The Maryland Art Place (MAP) in Baltimore announces its 19th Annual Critics’ Residency Program. The deadline for the application materials (available at www.mdartplace.org) must be delivered to MAP by 5pm August 31, 2004.

Selected artists will participate in studio visits with New York art critic, Franklin Sirmans, and the selected writers during one weekend in October 2004. Also, selected writers will accompany Sirmans during these studio visits and participate in writing workshops. Throughout the program, all participants will engage in dialogues with each other and during the concluding exhibition and Forum in April, will expand that discussion with each other and the community.

Franklin Sirmans is MAP’s 19th Annual Critic in Residence. Sirmans was invited to participate as the critic and curator in this unique opportunity for artists and writers. An independent curator, freelance writer, editor and lecturer based in New York City, Sirmans is the former US editor of Flash Art and Editor-in-Chief of Art Asia Pacific magazines. He has published widely, including The New York Times, Art in America, and Artnews, and has curated exhibitions in Europe, Asia and North America. These exhibitions include: One Planet Under a Groove, (co-curator: Bronx Museum of the Arts, New York; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; Spelman College Art Gallery, Atlanta; Museum Villa Stuck, Munich); A Moment’s Notice (Houston), Americas Remixed (Milan), Mass Appeal (Ottawa, Montreal, Halifax), Rumors of War, New Wave, Paradise 8 (co-curator, Exit Art) among many others.

For more information, contact Lisa Lewenz (email her here) or call her at 410-962-8565.

The Mexican Cultural Institute, located in one of Washington's most beautiful buildings and boasting a really good exhibition space, will exhibit The Dream of Earth: 21st Century Tendencies in Mexican Sculpture, a collection of sculptures by six renowned Mexican contemporary clay sculptors: Gerardo Azcúnaga, Adriana Margáin, Javier Marín, Miriam Medrez, Maribel Portela and Paloma Torres.

The exhibit will be held from September 14th through November 24th. The Institute is located on 2829 16th Street, NW, Washington, DC 20009.

Los Angeles Center For Digital Art Call for Artists...

Deadline for entries: September 5, 2004

LACDA announces an open call for their un-juried show featuring digital art and photography: "Snap to Grid."

All entries will be printed (8.5"x11" on Epson heavyweight matte paper) and shown in their gallery arranged in a grid. Note to artists: This is an open competition, which means exactly that: ALL entries will be accepted and shown.

Entrants submit one JPEG file of original work. All styles of 2D artwork and photography where digital processes of any kind were integral to the creation of the images are acceptable. Digital video stills and screen shots of web/new media are acceptable.

Prior to and after the exhibition the images and artist information will be available to gallery visitors to view in their artist portfolios. Prints can be made available to buyers on an as needed basis. Artwork for future exhibits will be selected from the portfolios, and will also be available for review by area gallerists, curators and arts journalists.

Show Dates: September 9-October 1, 2004 and the registration fee is $30. Submission Rules: Registration and submission are done through their web site only. File uploads are the only accepted submissions and are maximum of 2MB each and not exceed 1024x768 pixels in dimensions.

For official announcement, click here and for submission follow this link.

The Bethesda Arts & Entertainment District invites everyone to The Trawick Prize: Bethesda Contemporary Art Awards exhibition featuring the competition’s finalists.

The finalists' works will be displayed at Creative Partners Gallery, 4600 East-West Highway, Bethesda. Fifteen finalists compete for $14,000 in prize money; The Best in Show winner $10,000; 2nd place $2,000; 3rd place $1,000. A "Young Artist" whose birth date is after June 2, 1974 will also be awarded $1000 that the Fraser Gallery sponsors. Gallery Hours: Tue-Sat, 12-6pm. 301-215-6660.

Congratulations to the fifteen finalists: Marci Branagan, Baltimore, MD; Graham Caldwell, Washington, D.C.; Annet Couwenberg, Baltimore, MD; Susan Eder & Craig Dennis, Falls Church, VA; Suzanna Fields, Richmond, VA; Bernhard Hildebrandt, Baltimore, MD; Brandon Morse, Takoma Park, MD; David Page, Baltimore, MD; Randi Reiss-McCormack, Lutherville, MD; Marie Ringwald, Washington, D.C.; Jo Smail, Baltimore, MD; Jeff Spaulding, Bethesda, MD; Daniel Sullivan, Baltimore, MD; J. L. Stewart Watson, Baltimore, MD and John Watson, Washington, D.C.

Looking for studio space?

Affordable artists' studios at A. Salon, 6925 Willow St. NW, DC. Prices from 190 sq.ft. at $200 month to 970 sq.ft.at $1022 per month, utilities included. Shown Wednesdays 6-8pm. Call 202-882-0740. Website here and then click on A. Salon

This area arts activist and collector puts her money where her mouth is.

We need a lot more people like her to add to the Prize.

DCist reveals that grounds for a new area museum was broken last week.

It is the Negro Leagues Hall of Fame Museum.

While Jackie Robinson was the first African American player to play in the U.S. Major Leagues, and a true hero and trailblazer, I submit that this player was the first man of African ancestry to play in the US Major Leagues. He has been all but ignored by historians and his significant sacrifices and accomplishments remain in the dustbins of baseball history.

His debut, with the Washington Senators, was in 1935.