Georgetown University is hosting a "Festival of Fine Art." Below are some interesting panels and performances - unless otherwise noted, they are all at:

New South Building, Riverside Lounge
Georgetown University
37th & O St.
Georgetown, Washington DC

Monday, April 19th - 6:30-9pm

Panel Discussion
6:30-7:30pm
“Georgetown University and its Relationship with the Washington DC Art Scene”

Panel
Dr. John Brough, Professor, Philosophy
Calvin Custen, Professor, Studio Art
Kathryn Cornelius, Graduate Student, Artist
Jessica Eagan, Graduating Senior, Fine Art
Martin Irvine, Assistant Professor, Gallery Owner
Stoff Smulson, Alumnus, Artist

Performance 8-9pm
“Mythology Machine / Chain Value” Kathryn Cornelius and collaborators

Art Exhibit
Monday April 19th – Friday April 23rd, 2004 12-6pm
Work by Students, Faculty and Alumni

"Theory Will Eat Itself: Notes on Postmodernity from A - Z." A performance by Kathryn Cornelius.

Thursday, April 29, 2004
7:30-9pm
Georgetown University
Reiss 103 Lecture Hall

Some comments: In the decade that I have been writing about the DC art community, owning two galleries, being a member of the Art Dealers Association of Greater Washington, been a local artist, a member of the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities Advisory Panels and generally deeply involved in our arts community, I cannot recall ever hearing, dealing, being involved, or reading anything dealing with Georgetown University and art.

In fact, if it hadn't been for the initiative of Kathryn Cornelius, who emailed me - I wouldn't have heard about this "Festival of Art." In fact there's nothing in the University's website about it (at least that I can find).

I applaud the panel “Georgetown University and its Relationship with the Washington DC Art Scene” - but .... who in that panel is not from Georgetown? Shouldn't there be someone in the panel from... "the Washington DC Art Scene?" Seems to me that by having an all-Georgetown panel discuss the university's relationship with the art scene around it, and not really having a couple of outsiders to discuss it from an outsider perspective, and hopefully provide some constructive criticism, that the panel is a bit tunnel-visioned.

In fact (and I could be wrong since I do not know anyone else on the panel), the only people in that panel that (I am aware) are in some sense "involved" in the DC arts scene are Kathryn Cornelius, who currently serves as a Contemporaries Steering Committee Member for the Phillips Collection and also works at G Fine Art Gallery in Georgetown (the neighborhood - not the University), and Martin Irvine, who serves on the Board of Directors of the Contemporary Museum in Baltimore and on the Board of the Friends of the Museum of the Americas in Washington, DC and recently opened a nice gallery in the larger front room of Troyer, and Stoff Smulson, who was one of the key founders of Decatur Blue, which unfortunately folded from its location in the Shaw neighborhood, although they remain a vibrant presence in DC (In fact, another one of the founding members (Jose Ruiz) was the winner of our "Young Artist" award which is part of the Trawick Prize).

But they are all "Georgetowners."

Anyway - I am glad that Georgetown is doing this - and, from an outsider's perspective: This university needs to kick-start its "relationship with the Washington, DC art scene." It doesn't really exist now. If it does, then I am not aware of it, and that by itself - especially since I've co-owned a gallery in the University's neighborhood since 1996, is an alarming issue.

This is not just a slam against Georgetown - in fact one can practically fill in any of our area's universities art programs and the discussion on what they all do for our area's art scene could probably be generalized as marginal, although some are better than others. A while back I suggested a way in which our area's universities could become a driving force in our art scene.

Nobody asked me, just my opinion....

P.S. - For all in Georgetown.... tonite is the Georgetown Canal Square Gallery openings... come by and I'll buy you all one a glass of our world-famous Sangria.

Tomorrow is the third Friday of the month and thus the Canal Square Galleries (31st Street NW and M Street in Georgetown) will have their monthly openings. We will have an exhibition of new found object sculptures by area sculptor Adam Bradley.

This is Bradley's third solo show with us; we started showing him while he was a student at GMU, later while he was an MFA candidate at MICA and now that he's an Adjunt Professor at GMU and NVCC.

The openings go from 6-9 PM and are catered by the Sea Catch Restaurant. They are free and open to the public.

See ya there!

The Smithsonian American Art Museum has elected James F. Dicke II of New Bremen, Ohio as Chair and Samuel G. Rose of Bethesda, Maryland as vice chair of the museum's Board of Commissioners.

Dicke is also a respected artist and photographer who exhibits locally with the Ralls Collection in Georgetown. It's always good to have an artist in charge of groups such as this very important board.

Kara Walker has won this year's Lucelia Artist Award, worth $25,000. The award is a Smithsonian's prize, funded by the Lucelia Foundation, a New York-based institution devoted to supporting the visual arts.

You mean you've never heard of this art prize managed by one of our local museums?

"Walker is the fourth artist to receive the Smithsonian's prize, funded by the Lucelia Foundation, a New York-based institution devoted to supporting the visual arts. Her selection is in line with previous winners, all of whom have been on the challenging end of contemporary art. Jorge Pardo, the 2001 Lucelia winner, makes slick design objects he presents as art; Liz Larner, the winner in 2002, has shown photographs of petri dishes full of molds; Rirkrit Tiravanija, who won last year, is a performance artist whose work often involves cooking and serving food."

I'd love to know who the "jury of experts" in the committee to select the award winners are. Congratulations to Ms. Walker.

This $25,000 Lucelia Art Award is a national level prize - locally, DC, MD and VA artists can compete for the $14,000 Trawick Prize.

Vanity galleries

A vanity gallery is an art gallery that "rents" its space to artists in order for the artist to have a show. Thus, the main driver in having a show at a vanity gallery is not necessarily the quality of the artwork, but the artist's ability to pay the gallery to host his/her artwork.

New York is crawling with vanity galleries, and the vast majority of European galleries are vanity galleries. In the US however, vanity galleries are often looked down upon by everyone, since they are essentially a "rental" gallery. A knowledgeable art critic or curator knows which galleries in his/her town are vanity galleries, and often ignore them, much like book critics ignore most self-published writers, who use "vanity publishers."

An interesting fact, at least here in Washington, is the fact that I have seen "reputable" galleries which sometimes cross the line and become "charge the artist" galleries or vanity galleries once in a while, as the mighty dollar (or lack thereof) calls.

Sometimes, at Fraser Gallery, we'd get a phone call from an embassy, or from the agent of a Hollywood actor who's also a "painter" or "photographer," or from an individual "artist," and they'll ask us how much would we charge to host a show by their "artist."

When we'd inform them that we do not rent the gallery for artists to have shows, they'd thank us and hang up. Then a few months later I'd see that "Hollywood artist" or "embassy artist" exhibiting in one of the area's "reputable" art galleries, and immediately recognize that - at least for that month - that gallery is making ends meet by renting the space to someone.

While I understand that most galleries are labors of love, and often run by the skin of one's teeth, I still find it somewhat distasteful, and dishonest - to appear (on the surface) to be a gallery that shows work based on merit, while at the same time showing work based on an artist, or a corporation's ability to pay.

And it's not just commercial art spaces. Several years ago, the WCP profiled a then a local non-profit, which inadvertently admitted charging a multinational corporation a hefty fee to put up an art show at the "reputable" non-profit art spaces.

One can even make the case that even some museums sometimes cross the line and become "vanity museums."

A few years ago I was astounded when a Culture Minister from one of the embassies in DC told me that they had finished a deal with a local museum to host the first ever retrospective of one of that country's artists for a fee of four million dollars! To him, it was "business as usual," while to me it was distasteful and dishonest and left a bad taste in my mouth about that museum for the longest time.

Do you want to know what Magdalenian Art is?

Charles Downey, at Ionarts, has the best review that I've read so far on The Passion of The Christ.