicts life, figures and the human spirit in bold and powerful colors. Her Figurative Moods exhibition runs through October 28, 2006.

New Galleries

Two new galleries will open soon or have opened in the Greater Washington, DC area:

The 9th Street Gallery, owned by Zeki Fendikoglu is located in the historic Shaw District of Washington, DC, in a circa 1880 historic brownstone building. Their website is here and their address is 1306 9th Street NW, Washington, DC 20001. The gallery director is Ilknur Boray and their cuurent show is by two of the DC area's top magicians of the traditional darkroom and the digital darkroom: James Steele and Craig Sterling. The show runs through October 21, 2006.

After looking for a space for quite a while, the Randall Scott Gallery will open next November. The new gallery is located at 1326 14th street NW on the 2nd floor. That’s above Thai Tanic on the corner of 14th NW and Rhode Island in DC.

They will be working with Julia Fullerton-Batten, Larry Gipe, Margot Quan Knight, Lucy McLauchlan and Kelly Tunstall, and Josh Urso. They have also signed the super hot Amy Lin, whose minimalist work has been selling like gangbusters everywhere that she has exhibited in the last few months. Randall will also take his new gallery and artists to Art (212) in New York later this month.

They will also be developing a multiples division, Randall Scott Editions, which will publish editioned prints by various artists. Randall tells me that the first threee gallery shows will all be group shows.

Correction: Amy Lin has not signed with the Randall Scott Gallery, she was just taken to Art(21) in NYC.

Opportunity for Artists

Scrivener Creative Review welcomes submissions for art, photography, poetry, and prose. General submissions will be accepted throughout the year and considered alongside specified calls for submissions.

Email submission (in TIF format only) to scrivener.review@gmail.com. Artwork must be in black and white format and must have a minimum resolution of 300 dpi. The subject line must state the department to which the submission is directed. Submissions must be included as an attachment and will not be accepted if they appear in the body of an email.

Owning It

Malena Barnhart has an online blog project in which, using a scanner, she condenses everything that she owns into one tiny spot - contained at www.owningit.blogspot.com.

She says that "it deals with the nature of possession, equalizes all my 'stuff' so that my mess is on level grounds with my medicine. Originally I created this as part of a project for a visual thinking class taught by Colby Caldwell, but it has progressed since then."

Visit Owning It often!