Down at the Factory this Thursday

Fragmented Idioms
I love the power of representational imagery to deliver a visually important work of art.

And to the left is "First Day" by Anthony Armstrong, whose works open at Howard University's Armour J. Blackburn Gallery with an opening reception December 7, 2008 from 5-8PM.

The gallery is at 2397 6th Street, NW in DC.

Here we go again: Dexter & the Cubans

I do realize that this issue of mine is such a jingoist thing, and I am also keenly aware that I've written about it before in a different scenario, but the more we become aware how culturally blind Hollywood is, the more they underscore their own cultural stupidity with minute mistakes that keep adding up to colossal mountains.

Last year I bitched when Jimmy Smits, a superb actor on his own, was chosen to play the lead part in the CBS drama "Cane."

My historical issue was that Jimmy Smits is a great actor, but not what your typical Cuban sugar magnate would have looked liked in the racist Cuban society of the late 1950s and the Cuban-American refugee wave of the early 1960s.

CBS picked Smits, a brilliant actor, I guess based on their perception of what a Cuban looks like (Smits is not of Cuban ancestry... his father, Cornelis Smits, was a Surinamese immigrant from Dutch Guiana, and his mother, Emilina, is Puerto Rican).

This is what the person that Smits' "Canes" character was loosely based upon really looks like...

That is him and his also Cuban wife to the left... but because, like a lot of Cubans, he looks too "Anglo" and not enough of what Hollywood (and CBS) want all of us to think that Latinos should all look like, they hired a terrific Emmy-winning Surinamese actor who fits the sterotypical image of what Hollywood thinks Cubans should look like, to play the lead part.

Latinos are a culturally, racially and ethnically diverse group of people, and we're not all made of one mold, as Hollywood wants you to think.

So that was then, and here's what has me all spun up in a tempest in my demitasse.

Currently my absolute favorite TV show is Showtime's "Dexter."

If you haven't seen this show, then go and rent seasons one and two out on DVD and then get hooked.

In the series, Michael C. Hall is absolutely brilliant as a serial killer who works as a blood expert for the Miami Metro Police while hiding the fact that he is also a serial killer. Dexter goes after bad guys, but he is still a truly disturbing psychopath pretending to be normal while killing bad guys left and right in a very orchestrated manner.

Dexter is television crime drama at its best.

Because this is set in Miami, several of the regular characters in the series are portrayed as Cuban characters, such as Dexter's boss, Lt. Maria LaGuerta, played superbly by Puerto Rican actress Lauren Velez and detective Angel Batista, also played superbly by Puerto Rican actor David Zayas.

Now enter season three, which introduced a new character, that of Asst. District Attorney Miguel Prado, another Cuban character played by, yep that's right: Jimmy Smits!

Smits is a terrific actor, and since by now he seems to be making quite a decent living playing Cubans on TV, the least that Showtime can do is hire some Cubans to write their Spanish dialogues for the series so that at least he can sound Cuban.

I know that this is pedantic, but everytime that the "Cuban" characters speak to each other in Spanish banter, it is grating to Cuban ears to hear "non Cuban" being spoken.

Imagine that you are watching a foreign movie, let's say a French movie... and all the dialogue is in French, and two British actors are in the film playing American parts, and every few minutes they speak to each other in English, and instead of American English coming out of their mouths, what comes out is cockney English.

That's what (in my pedantic world of Virgoes) I have to suffer everytime that LaGuerta, Batista and/or Miguel Prado talk in Spanish.

The straw that broke the camel's back a few episodes ago was when Miguel Prado (Smits) jokingly called Dexter a "filipolla" (or "gilipolla").

That's when I realized that whomever Showtime has hired to write the Spanish for the series, not only has no idea about what Cuban Spanish sounds like, but also zero idea of what Latin American Spanish sounds like.

Having lived in Spain for a few years in my 20s, I know what that word means, which is essentially a curse word used by Spaniards; let me repeat that: Spaniards, to mean asshole or jerk, etc.

I am almost 99% sure that no Cuban in Miami or Cuba or anywhere else in the Great Cuban Diaspora, has ever called anyone a gilipolla, unless perhaps they live in Spain and have picked up the term there... from Spaniards.

But in Miami? Naaaaaaaaaaaah...

A Cuban would have said "Maricon" or perhaps "Cabron." But fili/gilipolla? Nunca!

Now imagine those two Brit actors playing Yanks in my earlier French movie example, calling each other "arseholes" or "wankers."

Welcome to my pedantic hell.

And now for Showtime: My list of actor candidates who are actually of Cuban ancestry and thus a shoe-in for the part and who actually fucking speak Spanish with a Cuban accent:

Andy Garcia (duh!!!! perfect for the part!... but probably too classy and too expensive to do TV).

Nestor Carbonell. He was great in "Canes" and also in "Lost City," although I think that he wears eye make up?

Mel Ferrer... ah!... I think he's dead.

Desi Arnaz... fine, fine... he's definately dead; but how about Desi Jr.?????

Jorge Perrugorria

Cesar Romero ... fine! I know that The Joker is definately dead.

Julio Mechoso

Ruben Rabasa

Victor Rivers

George Alvarez...

Showtime: call me.

Meet the Artist

Jean Marie Barrett will be at her solo exhibition at the Arlington Ed. Center (1426 N. Quincy Street in Arlington, VA) today Monday, December 1 at 5:30pm with a few friends - join them!

Closing Reception for "Aqui Estamos" today

This afternoon, from 2-4PM H&F Fine Arts will host a closing reception for "Aqui Estamos," contemporary artwork by some of the best known Cuban artists from Cuba and from the Cuban Diaspora.

As I've said before, I called the show "Aqui Estamos" or "Here We Are," as sort of a footprint statement for these important artists making an exclamation point to the Greater DC area.

On the walls are drawings, photographs, paintings and etchings by Magdalena Campos-Pons, Kcho, Sandra Ramos, Cirenaica Moreira, Marta Maria Perez Bravo, Aimee Garcia Marrero and Roberto Acosta Wong.

Last chance to see the show before it travels to Philly!

La Cubanita bailando reggaeton

My good friend and Cuban uberartist Tania Brugera sent me this video of a young Cuban girl dancing raggaeton, which had the effect to instantly making me proud of my Cuban roots and also feel 150 years old!

Sunday Post Reading

Washington has a vibrant, under-the-radar art party scene that has long been visible only to those in the know. But thanks in part to a growing community of art socialites, bloggers and paparazzi, nearly 3,000 people are suddenly pounding down the doors of a museum on a Friday night, and 700 are lining up in the rain to get into a crumbling skate park to see photography. Party organizers sometimes lament the new notoriety, but the crowds keep coming. This month, we fanned out to four events to capture a slice of the action.

Read the WaPo story here.

New Art Scam

If you get the below email, ignore it. It is a new art scam:

Subject: Artworks..‏
From: Janet Karloff (jan_kar001@yahoo.com)
Sent: Tue 11/25/08 1:58 PM
To: lenny@lennycampello.com

Hi, Hope this message finds you well. I saw these creatives works on your web site and i will like you to get back with more details if they are still available for purchase. "Iranian Campaign" and "Expeditionary Service Test" I will appreciate an urgent reply. Best Regards,

Janet.

Like I have done in the past with other scammers, I will try to hook "Jane Karloff" into wasting time and effort with me...

Hundreds of portraits by Kayti

She never did my portrait, but Kayti Didriksen, who can rightfully claim to have done Dubya's most famous portrait, will have an exhibition of a lot of new portraits.

It all starts on Saturday, November 29th at 7 pm at th Fight Club, located in Blagden Alley between 9th and 10th and M & N Streets, N.W. Washington D.C.

This neighborhood is peppered with a lot of "off the radar" little clubs and "you need to know someone in order to get in" places, and the best way to get on the "in" list is to hang around some of these exhibits for a while and ask...

Go see this show and then tell me (here it comes) how Kayti did.

Opportunity for Artists

Deadline: December 8, 2008

No entry fees!

CRUX is an exhibit sponsored by Trinity Presbyterian Church (TPC)M in Norfolk, VA. The purpose of this show is to support the arts community as it explores the theme “CRUX.” The exhibit will be held at The Mayer Fine Art Gallery (MFA) in Norfolk on January 10-31, 2009.

Eligibility: All are invited to participate. Fine art in two and three dimensions is eligible for entry. Works should relate to the theme. TPC reserves the right to refuse any works with unusual installation requirements or works otherwise judged unsuitable.

Entry application: There are no fees. Artists should complete the entry form and notification form giving all information requested. Send a SASE for notification.
digitatal entries only: Artists may submit one image each for up to three works. Digital images should be sent on a PC-compatible CD-ROM in JPG format or emailed to crux@trinitynorfolk.com. Each file should include artist’s name and image number to correspond with annotated image list. Maximum image size is 1920 x 1920 pixels at 72 dpi. Do not embed images into PowerPoint or submit moving images or audio files. Each artist should submit an image list including title, medium, dimensions, year and description of piece as it relates to the theme, CRUX.

Sales: There will be absolutely no commission retained on any sale by either TPC or MFA. Work will be sold at the price listed on the entry form. All work not for sale must be marked “NFS” and please, no “PORs.”

Jurors: William Hennessey, the Director of the Chrysler Museum, Solomon Isekeije, Assistant Professor of Arts with the Department of Fine and Performing Arts at Hampton University, and Ken Daley, Professor of Art at Old Dominion University.

Calendar:
12/12/08 Deadline to receive entry forms, and digital submissions, all postmarked by Dec. 8, 2008, and mailed to:

Trinity Presbyterian Church
7th Annual Juried Exhibition
Attn. S. Lucas
1600 Colonial Avenue
Norfolk, VA 23517

Email submissions may be made to crux@trinitynorfolk.com
12/17/08 Notification forms mailed
1/8/09 Accepted works must be received at TPC
1/10/09 Exhibition reception from 7:30-10:00PM
1/30/09 Exhibit closes.
1/31/09 All hand-delivered works are to be picked up from TPC.
2/2/09 All works shipped UPS will be returned UPS at artist’s expense.

Contact the TPC office at 757.466.0989 or crux@trinitynorfolk.com with questions or for more information or to get a copy of the prospectus.

Hickey on the art boom's Dionysian last gasps

After attending 2007's Frieze Art Fair and Art Basel Miami, Dave Hickey found himself pondering the retrenchment to come:

"So think of the art world as a beach and money as the surf. Waves roll inbut they always suck back out, leaving a few masterpieces, taking some beachwith them. When a really gnarly monster rolls in, the best we can hope isthat it will leave some beach behind and a few treasures in the sand, alongwith the wreckage and the bodies‹because the wave will suck away. And whenit does, as it is doing right now, the whales will either hold or dump. Ifthey hold, art will remain a stable-valued, low-liquid commodity. If thewhales dump at cut-rate prices, the art world will undergo its firstcatastrophic value re-adjustment in 40 years. It won¹t be pretty, but itwill be exciting to watch."

Read the article in Vanity Fair here.

Last week to see "Here We Are"

"Aqui Estamos" (Here We Are) closes on November 30 at H&F Fine Arts just over the DC street border at H&F Fine Arts, which by the way is quite a really beautiful gallery space and clearly a lot of work from the co-owners Karen Handy and Cheryl Fountain and easily the key arts presence on the rising Gateway Arts District.

On the walls are drawings, photographs, paintings and etchings by some of the most important contemporary Cuban artists on the planet today as well as a couple of emerging ones; work by Magdalena Campos-Pons, Kcho, Sandra Ramos, Cirenaica Moreira, Marta Maria Perez Bravo, Aimee Garcia Marrero and Roberto Acosta Wong.

Kevin Mellema just reviewed the show and you can read his insightful review here.

I have mentioned before the coup of this show has been in bringing to the Greater DC area for the first time work by Kcho and Maria Magdalena Campos-Pons, and I will admit that I have been a tiny bit puzzled that this fact has not received a little more attention; it's not everyday that the focus of an exhibition, even a Cuban art exhibition, includes work by Afro-Cubans, with their unique perspective on art given to them by their experiences with both the African and Cuban diasporas.

Take the case of Campos-Pons.

She has been called "one of Boston’s most prominent artists," and as evidence it has been submitted that this exceptional Cuban-born (and now American by citizenship) artist has shown at New York’s Museum of Modern Art (where she had a solo before age 30), Minneapolis’s Walker Art Center, the Venice Biennale, and many other prestigious venues around the world.

And last year the Indianapolis Museum of Art hosted “Everything Is Separated by Water,” a mid-career retrospective of Campos-Pons' paintings, sculptures, photos, and installations.


When I was trying to arrange her participation in this show (and the follow on in Philadelphia) I visited Magda, as she is usually called, and we met in her four year old gallery, Gasp, which she and her husband opened in 2004 -- and which according to the Boston press "specializes in group shows of young experimenting artists and stars from the international art circuit that her own stature attracts. It’s one of a handful of galleries in town that aren’t primarily commercial or institutional."

"Te pareces a uno de mis primos (you look like one of my cousins)," she told me with a huge smile as we met; the smile would rarely leave her face during the three plus hours that I spent talking with this dynamo of a woman.

Campos-Pons was born in La Vega, in the province of Matanzas, Cuba, a sugar plantation town where her Nigerian-born great-great grandfather worked as a slave in Cuba's brutal slave system, in which sugar mill owners often owned thousands of slaves and where death and rape were common parts of life.

In Spanish, Matanzas means "Slaughter" or "Killings" -- imagine a US state or a Canadian province named "Slaughters" as a reminder of the brutality of the Spaniards' treatment of the native Indians (within a couple of decades of the Europeans arrival in Cuba, nearly the entire native Indian population had been wiped out by disease, murder and suice). The name "Matanzas" commemorates the actual suicide deaths of tens of thousands of Taino Indians who committed suicide rather than become slaves to their white masters from Spain as Kubanacan (as Cuba was known in the native Taino language) became a colony of the mighty Kingdom of Spain as the world entered the so called "Spanish Century", mostly on the back of the red and black races.

When Cuba's native population died out from suicide or disease, the Conquistadores began the new continent's slave trade and brought in African slaves purchased from the Arabs, and mostly on the brutal labor of their backbones, a new Cuban nation was forged eventually.

And as an Afro-Cuban woman with this history in her blood lines, Campos-Pons has used her cultural and racial background the initial key theme of her own work, with long ties to her Cuban homeland, but also with a powerful influence of her evolving Americanosity.

We talked about Cuba, about her background there, her family, her education in the Cuban system, her growing disappointment with the intolerant and repressive Castro regime, her trials and tribulations in leaving the land that she loves so much, her marriage to the talented American musician Neil Leonard, the struggle to get a legal visa to the US - during which she lived for a year and a half in Canada on art fellowships with her husband visiting her on weekends, before she was allowed to immigrate to the US at the end of 1991.

We switched between machine-gun Cuban Spanish ("Cubans use Spanish as a weapon," a South American friend once told me) and English, as she described her gallery, which she is heroically building one room and idea at a time. I was amazed by a wide-planked wood floor that Magda constructed herself, the doorway that she cut through the wall, the translucent plastic materials that she uses very elegantly to cover up and separate areas and to create a resident artist's studio, and the new expansive room that she is now building. "This gallery is an art installation in progress," I thought to myself.

We discussed her then current show at the gallery, Are We There Yet? - curated by Dawoud Bey. It featured work by Howard Henry Chen, Alan Cohen, Christine DiThomas, Aron Gent, Rula Halawani, Surendra Lawoti, Curtis Mann, Oscar Palacio and Adriana Rios. I was particularly impressed by the work of Curtis Mann and Christine DiThomas. Mann's compositional abilities and a very effective technique of distressing paper in order to acquire a good ground for the piece, really yields very memorable imagery, while DiThomas' photographs transcend the focus of the show and float - aided considerably by the very elegant presentation and soft focus - a sense of time and place; they can be "modernized" images from the 50s, 60s or even colonial America.

Magda was enthusiastic and energizing in describing the show and the artists, and relating - from one gallerist to another now - the struggles and successes of running an independent art gallery: dealing with landlords, helping the emerging Brookline neighborhood establish a separate but individual identity rather than become another cookie-cutter gentrified neighborhood, etc.

She is a hurricane in action, one moment telling me about her plans to talk to a friend restauranteur into opening an Iranian food cafe that would feature artwork; the next moment talking about forging friendships with the new small businesses that have opened since they opened Gasp.

In the middle of this, a smiling Chinese lady pops into the gallery. "I just cooked these and wanted to give you some," she tells Magda as she hands her a bag full of noodles. She is the owner of a tiny new Chinese restaurant down the block. It is the perfect exclamation point to our conversation.

I've been there for over two hours and I still have not talked about her own work, but I have been hypnotized into talking for hours about Cuba, the gallery business, art, race, immigration, the press, Cuban food, cooking, her neighborhood, Boston, and even issues dealing with the plight of illegal aliens.

Her 15-year-old son Arcadio walks in, already half a foot taller than either one of us; it is time for Magda to check his homework assignment. They disappear for a while in the back of the gallery while she checks his laptop report. Later on I find out that Arcadio's homework assignment is in fact assigned by his parents in exchange for computer gaming time. The assignment? ... To write four gallery or museum reviews a month. "He is really developing into a very good writer and critic," the proud mother tells me.



We digress into a discussion about children and she laughs as she tells me about the surreal experiences of being a Cuban black woman in the wee hours of the morning taking her very Bostonian child to hockey practice in a freezing ice arena and also relates Arcadio's visits to Cuba and how well he fit into the Cuban world of La Vega.

"Probably the first grandson of La Vega to play hockey," I think silently.

My wife calls and wants to know if she can run from the downtown hotel to the gallery and meet us. Magda, who also runs regularly, changes gears and gives her directions and is amazed when my wife shows up forty minutes later. "You ran from Copley to here already?" she asks amazed.

My wife was once ranked fifth in the world in the triathlon and repesented the United States twice at the world competitions of the event. She was twice the Maryland state champion during her competing days.

We start the gallery tour all over again - this is a gallerist possessed by love for her art and love for her gallery and the opportunity that it affords to the artists that she show. "We have a different model," she tells us. "We have a curated show each month," she explains, "with a thematic exhibition by several artists as well as a show by a new, emerging artist in the back room."

We walk upstairs to her studio, on the way up she apologizes about the mess that we're to expect. "All artists do this," I think to myself. I have never been to a neat artist studio, and hopefully I never will.

She immediately begins to root around for things and artwork and post-cards and books and memories. "I never throw anything away," she warns us as she dances around the crowded two rooms that make up her studio space. The walls are packed with both work by other artists, really advanced work by her son, and works in progress by Campos-Pons.

Like most Cuban artists, Magda is highly trained in nearly every facet of the fine arts: she is a printmaker, a painter, a sculptor, a videographer, a photographer and even a glass artist.

Over the years her photographic work has been a prominent member of the leading visual imagery of contemporary art; the one below (of Magda and her mother) once graced the cover page of the New York Times' art section and is currently in the collection of the Brooklyn Art Museum ...



As most artists who dance at the top of the art world know, it is a hard dance, and continuing exploration of what fuels the fire of being an artist becomes an essential part of continuing success.

Maria Magdalena Campos-Pons: Everything Is Separated by Water (Indianapolis Museum of Art) (Hardcover) by Okwui Enwezor (Author), Lisa D. Freiman (Editor). Order the book here
We begin discussing her latest works and Magda dissolves and melts in front of my eyes, and reforms herself into a fountain spewing multiple jets of information at once.

There's something unique about this talented artist - she's the Cuban art world's Pocahantas to the New Yorkish John Smith art universe. Through her and her work, Cuba's bloody African entrails are exposed, perhaps to the chagrin of Miami's powerful and nearly all white Cuban-American population. Like Pocahantas, she learned English harshly and quickly, and also like Pocahantas, she learned to adapt as needed and become a new entity in an almost colorless new world.

Through her and her art, first Bostonians and then the art universe was given a high dose of Cuban art education, and within that art world even African-Americans were also initiated: "you are not the only ones, my Northern brothers and sisters," her artwork shouts to the four corners of America.

It is all a good thing for art, because the most important achievement that her artwork has caused is to deliver Campos-Pons from precisely all those boxes and labels that we are all so fond of trying to pin on artists.

María Magdalena Campos-Pons. Island Treasures. Large Format Polaroids - Currently hanging at H&F Fine Arts
In a very strong sense, her artwork and her worldwide success has liberated her from labels, and while her Cubanosity has certainly fueled her artistic personna and productivity, it is her talent and work ethic as an artist that now has her as just a brilliantly talented artist simply producing great art.

Art.

Donate art to this

The 11th Annual Postcards From the Edge benefit for Visual AIDS will be hosted by Metro Pictures in NYC on January 9-10, 2009. This is one of my favorite charity art auctions and I've been donating and encouraging artists to donate to it for years.

Postcards From the Edge is a show and sale of original, postcard-sized artworks on paper by established and emerging artists. Offered on a first-come, first-served basis, each piece is exhibited anonymously, and the identity of the artist is revealed only after the work is purchased. With the playing field leveled, all participants can take home a piece by a famous artist, or one who’s just making his/her debut in the art world. Nonetheless, collectors walk away with something beautiful, a piece of art they love. For more details, visit this website.

Attention Artists! Deadline: Wednesday, December 10, 2008.

They are looking for artists to donate a 4" x 6" original work on paper for the exhibition and sale. Painting, drawing, photography, printmaking and mixed media are all welcome. If you would like to participate in Postcards From the Edge, download submission forms at this website.

Preview Party
Friday, January 9, 2009 from 6:00 - 8:00 PM
Your only chance to get a sneak peek at the entire show.

Benefit Sale - ONE DAY ONLY!
Saturday, January 10, 2009 from 11:00 - 6:00
Over 1500 original postcard-size works of art.
$75 EACH. Buy 4 cards and get 1 free!

Michael at G

G Fine Art holds an opening reception this Saturday for the most recent Trawick Prize winner Maggie Michael's new body of work, All at Once.

G is at 1515 14th Street NW, and the reception is from 6 to 8 p.m. Note to G Fine Art: update your website.

Wanna rent a condo in Bethesda or a house in Bowie?

I've got a couple of my properties for rent all at once...


First one above is a really nice condo in Bethesda in Pooks Hill, close to everything... see the listing here.

The other one is the very first house that I ever bought when I was Navy Lieutenant first assigned to Washington, DC back in the late 80s.

Last year I poured a ton of money renovating the house.

It is just a couple of minutes away from 50 and perfectly located between DC and Annapolis and almost across the street from a really nice park and one block from tennis courts and b-ball courts and playground.

See that listing here.

Wanna learn how to self-publish your own photography book?

Transformer partners with Anacostia's Honfleur Gallery as part of FotoWeek DC to bring you: Underexposed: Self-Publishing Your Photo Book , today November 22, 2008 starting at 2pm at Honfleur Gallery in Anacostia

Free and open to the public!

Bringing together a diverse group of photographers via a facilitated panel discussion, the participating speakers will address the processes and challenges of self-publishing books of photographic work. Participants will share their experiences as both photographers and editors, followed by a question and answer segment with the audience. Participating panelists include Melissa Catanese, Chan Chao, Lely Constantinople, Ed Panar, and Max Hirshfeld.

Honfleur Gallery
1241 Good Hope Rd. SE
Washington , D.C. 20020

For further information call 202.483.1102

Wanna go to some open studios in DC tomorrow?

19 countries, 37 artists and 57 works of art

Is what you will discover at the XVII Ibero-American Art Salon opening today, November 22, 2008 from 6-9 PM at the Katzen Arts Center- American University in DC. This exhibit will remain open until December 21st.

Job in the Arts: at the WPA in DC

Position Title: Executive Director- Washington Project for the Arts (WPA)

Reports to: WPA Board of Trustees via Board Chair

Qualifications: Master of Arts degree in Arts Administration, a Master of Business Administration degree or commensurate experience (at least five to seven years) to meet the qualifications outlined below:

• Leadership experience in management of a professional staff (5-10 full or part-time employees and consultants)
• Experience in developing and managing outreach and public programs
• Experience in creating and managing complex budgets of at least $500,000
• Ideally, the three aforementioned “experiences” should have been with an “Arts Organization”
• Being a self-starter with initiative and excellent organizational skills
• Grant writing experience
• Experience with fundraising and corporate development
• Excellent communication skills including speaking, writing and conceptualization and being comfortable dealing with the public and public speaking
• Nimbleness, flexibility, and being able to respond quickly to change
• A team player with strong motivational skills
• Public affairs and media experience
• Experience with organizing publications and internet marketing a plus

Position Summary: The WPA is an independent, 501 c (3) entity that supports, develops and promotes regional artists and art programs. The organization works to achieve that goal via programming that includes, but is not limited to: exhibitions; lecture series; performances; publications; design, arts administration, and arts internships; educational outreach and general arts related initiatives. In addition, the organization creates and maintains Art File Online, a digital art file, and print materials, for regional, national, and international access to artist members.

The Executive Director oversees, manages, and directs the organization’s programming, internet-based materials, writes fundraising proposals and identifies development prospects and is tasked with developing strategies to maintain and increase membership, both artistic and general, and to generally and strategically position the organization as the major leader in contemporary art for the Washington, D.C. region and beyond. The Executive Director also works with the WPA Board of Trustees and related committees, which include, but are not limited to: Governance; Development/Membership; Finance; Programming; Publications and Auction Committees. The Executive Director works with arts leaders at various D.C. arts organizations and through city-wide events, to support and maintain a healthy visual arts community which requires advocating for funding and space for individual artists and the organizations which support their efforts.

S/he oversees the WPA’s annual operating budget, reserves, and “special projects” budgets; actively manages the staff, consultants and interns responsible for programming, membership, finance, and development. S/he oversees all printed and online materials which include the organization’s website, Art File Online, exhibition catalogues, auction catalogues, the bi-annual Artist Directory, the WPA Annual Report and other materials as needed. In addition, s/he works closely with the development team to identify new revenue sources from private philanthropy, foundations, public funds and other sources to maintain and enhance the WPA’s programs, products, and regional visibility

Duties and Responsibilities:
 Serves as Executive Directors of the WPA in all endeavors including programs, educational workshops, exhibitions and community outreach initiatives aimed at building a broader audience base and local constituency.

 Works with local arts leaders to support programs, exhibitions, arts spaces, and events that focus on regional artists.

 Work with the Board of Trustees and others to identify and secure off-site locations for programming and membership initiatives.

 Works directly with Board and board committees to carry out projects and programs that fulfill the goals and initiatives set through the mission.

 Supervises a Program Director, Membership Director, Development Director, Bookkeeper, and other staff, interns, and consultants.

 Develops new strategies and objectives aimed at growing the WPA’s membership.

 In conjunction with the Director of Development develops fundraising proposals and and identifies development and fundraising prospects outlined above.

 Oversees the organization, execution, maintenance and production of all WPA materials and artist resources, including but not limited to Art File Online, biannual Artist Directory, and other critical community service and fundraising efforts.

 Oversees annual operating budget and project budgets.

 Serves as a liaison with area artists, regional arts organizations, local governments and philanthropic entities, staff, general public, donors, and volunteers.

Washington Project for the Arts provides essential resources to support the creative spirit and success of regional artists. The WPA presents contemporary art through imaginative and provocative programs, and connects artists with the community in both traditional and unexpected ways.

Please send cover letter/ resume to: Kim Ward kward@wpadc.org until December 12, 2008.

WPA Executive Director Kim Ward Resigns‏

From the WPA:

Dear Artists and WPA Friends,

In the next few months I will be transitioning from my role as Executive Director of the Washington Project for the Arts and join the WPA Board of Trustees. The decision to leave as Executive Director is solely precipitated by my desire to spend more time with my immediate and extended family. In the next few years my children will begin leaving home and starting college and I would like to be more present in their lives and see them as much as possible.

Working in various capacities at the WPA over the last six years has been richly rewarding and unequivocally, one of my best life experiences. The organization has given me far more than I have contributed. I am honored to have been a part of this incredible arts group that has served the greater DC community for almost 35 years. Whether you have created contemporary art, attended WPA events, purchased artwork, or written checks to support and sustain all connected with such, you have helped move us to the healthiest position the organization has held in over 20 years. While leaving the WPA staff is difficult for me, it is easier knowing that all of our hard work has placed the organization in a solid position to continue serving artists and the contemporary visual arts community in the years to come. In recent years, the WPA has:

- Created the digital ArtFile Online, a benefit and resource for all artist members, and the arts community

- Achieved complete independence at the end of 2007, separating from the Corcoran Gallery of Art

- Grown from 300 to 1200 artist members

- Maintained five continuous years of profitability and budget growth

- Featured over 1000 artists in exhibitions in the last five years

In the next few weeks I will begin working part-time, and remain on the staff to ensure a smooth transition of responsibilities to the new Executive Director. I would like to encourage members and friends of the WPA to send any qualified candidates my way. The position description will be posted on our website and a variety of arts job banks.

Again, it is a pleasure to pause and thank all of you for your generous support, direction and guidance over the years. There are too many people to thank who gave me a “leg up,” going out of their way to help me in all possible ways. I am looking forward to staying involved and rooted in the local arts community, while continuing to support the WPA through my new role in the organization. Please stay in touch, keep me on your lists, and finally, I want to wish all of you and your families a happy and healthy holiday season.

Best,

Kim Ward