Tomorrow and until Sunday is the Boardwalk Art Festival in Virginia Beach.

This show is one of the oldest (now in its 49th year) and most competitive outdoor art festivals in the nation. Over 800,000 people from all over the country and overseas will visit the show, which has around 500 artists displaying their art on the new Virginia Beach Boardwalk.

The show also has around $30,000 in prizes and the jurors for this year's show are Dr. Jonathan Binstock from the Corcoran, Michael O'Sullivan from the Washington Post and Chawky Frenn from George Mason University's art faculty.

The Alexandria Commission for the Arts has issued a call for artists to design a new image for the upcoming Alexandria Festival of the Arts to be held September 11 & 12, 2004.

The winning image will be featured on posters and collateral materials publicizing the event. It will also emblazon t-shirts which will be sold at the Festival with proceeds to benefit the Alexandria Commission for the Arts.

Compensation to the winning artist will be $500 and entries must be received by July 12, 2004. Entries may be submitted by mail to the Commission’s offices or by e-mail to AlexandriaCommissisonfortheArts@verizon.net.

The image should be presented in 8 1/2 x 11” format. Concept statements and examples of multiple image applications are encouraged. Individuals may submit up to three unique designs. Name and contact information should be attached to every entry. Entries will be judged on quality and sophistication of expression, conceptual development, typography (if and where applicable) and flexibility of application.

The Alexandria Commission for the Arts reserves the right to alter or excerpt all entries, and design may be reproduced for multiple uses.

Where's Waldo?..... Mix in Green, Dawson, Nikki Lee, Numark, Fusebox, Whitmore, Wilson.... Oy Vey! A bit like Trump wanting to copyright "You're fired!" Or.... "painting is dead."

Just saw The Chronicles of Riddick - Very entertaining! Vin Diesel is really good in it... Does anybody know if Diesel's first name is actually Vehicle Identification Number Diesel? Cough... cough...

Opportunities for artists...

Deadline: July 31, 2004.

The Ruth Chenven Foundation awards up to $1,500 to U.S. crafts artists engaged in or planning a project. For more information, send a SASE to: Ruth Chenven Foundation, 7505 Jackson Ave., Tacoma Park, MD 20912.

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Deadline: July 2, 2004.

Maryland Federation of Art 4th Annual National Landscape Exhibition.

Exhibition scheduled Sept. 10-Oct. 10. Entry fee: $25 for up to 2 slides; $5 for each additional. To request a prospectus, send a SASE to: Dept. 1 MFA Circle Gallery, Box 1866, Annapolis, MD 21404.

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Deadline: September 1, 2004.
Now Accepting Applications for Professional Art Exhibits for Dumbarton Concert Gallery's 2004-2005 Season. The Dumbarton Concert Series, located in historic Dumbarton Church in Georgetown, is accepting applications from DC, MD, and VA artists for the 2004-2005 season.

The Concert Gallery has shown the work of hundreds of outstanding Washington-area artists since its inception in 1981. The artist's opening occurs in conjunction with a one-night concert performance. The exhibit stays up for an average of one week, during which time the gallery is open by appointment. Artists are invited to submit slides either independently or as part of a group. Decisions are made by a jury. Eight shows are installed, October through April. The gallery administration may scedule interviews with finalists prior to final decisions on submissions.

Submission Requirements: Ten to twenty slides in plastic sleeves to include:
1. Name address, phone, email, and curriculum vitae.
2. Dimensions, price, and medium of each piece (if slides aren't the actual pieces that will be hung, they must be an accurate representation thereof).
3. SASE for return of materials.

Mail to: Eric Westbrook, 2325 42nd Street, NW #419, Washington DC 20007.

Additional questions? Call Eric Westbrook at 202 965-0281. The Concert Gallery takes a 25 percent commission. Exhibits are up for an average of one week, with most attendance taking place the night of the concert.

In case you missed it, there was a beautiful review of the Sally Mann show at the Corcoran in the Post last Sunday.

It was written by Henry Allen, the Post's Pulitzer-winning art critic.

The exhibit "Sally Mann: What Remains," featuring more than 150 photographs, will be at the Corcoran Gallery of Art, New York Avenue and 17th Street NW, through Sept. 6. It is beautifully curated by Philip Brookman. The gallery is open every day except Tuesday; hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Sally Mann will be discussing her work next June 24 at the Corcoran. In this very special evening, Ms. Mann speaks, with slides, about her work, including At Twelve and Immediate Family, and her latest exhibition, What Remains. Philip Brookman, Corcoran Senior Curator, Photography and Media Arts, and curator of the show, introduces the artist. The event is sold out!

Blake Gopnik's piece in the Post about the Panda Public Art Project has created an interesting debate. Tony Gittens, Executive Director of the D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities, responds to Gopnik's piece here.

Letters to the Editor from other readers, blasting or praising Blake, can be read here.

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The Washington Post gives our "Contemporary Photography" exhibition in Bethesda a Hot Pick in today's paper. The show features photography by Hugh Shurley, Viktor Koen, Nate Larson, Heidi Marston, Prescott Lassman, Elena Volkov, Joyce Tenneson, Cirenaica Moreira, Marta Maria Perez Bravo, Grace Weston, Rachel Scheron, Elsa Mora, Deborah Nofret Marrero, John DeFabbio, Jan Saudek and others.

You read it here first:

Dr. Carolyn Carr, Deputy Director and Chief Curator of the National Portrait Gallery told me last night that the National Portrait Gallery will soon announce a national portrait competition, held yearly and open to American artists. Unlike the annual BP Portrait Prize Award in Britain, this Portrait Prize will be open to US artists of all ages.

A Dupont Circle gallerist tells me that the former building where Gallery K was located will soon become a high end furniture store. Too bad; we were all hoping that somehow a "new" Gallery K will emerge from the death of its owners.

Another Dupont Circle gallerist tells me that rents around the renovated 14th Street neighborhood have skyrocketed and some gallery moves there have been cancelled as a result.

And yet a third gallerist passes that longtime dealer Sally Troyer will be closing her gallery after this current show.

Washington Post art critic Michael O'Sullivan returns to the Post's Weekend section to review galleries and museums. O'Sullivan had been reviewing movies for a few months.

Heard in the offices of the WCP: Former WCP Arts Editor and critic Glenn Dixon will no longer be writing art reviews for the WCP. Apparently Dixon is busy with other commitments. Hopefully the WCP will find someone to replace Dixon and who will go beyond the two or three museums and four galleries that he usually covered. The WCP's arts coverage, under the guidance of Leonard Roberge, has been doing a consistently outstanding job of covering the arts around town. Interested art critic freelancers should read the guidelines here and then start writing about art!