Come to this opening tonight and get free artwork

You gotta come to this group show at American University’s Katzen Art Museum, since I am honored to be part of it... and there's free art involved... buah, ah, ah!


By the way, that gorgeous museum was built thanks to a major gift from Cyrus and Myrtle Katzen, he a brilliant collector of art who could teach lessons on how to collect; and she is a very talented artist with a refined eye for great artwork. 

The Katzen’s head honcho, Jack Rasmussen, continues to shame all other DMV museum directors and curators when it comes to them tending their own artistic back garden.

At the risk of repeating myself: most DMV museum curators would rather take a cab to Dulles Airport to fly to Berlin in order to visit an emerging artist’s studio than to take a cab to the Gateway Artists’ Studios, or to any area artists’ studios, to look at local artists.

Are you hearing me Stéphane Aquin? Taína Caragol? E. Carmen Ramos? Eleanor Jones Harvey?, etc. Learn to tend your own artistic back garden.


The show is titled The Looking Glass:  Artist Immigrants of Washington and it runs June 18–August 14, 2016. It is part of the amazing Alper Initiative for Washington Artists (if you don’t know what that it, and you are a DMV artist, you should! – contact the Katzen).

The opening is June 18 from 6-8PM. There will be plenty of adult beverages and munchies, and the artists will be there to talk about their work. And in a shameless act of free artwork distribution, I will be giving a free limited edition lithograph from a set of various lithos (you get to pick one) that I did in art school in the 1980s if you say: "Hi Lenny, where's my print?"

They are all signed and numbered in tiny editions... all circa 1977-1981.

The exhibition celebrates ten artists who left Latin America for many different reasons over the last sixty years – primarily for safety, freedom, and opportunity – and made their homes, and their artistic careers and contributions, in the Washington region. 

Ric Garcia, Los Santos, 2012.
Acrylic on canvas, 40 x 30.
Photo by Pete Duvall, Anything Photographic.

They include Joan Belmar and Juan Downey from Chile, Carolina Mayorga from Colombia, Ric Garcia, Jose Ygnacio Bermudez, and yours truly from Cuba, Muriel Hasbun from El Salvador, Frida Larios from El Salvador/Honduras, Irene Clouthier from Mexico, and Naul Ojeda from Uruguay. They brought with them artistic traditions that took root and bore fruit here in the United States.

See ya there! Don't forget to ask me for your free artwork!

Artapedia.com: Launch of new DC Arts writing website

Day Eight is preparing to launch an ambitious new arts blog, Artapedia.com, focused on the D.C. area. Kay Kendall, Chair of the DC Commission on the Arts, and Michael Kaiser, past-president of the Kennedy Center, will be honorary hosts for a free celebration and launch event (rsvp required) Tuesday June 21 5:30-7:00.

The site is launching as part of the DC Arts Writing Fellowship. 2016 D.C. Arts Writing Fellows Jonelle Walker and Michelle Goldchain will cover anything and everything local and artistic. The project was developed to increase coverage of the local arts community and is produced through support from the National Endowment for the Arts, Humanities DC, Brink Media, The Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center, and DCRE Residential.

In addition to writing coverage of arts and humanities activities the Fellows will facilitate a series of community events and receive structured and unstructured mentorship from journalists including Sarah Kaufman (Pulitzer 2010, chief dance critic Washington Post), Jeanette Catsoulis (Film critic, New York Times), and Maura Judkis (culture journalist, Washington Post.) 

Project Director Robert Bettmann said, “For centuries arts journalism has played a critical role in the practice and participation of the arts. With declines in quality coverage from the major news institutions publishers like Day Eight are trying to find new models.”

In celebration of launch of the Fellowship and website Day Eight will host a launch party Tuesday June 21 at BRINK (1516 U Street NW) from 5:30 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. The event is free and open to the public; rsvp is required – space is limited.

For RSVP visit: http://www.evite.com/event/00FEL7XSSPRKDYBOYEPGF4KS4PJXKQ?gid=

About Arts Writing Fellow Jonelle Walker

Jonelle Walker is a 2016 DC Arts Writing Fellow with Day Eight. She is also a Theatre History and Performance Studies masters student at the University of Maryland, a freelance theatre writer, and the Artist-in-Residence and Literary Manager for Blind Pug Arts Collective. She earned her undergraduate degrees in Literature and Theatre Arts from American University in 2013.

About Arts Writing Fellow Michelle Goldchain

Michelle Goldchain is a Washington, D.C.-based writer and photographer who covers local news. She is currently one of the DC Arts Writing fellows with Day Eight. She is also Editor of Curbed DC, a real estate and development blog owned by Vox Media. Her works have been seen in Street Sense, Quill Magazine, Whurk Magazine, and Prince William Living Magazine.

About Arts Writing Fellowship Director Robert Bettmann

Robert Bettmann is an arts writer and editor based in Washington, D.C. He's founder of the arts magazine Bourgeon and the non-profit Day Eight. In the last year he's completed projects with funding from the DC Arts Commission and DC Humanities Council and National Endowment for the Arts. Robert is an artist himself, having transitioned into writing after a decade-long career as a performing artist. He trained on scholarship at the Washington Ballet and Alvin Ailey schools and performed modern dance and ballet. His book Somatic Ecology was published in 2009, and he is the editor of an arts anthology, Bourgeon: Fifty Artists Write About Their Work, published recently.

About Day Eight

The mission of Day Eight is to empower participation in the arts through the production, publication, and promotion of creative projects. The organization’s publication program includes the arts magazine Bourgeon, an annual arts writing competition for undergraduates, and the DC Arts Writing Fellowship. http://dayeight.org/

For additional information contact:

Robert Bettmann Robert@dayeight.org (202)210-2181 

DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities Annual Meeting/Party

Monday, June 27, 2016 at 7:00 PM 

Celebrating a year of Arts and Humanities in the District of Columbia.

Featuring performances and presentations by FY15 grant award recipients

Historic Lincoln Theatre

1215 U Street NW

Washington, DC 20009

Presentations and Performances by:Free Minds Book Club
Chloe Arnold and Maud Arnold
Sweater Set
Dana Flor
Spit Dat DC
CityDance
Washington Improv Theater
Levine Music
Story District
dog & pony dc
Hunt Laudi Studio

Admission is free, RSVPs are encouraged. RSVP here.

The Annual Meeting highlights the progress of the arts in 2015. The DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities staff and grantees present an overview of the previous year's work and an outline for the future to the general public.

Join us for our rooftop networking social immediately
following the annual meeting at

Lost Society
2001 14th Street NW, Washington, DC 20009
8:00 pm -10:00 pm (RSVP here)