Audrey Wilson Silent Auction

As happens from time to time, every artist now and then runs out of money for materials! And this is even worse when the artist has shows coming! 

DMV artist Audrey Wilson has two shows coming up in the near future, including a solo show and a museum show, and she has run out of money for materials to produce the new work!

But we have it in our power to help out a new voice in art today (and get a good deal while we are at it!) There will be a silent auction on August 5, 2014 at the Washington Glass School from 5 to 9pm.

Several of the artists in the studio and others have donated original work towards her cause... work by Tim Tate, Michael Janis, Sean Hennessey and others.

Absentee ballots are accepted as well. Come to the Glass School on Aug. 5, or call them at (202) 744-8222 or send them an email to timtateglass@aol.com to have images emailed to you and/or to put in an absentee bid. 

Below are a few samples... 

Audrey Wilson

Ibn Firnas’ First Glider

9” x 26” x 14”

Pate de verre kiln formed glass, found objects

Retail: $1700 / Minimum: $600 / Buy it Now: $1300

 

Tim Tate

Best Day Ever!

14” x 8” x 8”

Cast Glass

Retail Price: $3500 / Minimum Bid: $ 750 / Buy It Now: $2000

Sean Hennessey

Radiance

Cast Glass

Retail Price: $400 / Minimum Bid $200 / Buy It Now: $300

Michael Janis

The Brightness We Could Not Touch

Cast Glass, Glass Powder Imagery

(2 piece work) 20” x 30” x 1.5” and 20” x 10”x 1.5”

Retail Price: $7200 / Minimum Bid: $2500 / Buy It Now: $6000

F. Lennox Campello

"Suddenly She Wasn't Afraid Any Longer XXIII"

Size:20” x 25”

Retail Price: $500 / Minimum Bid: $150 / Buy it Now: $450

The Torpedo Factory and the lucky city of Alexandria

From the Torpedo Factory to the DMV:

To our Community of Torpedo Factory supporters :

In response to the recent press coverage, particularly the article and editorial in last week’s Alexandria Times, I’m writing to provide clarification on the Torpedo Factory Art Center’s presentation before the Alexandria City Council.

On May 24th, the Torpedo Factory Art Center went before Council to request autonomy in selecting our own board members and to receive a rebate on the annual rent we pay for the public spaces. As the City owns the building, the Torpedo Factory and its tenants pay almost $400K each year in rent and utilities.  We proposed forgoing payment on $137,000 of these funds to re-invest into specific vital projects including new programming, additional marketing, new signage, architectural services and staffing.  This investment of a mere 27 cents per visitor would enable the Torpedo Factory to be a vibrant contributor to the City’s plans to revitalize the waterfront.

Council did not reject this proposal, they choose not to act on it and we hope they will re-consider it again in the Fall.  Given the immensely positive economic impact and community legacy of the Torpedo Factory, our request was not only reasonable and modest but essential to the long term viability of our organization. 

Some key facts: 

• Based on a City-funded study in 2010, the Torpedo Factory generates $16.2 million annually in direct visitor spending for the City of Alexandria.

• Our building has not been renovated since 1983, over 30 years ago. 

• While admission to our building and public programs remain free to the community, there is no line item in the City budget for the Torpedo Factory.

•  Our overhead costs are as low as possible: we spend $2 dollars per visitor as opposed to the national average for museums of $40-50 per visitor.  

Let’s be clear – our proposal was not about minor cosmetic repairs, it is about the ability of the Art Center to grow and thrive.  To do so, we need the support of both the Alexandria community and the City government.  Over the course of a year, our Board of Directors (alongside officials from the Art League and the Artists Associate) met nine times and completed a Strategic Road Map to lay out plans for growth and new programming.  There are exciting developments in progress and we encourage the community to get involved in the following ways:

Visit – we’re open seven days a week from 10 AM – 6 PM (Thursdays til 9 PM). Our numerous events and openings provide multiple reasons to come back to visit our artists.

Donate – gifts of any size will help build new programs and continue our mission to foster connections that ignite the creative spirit.

Volunteer – we always appreciate volunteers to help either on a regular schedule or for special events.

We’re grateful for this valuable press coverage and the opportunity to create dialogue on our organizational needs and plans.  Together, we can make the Torpedo Factory an even better place to experience art in person and in progress!

Eric Wallner
Chief Executive Officer
Torpedo Factory Art Center

After 22 years

In 1991, while I was living in wonderful Sonoma, California, my daughters Vanessa and Elise used to take ballet classes at the Sonoma Conservatory of Dance.

It was a great school, which (as most of these places are) back then was run mostly on love and was always short of funds, and running bake sales, etc.

I had this idea to create artwork of the students, and then hold a fund-raising art show somewhere in town. I figured that the parents would love to have a drawing of their little ones, and that would be a great way to raise funds for the conservatory.

The best gallery in town, Chevrier's Presidio Gallery, which was run by a very nice couple, agreed to host the exhibition and donate proceeds, which was a very generous thing.

And so I started to hang around the ballet a lot, getting permission from the parents, sketching the dances, both the little ones and the professionals, and after about a year, I had over a hundred works, of which I selected and framed about 50, and matted and shrink-wrapped the rest.

Opening night was sometime in early 1992.

The buzz had started earlier, and because this is Sonoma, the jewel of California's wine country and the home of its wine aristocracy, there was some interesting issues that arose from the event.

For example, the grandmother of one very famous wine family called the gallery a few days ahead of time, and informed the gallerist that she would like to pre-purchase all of the works where any of her grandchildren were the subject of, or part of (I had done many multi-people drawings). And so it happened that little Amber, who was actually a teen at the time, and a very good ballerina, happened to be in at least 20 different works (both framed and matted) and they all ended up with grandma, before the show opened.

This, unexpectedly, or perhaps predictably, caused a ruckus on opening night, as parents and families filed in to discover that some of the pieces where their loved ones were part of, had been pre-sold and thus gone.

The poor gallerist caught hell from a parent or two, although usually their child could be found in another piece.

The entire show sold out on opening night... every single piece.

A while back, while cleaning the studio, I discovered one piece that had never made it to the show... I recognized the little girl too.

To make a long story short, it is now heading to California, 22 years later!

Sonya Lawyer at Flashpoint

“A Peace (of the Dream)," Sonya Lawyer’s exhibit of mixed media works at Flashpoint Gallery is getting a lot of attention in the critical press in the DMV (in other words the WCP and WaPo)...

Read Lou Jacobson's review here and Mark Jenkins' (who used to write for the CP and who thank goodness is covering the visual arts for the Style section) here.

And you can read my review of Lawyer's impressive work from 2008 here.