Dress for Success Benefit

Happy Memorial Day!

American Flag by Jonathan S. Woods, which was part of Artomatic 2012

DC Judge rules in favor of DC gallery

From DC's Charles Krause Reporting:

After two years of threats, refusing to meet with me or even tell me the nature of the complaints they had received, the Solo Piazza Condominium Board  where I live filed suit on March 16 to shut down the gallery I opened in December 2011.

The issue before the Court was whether an art gallery was an "accessory office use" permitted by the condominium's by-laws, which I was bound by when I purchased my apartment seven years ago. In letters to my attorney, Benny Kass, and to me before the suit was filed, the board changed its story a number of times about why it  was so opposed to allowing me to operate the gallery---especially after it learned that I had obtained a permit from the DC government giving me the right to do so.

Nonetheless, the board clearly expected to win the suit, allocating only $500 for legal fees in the building's 2014 budget (because the bylaws say that if the board has to go to court to enforce the bylaws and wins, the co-owner who loses has to pay both his own legal fees and the condominium's legal fees as well).

Pushing its luck even further, the board filed a motion for summary judgment shortly after it filed its complaint, arguing that since an art gallery  is obviously not an "office," the judge should execute summarily; obviously, they were thinking the judge would make short work of my gallery, not their credibility.

As it turned out, however, the only thing that was obvious about the board's complaint and its motion for summary judgment was that neither they nor their attorney had bothered to do the most basic legal research to determine how the word "office" is defined.  

What my attorneys at Kass, Mitek & Kass discovered, much to their surprise and very much to their credit, was that the word "office" had never been litigated before-- in which case the DC courts rely on Webster's Unabridged Dictionary to define legally undefined words for them.

And sure enough, Webster's defines "office" as "a place where a particular kind of business or  service for others is transacted."

So, dear friends and art aficionados, the judge denied the board's motion for a summary judgment and, instead, ruled in my favor. It's official: my home is now an office and my office is now a place where I can show and sell art that might not otherwise have a home if DC Superior Judge Michael O'Keefe hadn't found that the condo board where I have my home, my gallery and my office hasn't a clue what the bylaws mean nor the wit to look in a dictionary before they file a mean-spirited and expensive lawsuit contending that an art gallery isn't an office and therefore isn't a permitted "accessory office use" of my home office which, by the way, is located in a section of Washington that's an officially designated arts zone.

Is this the end? Probably not. But it's a good beginning.

Read the review of their current exhibit by Mark Jenkins in the WaPo here.

The Lilith

"The Lilith." Watercolor on Paper. 7x5 inches matted and framed to 10x8 inches.

Congrats!

To DMV artist Tim Tate, winner of the 2014 Brilliance Award. Details here.

Opportunity for Artomatic 2012 Artists

Artists who participated in Artomatic 2012 are invited to exhibit in Artomatic Takes Flight opening July 25 in The Gallery Walk at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport. 

They'll send an email soon with details about the call for entries, online artist registration at noon on May 31, art drop off on the evening of July 18 and the morning of July 21 at the airport, and the reception on July 25.

2015 Maryland Individual Artist Awards

The 2015 Maryland Individual Artist Award guidelines and application are now available. Applicants must be full-time Maryland residents. The funding categories for 2015 include: 

• Non-Classical Music: Composition
• Non-Classical Music: Solo Performance
• Playwriting  
• Visual Arts: Crafts 
• Visual Arts: Photography   

All applications must be submitted online. Applicants can click here  to access the guidelines and application. The deadline for 2015 applications is 4:30 PM on Thursday, July 24, 2014.

The Maryland State Arts Council and Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation will offer three webinars for prospective Individual Artist Award applicants that will:

  

• Address applicant eligibility, discipline categories, and work sample formats;
• Provide instructions on how to complete the online application; and
• Provide information on the submission of digital images for visual artists

Advance registration is required.

To register, please follow the link listed next to your desired webinar date.  

WEBINAR 1: June 19, 2014
2:00 PM - 3:30 PM

https://www3.gotomeeting.com/register/533270558 

  

WEBINAR 2: June 21, 2014 

10:00 AM - 11:30 AM 

https://www3.gotomeeting.com/register/676216598

WEBINAR 3: June 25, 2014 

10:00 AM - 11:30 AM 

https://www3.gotomeeting.com/register/831610854 

  

An instructional video to assist artists with the application process and work sample preparation guide is also available online here. 

Questions about Fellowships or webinar registration?

Please contact Kimberly Steinle-Super at kimberly@midatlanticarts.org 

(e)merge art fair deadline approaching!

(e)merge art fair NOW ACCEPTING GALLERY, 

ARTIST APPLICATIONS ONLINE

The fourth edition of the (e)merge art fair will take place October 2-5, 2014, in Washington, DC, at the Rubell Family’s Capitol Skyline Hotel.

The DC region is home to one of the nation’s wealthiest, youngest, most highly educated populations. (e)merge provides inside access to a rapidly expanding cultural market with immense economic power.

EXHIBITOR PROSPECTUS (CLICK HERE)

ONLINE APPLICATIONS ARE NOW BEING ACCEPTED

GALLERY PLATFORM APPLICATION (CLICK HERE)
The Gallery Platform application deadline is May 30 and notifications will be sent out in June.

Additional information on the EXHIBITOR SERVICES page: CLICK HERE

For additional questions/information: info@emergeartfair.com

In Bethany Beach...

Don't sign your next contract without reading this‏...

Contracts are everywhere. Whether you are a struggling artist, world renowned photographer or a gallery owner, you will be inundated with contracts from art dealers, agents, exhibitors, publishers, ad agencies, museums as well as non-art industry members like landlords and contractors. If contracts are supposed to make sure that both parties fulfill their obligations, then why are there so many …

Read more

Send off Luncheon

The Prince George's African American Museum & Cultural Center at North Brentwood in conjunction with the Museums Connect Program, will host a Luncheon on June 7 from 11:30am to 2pm at the College Park Marriott and Conference Center.

The Luncheon is to honor the teen emissaries from the Museum's Culture Keepers program at the Suitland School for the Visual and Performing Arts who journeyed to Sao Paulo Brazil as part of the Department of State's Museums Connect program.  They will share their trip, the experiences they had and the historical research and art projects they produced with their counterparts in the Afro Museo in Sao Paulo. 

Guests will also enjoy the live Steel Drum music played by young students from Pan Jamboree and the wares of talented Arts District vendors for sale.

Luncheon Tickets will be available on line beginning Monday April 28th on the Museum website at PGAAMCC.ORG.

Luncheon Tickets are $45.00 - They encourage Table sponsors of $450 for groups of 10.  Because so many wish to support the wonderful work of these highly talented students, and they can only accommodate 220 guests, they encourage early ticket purchase.

Local artists are invited to display art work for sale during the luncheon. The cost per table for art displays are $100.

For more information contact: Ms. Tracey Jones, Director of Media and Public Programs at ttjones@pgaamcc.org

ART FAIRS: AN IRRESISTIBLE FORCE IN THE ART WORLD?

Want to go to a panel discussion and reception held by the Fine Arts Committee of the New York State Bar Association Entertainment Arts & Sports Law Section?

Tuesday May, 27th from 6:30 PM - 8:00 PM Followed by a Wine and Cheese Reception 

Are brick and mortar art galleries the loss leaders in an art world, potentially spiraling beyond viable limits? More than ninety art fairs now define the rhythm of globalized art business. This development has profoundly altered the relationships amongst artists, gallerists, and collectors. 
The panel will explore and critique the impacts and challenges – legal, ethical and business – of the rise of art fairs. This is part of an initiative to create dialogue amongst lawyers, artists and emerging and established art professionals working in the primary or secondary markets.

Cost for the event is $15 including reception.
Registration is here. 

Panelists:

Gallerist Elizabeth Dee will report on the chances and risks that the art fairs impose, in light of the ambitious expansion that her gallery has recently embraced and her perspective as co-founder of Independent, New York.

Attorney Richard M. Lehun of Stropheus Art Law will examine the plethora of ethical and business issues that art fair participants confront.

Attorney Nicholas M. O'Donnell, a litigation partner at Sullivan & Worcester LLP, will present on the legal issues that art fairs carry with them.

Gallerist Edward Winkleman will offer an overview of the research he is conducting on art fairs in preparation for his upcoming book "Selling Contemporary Art: How to Navigate the Evolving Market" (Allworth Press).

The panel will be moderated by attorney, educator, mediator, and arbitrator Judith B. Prowda, Faculty at Sotheby’s Institute of Art and author of Visual Arts and the Law: A Handbook for Professionals (Lund Humphries 2013).

Heard on Univision

Every once in a while there's a commercial in Univision, where the voice over (in Spanish of course) has a "fake" accent - that is, the voice over is in Spanish as it would be spoken by a stereotypical American person who has learned Spanish.

But it is not a "real" accent, but a fake accent.

It's rather odd.

Language USA

Details here.

Help Fund Elise's Wedding

So... I've romanced the stone and pulled the first litho proof of this new set of 10 signed and numbered Frida Kahlo portraits. It is matted in a white, pH-balanced acid free museum mat and then framed under glass in an austere black wood frame to a 16x12 inches size. 

Want it? 

Then help fund my daughter Elise Campello's wedding and send her an offer via email and the highest offer by May 25th gets it! As the first proof, this piece is thus unique.

Email her here.

Nazi Art Hoarder Dies: So Who Gets the Art?

Cornelius Gurlitt, the infamous son of a Nazi art dealer, died on Tuesday at the age of 81. Gurlitt shocked the world when German police found 1,280 works from venerated artists like Picasso, Chagall and Matisse, in his Munich apartment, many of which were believed to be stolen Holocaust-era Nazi loot. The German government had been holding the works, researching their provenance in an attempt to return them to their rightful owners but Gurlitt been fighting to have these works returned to his possession. Unless proven otherwise, the works remain Gurlitt’s property. With very little progress made in discovering the provenance of these works, legal pressures had been building to return the works to Gurlitt.

Read the fascinating article here.

My suggestions for the new US Women's History Museum

This may be a surprise to some, but I don’t think that having a new US History Women’s Museum is a good idea.

Nothing against women; if you read this blog consistently, then you know that I am generally against any and all museums that segregate people by race (there are several race-centric museums in the US), ethnicity (such as the planned National Museum of the American Latino in DC), gender (such as the National Museum of Women in the Arts in DC), or any other label, instead of leading efforts to incorporate those same people into the major museums.

And yes, I do get the point that many of those “other major museums” are essentially mostly focused on mostly men from or of European ancestry.

My original opening argument and position usually falls on deaf ears, and DC’s only Frida Kahlo painting remains in the NMWA instead of the National Gallery of Art, where it belongs. 

Nonetheless, it is my position and I’ve become used to people reacting to it by attacking me, rather than my ideas. That is, unfortunately, collateral spillage from the toxic political dialogue between the vast right wing conspiracy and the even vaster left wing nuthouse: If you disagree with someone’s political ideas/position, then you attack the person, rather than debate the ideas/position.

The new US History Women’s Museum will be built, regardless of what I think, and as such, here are some early suggestions, cough, cough…

First and foremost, mostly progressive, liberal women are allowed to be honored and included in the museum, regardless of any “firsts” or historical contributions that any overtly Republican or Conservative woman has ever made to American history. We’re not sure of Betsy Ross’ political leanings or most of those Revolutionary War women, so they’re OK, as long as the DAR is not too enthused about any particular one of them.

Contemporary women are another issue and the one where all the headlines will be made.

As such, in spite of the remarks that she made about Barack Obama, Geraldine Ferraro must be included and honored as the first woman VP candidate from a major party; but Crom save the poor curator who suggests even mentioning Sarah Palin! Second doesn’t count anyway... right?

However, because of Ms. Ferraro's Obamistic remarks, the whole female VP part of US women's history may have to be skipped all together... cough, cough...

Representative Jeannette Rankin of Montana was the first woman to serve in Congress, and she’ll probably need to be included, even though she was a Republican. But since that was in 1917, those were the “good” Republicans back then, so she’ll be OK. 

All the other such female political “firsts” will of course need to be there – after all they led the way: Hattie Wyatt Caraway (first elected female Senator), Nellie Tayloe Ross (first female elected governor of a state),  Esther Morris (first female judge in the US)… and so on.

Mrs. Clinton hasn’t accomplished any firsts… yet… and may have to wait and see if she gets elected in the next elections to deserve inclusion in the museum… unless Senator Elizabeth Warren decides to run also and somehow beats Mrs. Clinton and then wins the Presidential election and will thus become not only the first female President, but also the first Native American President… cough, cough…

The museum will then, in order to be progressive, have to include also female firsts according to race and ethnicity.

And in the race category, no one deserves to be there more in these segregated categories than the vibrant Shirley Chisholm, the first African-American woman elected to Congress – and in 1972 not only the first woman, but the first African American (period) whose name was nominated for President. 

She was also my Congresswoman when I lived in Brooklyn and my Congressional sponsor for the US Naval Academy. She nominated me in 1977 (and I was accepted and offered an appointment!) for the class of 1981 – I declined the appointment and instead went on to the University of Washington. When Chisholm found out, she called me and yelled at me for half an hour on the phone and damned near changed my mind. She is one of my personal heroes! If Shirley is not highlighted in this museum, I will be pissed!

The first Latina elected to Congress will be hugely problematic to include, as she is the fiery, brilliant (and very right wing) Republican Ileana Ros-Lehtinen; a fellow peeps Cuban-American and another personal hero of mine. I suspect that she will barely get a mention. Five gets you ten that California’s very cute Loretta Sanchez gets more attention (even though California’s Lucille Roybal was elected first, and no, I am not objectifying congresswomen…).

Susana Martinez, also a Republican, will be also an issue… she’s the first Latina elected to be a governor of a US state… What’s with these Republicans electing all these minority women first? That's no way to win a war... Cough, cough...

And what will the museum do about Condoleezza Rice? After all, according to Rutgers University Professor Francois Cornilliat (who is apparently not a fan of free speech), she’s “not a role model”, and 50 or so opinionated Rutgers students think that she is a “war criminal” … Sorry Condie… cough, cough.

Sally Ride, the first American woman in space should be there… is that the best astronaut name ever? 

Mae Jamison, first African American woman in space and Ellen Ochoa, first Latina in space, will also be there… other possibilities are first Jewish woman in space, first Asian-American, etc.

Nanny Pelosi, as the first female Speaker of the House is a shoo-in and rightly deserves to be there, will be there, and it better be a damned good spot!

Although all the high schools and streets are named after Cesar Chavez, once you do a little research, one realizes that Dolores Huerta actually carried a lot of the load, did a lot of the organizing and seldom got the credit that Chavez did; reserve a spot for Huerta.

Military US women who paved the way for today’s sailors, soldiers and airwomen should also be honored and a special scientific spot as well should be reserved for Admiral Grace Hopper.

And they better have a friggin’ good spot for the incredible Civil War exploits of Loreta Janeta Velazquez, the Cuban woman otherwise known as Lieutenant Harry T. Buford during the war.  Think of how many angles the museum can cover with that selection!

Will female entertainers be part of the museum? That will be entertaining to see… 

I'm pretty sure that today's Hollywood does not allow any Conservative woman to become a leading star, so we should be pretty safe from debate with anyone from the 60s onward.

If entertainers are included, don’t forget Rita Hayworth (born Margarita Carmen Cansino  in Brooklyn) as she can cover the Hispanic angle as her father was from Spain, but not the Latina angle, as her father was… ahem, from Spain, and as some people know, Spain is actually in Europe and not Latin America… cough, cough.

Female athletes will be easy: Sports Illustrated has already assembled a list of the top 100 female athletes ever – just pick the Americans out of the list.

If only everything was that easy!

Good luck to the US History Women’s Museum; I know that your intentions are good, but you should have fought better to have American women contributions to American history better represented in the American History Museum, rather than segregating women in their own museum.

Sunday Arts section

Hey!

Guess who was in the WaPo Arts Section today!

Click on the images...

Bethesda Fine Arts Festival this weekend

This festival is one of the best ranked outdoor fine arts festivals in the nation...

It is this weekend around the Woodmont triangle in Bethesda... All free and plenty of parking.

Details at www.bethesda.org

I really need to clean up the studio...