Adams Morgan Day Festival

There are still a few booth spaces left for the annual Belmont Street art show, a key part of the annual Adams Morgan Day Festival. This year's show is one day only, Sunday, September 12th, from 10 am to 6 pm. It always draws a great crowd and features a fun group of local artists. For more information and an application, please contact Michele Banks at (202) 625-6249 or email her at miche@null.net.

Success as an Artist Seminar offered on August 8, 2004.

Almost as soon as we opened our first gallery in Georgetown in 1996, artists began pouring in seeking representation. This continues to this day, and between visits, emails, packages in the mail, etc. we generally receive around 600-800 inquiries a year.

Because we obviously cannot represent or sell the work of such a huge number of artists, a lot of good, talented artists are turned away, after we have recommended follow on steps on what to do. However, in our first few months, Catriona soon discovered that she was spending most of her of time with emerging artists discussing many of the same things over and over, which generally consisted of giving out career advice about such things as gallery representation, contracts, grants, competitions, resumes, etc.

This was not only time consuming with scheduled appointments, but many unscheduled visits caused her to spend several hours a day just meeting with artists and essentially passing out the same information, over and over.

Then her mother came out with a brilliant idea: Why not come up with a structured, formal seminar for emerging artists to pass out this information as well as other important information. Not theory, not review of artwork, but practical advice, usable handouts and a forum to answer questions all at once.

We held our first seminar in 1999 – it was supposed to run for four hours but it ran for seven. So eventually we changed it to a full day, seven hour seminar, and have now presented it to over 1,000 artists and art administrators from nearly every Mid Atlantic state – with attendees coming from as far north as New York and as far south as South Carolina.

It has been spectacularly successful in offering practical business advice to the emerging artist on many areas not covered by any art school curriculum that we know of. The information, advice and details taught at the seminar are not based on theory, but on actual practical experience and hands-on effects. That’s why it has been so successful!

The seminar lasts for seven hours and is now offered twice a year. It costs $80 and the next one is scheduled for August 8, from noon to 7 PM at our Bethesda gallery. Interested artists can read more details or print a registration form online at www.thefrasergallery.com/seminars.html or just call Catriona at 301/718-9651.

The seminar is held at the Fraser Gallery of Bethesda, located at 7700 Wisconsin Avenue, Suite E, in Bethesda. The gallery is one block from the Bethesda Metro stop on the Red Line. Ample free parking is also available.

The Corcoran in the news...

The New York Times. Writer Carol Vogel interviews David C. Levy, profiling the Corcoran's planned renovation and new Gehry wing in Inside Art: Corcoran to Expand.

The Washington Post's art critic Michael O'Sullivan reviews In Search of Self: Paintings and Drawings by Anil Revri, lauding Revri's "shimmering, meditative abstractions" as "vertiginous and thrilling."

Metro Herald. In the newspaper's center spread, writer P.J. Robinson applauds the juxtaposition of three exhibitions at the Corcoran (The Eyes of History 2004, Sally Mann: What Remains and In Search of Self: Paintings and Drawings by Anil Revri) as a "powerful trio" that ultimately "gives us hope."

On the Line: machines, maps, and memory, curated by Karey Kessler and Pat Goslee is at Maryland Art Place from August 3 through September 11, 2004.

Each artist uses the idea of memory as a map-making machine, recording places both seen and unseen, nightmarish and utopian, hallucinatory and real. Artists included in the exhibition are Andy Holtin, Andrew Krieger, Walter Ratzat, Scott Reynolds, Dylan Scholinski, Perry Steindel, Jennifer Swan, Katy Uravitch, and Sylvie van Helden.

There's a gallery talk on Thursday, September 9, from 6-7 pm and a closing reception on Thursday, September 9, from 7-9 pm.

On the Line: machines, maps and memory first appeared at the District of Columbia Arts Center (DCAC) in Washington DC. The show ran from April 30-May 30, 2004. Curators Karey Kessler and Pat Goslee are both well-known Washington area artists who have formed a Visual Arts Committee with DCAC Board Member Philip Barlow to raise the quality of gallery installations, and expose new artists through exposure at DCAC. The Curators’ Incubator at MAP allowed for a broader exploration of the theme and a second venue in Baltimore.

National Cherry Blossom Festival Call for Artists.

Deadline: August 31, 2004.

Presented by the National Cherry Blossom Festival. Open to all artists painting in any 2D media (oil, water media, acrylic, casein, pastel, pencil, mixed media, collage, other) or working in digital arts. Each year the festival holds a poster contest to select a new image that expresses goodwill between the United States and Japan which incorporates the delicate flowering cherry blossoms. Artwork should associate the theme(s): the cherry blossoms, the beauty and the people of contemporary and historic Japan and Washington DC, and the amity and friendship between the two countries.

Max size: 8x10 inches, vertical orientation. The cherry blossom trees that surround the Washington, DC Tidal Basin were a gift from the people of Japan in 1912. The tradition of a Cherry Blossom Festival to mark the arrival of spring in Washington, DC began in 1935.

Prizes include $1,000, tickets to certain events, 2-night stay in a local D.C. hotel, and more. There is no entry fee.

A prospectus is available for viewing on their website. Address: National Cherry Blossom Festival, 2005 Art Contest, 1250 H Street, NW Suite 1000, Washington, DC 20005 USA. Phone: 202.661.7584 Email: ncbf@downtowndc.org Website: www.nationalcherryblossomfestival.org

Opportunity for Photographers

Deadline: August 15, 2004

Washington Gallery of Photography Second Annual National Juried Gallery Show and Exhibition. The Washington School of Photography presents its second annual National Juried Gallery Show and Exhibition, October 8 to November 8, 2004. All photographic works from residents of any state or territory are eligible. Slides are due August 15, opening is October 8. Cash and exhibit opportunities awarded. Prospectus can be downloaded here or SASE to: WGP/WSP, 4850 Rugby Avenue, Bethesda, MD 20814.

Gallery closing

I am told that the Elizabeth Roberts Gallery will be closing in the near future as Miss Roberts is getting married and moving away.

Congratulations to Elizabeth and we hope that the building (which previously housed the Anton Gallery for many years) remains in use as a gallery space.