DC FY16 Grants Deadlines

This is a friendly reminder to all DC artist who bitch about

art opportunities in DC that

FY16 Grants Deadlines begin Wednesday, May 13

Starting with the deadline for City Arts Projects, the bulk of DC's FY16 Grant applications are due between Wednesday May 13 and Friday May 22. The one grant due after that is for the Public Art Building Communities program, which is due August 21.

See below for all the deadlines, and click on the link below for its respective guidelines.

FY16 Grants Deadlines

Artist Fellowship Program	Friday, May 15
Arts Education Program	Thursday, May 21
City Arts Projects - Individuals	Wednesday, May 13
City Arts Projects - Organizations	Wednesday, May 13
Cultural Facilities Projects	Monday, May 18
East of the River	Monday, May 18
Grants-in-Aid	Friday, May 15
Public Art Building Communities	Friday, August 21
Sister Cities International Arts Grant	Wednesday, May 20
UPSTART	Friday, May 22

FY16 Advisory Review Panelists

As you may also know, the DC Arts Commission (for which I have served for many years) is  currently seeking advisory review panelists for the FY16 grant season. Panelists are integral to the DCCAH's grants process because they review applications, provide comments, and score applications in order to recommend recipients of DCCAH grant awards.

Click here for more information and further instructions.

Please do not hesitate to contact the Commission with any questions, by calling their main line at (202) 724-5613 or emailing them at cah@dc.gov,

Mark Halperin: Asshole of the Week

Other than my frequent ramblings on the brutal Cuban dictatorship, and an occasional political cartoon, this blog seldom discusses politics, so please forgive this nauseating excursion into that world.

Last night I watched the Mark Halperin interview of Senator Ted Cruz, an interview that, as a Cuban-American, not only made me immensely uncomfortable, but also revealed the disturbing insides of this "journalist."


Senator Ted Cruz is Cuban-American, and because the Texas Senator is one of those rare politicians that actually says in a very loud voice what he believes, and then sticks to his beliefs, you either like him a lot, or despise him even more, depending if you agree with Cruz (as the majority of Texans who voted him into the Senate apparently do) or disagree with him (as practically every Democratic Senator and even some Republicans does), and that is just one of the beautiful things about living in this great nation: Politicians (and the rest of us) can (and often should) have widely differing views on things, and disagree, and argue, etc.

Watching Halperin's revolting interview of Cruz, I actually wanted to throw up.

Up to last night, I had never heard of the online interview show that Halperin co-hosts on BloombergPolitics.com. It is called "With All Due Respect", but the last thing that Halperin showed Cruz was respect; in fact what Halperin revealed about himself was not only a disturbing and sickening inside look at his mind, but also evidence of his lack of journalistic ethics.

Imagine Halperin interviewing Senator Obama in 2008:

"Senator Obama, as a historical matter, when you applied to Harvard, did you list yourself as a Kenyan-American"?

"Who's your favorite African-American performer?"

"What's your favorite kind of black music?"

"What's your favorite soul food?"

Or imagine Halperin interviewing Senator Elizabeth Warren today:

"Senator Warren, what's your favorite Native-American dance?

"Can you say something in Wampanoag?

Had those interviews happened, Bloomberg would have fired Halperin (who has since then somewhat apologized... cough, cough).

What Halperin was doing when he asked Senator Cruz to speak in Spanish (when everyone knows that Cruz is not fluent in Spanish), or to reveal his favorite Cuban dish, or to list what sort of Cuban music the Senator likes, was to challenge Cruz's Cubanosity and to diminish his Hispanic/Latino "credentials."

Halperin wanted to diminish and embarrass Senator Cruz because Ted Cruz does not fit the stereotype of what the main stream press and the Democratic Party (but I repeat myself) wants us Hispanics/Latinos to be: homogeneously brown, solid Democrats, poor, and victimized. Cruz, on the other hand, is white, right wing, and very vocal and proud about his extreme right-wingness.

Why did this interview bother me so much? I thought about this overnight, and I've come to the conclusion that, for the first time, starting when I was a child in Brooklyn, grew into a man while serving in the US Navy, and the many years since, I've now personally felt, for the first time in all those years, the slimy touch of racism.

It sickens me that Halperin can give a half-assed apology and go on pretending that he's an unbiased, objective journalist, when it is clear to the most casual observer that all along he had a goal and a focus in his sickening interview of Senator Cruz.

It sickens me that it took a Mark Halperin to make me feel insulted, nauseated, violated and angry. And it sickens me that he's tarnished my American dream.

Corcoran’s 17th Street building's renovation

LEO A DALY, an internationally renowned architecture, engineering and planning firm with expertise in arts and education spaces, will lead the phased renovation of the Corcoran’s 17th Street building, the George Washington University announced Monday.

The firm, which already has assisted with preliminary space planning at the Corcoran, will be responsible for detailed planning as well as historically sensitive architectural design work for the renovations at the 17th Street building. Initial work will include design of roof and façade repairs; upgrades to critical infrastructure; and design of program spaces, such as computer labs, which will be used in the fall. Long-term efforts will include design to support academic programs and student needs.

The National Gallery of Art, GW, The Corcoran Gallery of Art and the Corcoran College of Art + Design signed the historic collaboration agreements last year that, in part, created the Corcoran School of the Arts and Design at GW and transferred ownership of the 17th Street building to the university.

“LEO A DALY brings a high level of knowledge and experience to this project and has successfully led our initial space planning efforts,” said Alicia Knight, GW’s senior associate vice president for operations. “We look forward to working with the firm as we renovate the Corcoran to ensure that it supports our students and continues to serve as a showplace for the arts.”
The firm, which is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year, is an international leader in the practice of architecture and engineering. Its design expertise in the arts, museums and learning environments includes the Savannah College of Art and Design in Hong Kong and the Strategic Air and Space Museum in Ashland, Nebraska. LEO A DALY is also leading the renovation of the historic Burlington Passenger Station, built in Omaha in 1898, transforming it into a state-of-the-art television studio facility for the Hearst Corporation’s ABC affiliate KETV News Watch Channel 7.

“It is a rare privilege to lead the renovation of such an iconic Beaux Arts building,” said Leo A. Daly III, chairman and CEO of LEO A DALY. “The Corcoran Building is a significant Washington landmark, just steps from the White House. Breathing new life into such a structure, while transforming its classic gallery space into a world-class arts education environment, is an architect’s dream.”
Mr. Daly, a fellow of the American Institute of Architects, serves on the Trustees’ Council of the National Gallery of Art and is a former trustee of the Corcoran Gallery of Art. A respected collector of 20th century art, Mr. Daly previously served as chairman of the American Architectural Foundation, vice chairman of the Kennedy Center International Committee, vice chairman of the National Building Museum, and on the Advisory Board of the Blair House Fine Arts Committee.

The university recently announced that it has entered into a contract for S&R Foundation to purchase the Fillmore building. The nonprofit organization intends to use it as an arts incubator supporting talented artists. The university will use funds from the sale of the Fillmore for the renovation of the 17th Street building and for programs within the Corcoran School of the Arts and Design.