It is ArtsMedia News: a weekly television program delivering a fresh, vibrant overview of what’s happening in the arts. ArtsMedia News, produced by Global Program Ventures Group LLC, will deliver a robust collection of stories, features, updates and interviews – and provide exposure, promotion and access to the people and organizations who have something to show and tell. Each show will include:
• What’s Happening Where — Notable performance and visual exhibition openings
• Arts News — The latest news in theater, opera, and the visual and performing arts
• On Site Discussions with prominent curators, artists, collectors and critics
• Unique regular features
• Updates from the major auction houses
• The business of art
• How artists create
In January 2005, ArtsMedia News will commence a half-hour weekly program on Thursday nights on MHz Networks, along with the interstitial newsbreaks. National distribution of ArtsMedia News is planned for Spring of 2005.
I will be hosting the visual arts portion of this program, focusing on both visual art shows, interviews with curators, artists and reviews of art shows, as well as the updates from the major auction houses.
Two of the trial programs that I recorded a while back have already been shown extensively both locally and by the BBC. I hope to make this another means to help expand our area's art scene onto a national and international platform.
The best thing for art galleries is more art galleries; the best thing for art is awareness that there's art to be seen and experienced - let's see what happens if this works out.
Wednesday, January 12, 2005
Tuesday, January 11, 2005
Post-AOM Part II
Last weekend the Anne C. Fisher Gallery opened an exhibition based on Anne's pick of her top 10 AOM artists.
And now part II...
This Friday our Bethesda outpost will open an exhibition showcasing the work of the AOM artists who made it to our lists.
The opening will be from 6-9 PM, as part of the Bethesda Art Walk and features both some of the key artwork exhibited at AOM as well as new work created specifically for this show, such as Ira Tattelman's new installation titled They Sheltered Me From Harm and several new pubic hair tapestries by Mark Jenkins (as well as some new plastic men).
Part III the following Friday at Fraser Georgetown as part of the Canal Square Galleries third Friday openings and extended hours.
Opportunity for Artists
Dumbarton Concert Gallery
Deadline for submissions: June 1, 2005
Dumbarton Concert Gallery call for artists for art exhibitions for 2005-2006 season. Deadline for submissions: June 1, 2005. Dumbarton Concert Gallery is accepting applications from MD, DC, and VA artists for the 2005-2006 concert season. The Concert Gallery is operated in conjunction with Dumbarton Concerts, a series of chamber and jazz musical performances held in Georgetown's historic Dumbarton Church.
The artist's opening occurs in conjunction with a one-night concert performance, with an average attendance of 350 people. The exhibit stays up for one and a half weeks, during which time the gallery is open by appointment. Artists can submit slides independently or as a group. Decisions are made by jury. Eight shows will be installed, October 2005 through April 2006.
The gallery takes a 25 percent commission on sales. Submission requirements:
1. Ten to twenty images, on slides or CD
2. Name, address, phone, email, and curriculum vitae.
3. Dimensions, price, and medium of each piece (if pieces shown on slides are not available, they must be an accurate representation of the type of work that will be hung).
4. Enclose SASE for return of materials.
5. Only work that can be hung on walls will be accepted--no free-standing sculpture.
Mail to:
Eric Westbrook
2325 42nd St. NW #419
Washington, DC 20007
Questions? email: Eric here. Notifications: After July 1, 2005
Monday, January 10, 2005
Another GRACE Director bites the dust
Edie McRee Bowles, President and CEO of the Greater Reston Arts Center, has been fired by the Board of Directors.
Former Fairfax County Board of Supervisor, Kate Hanley, has been named interim director of GRACE.
I think the world about GRACE, which is a cultural jewel in that wealthy suburb, and I have curated a show for them, and their Northern Virginia Fine Arts Festival hosted 180 artists and attracted over 60,000 visitors last year, and it is one of the best fine arts festivals in the nation (I am participating in the 2005 version next May).
But there's something wrong at GRACE, or maybe within its Board of Directors (I don't know), as this is their fourth director since Anne Brown was released in August of 2002. That's a clear indication that someone or something (besides the directors) is/are doing something wrong.
It has nothing to do with the visual arts, but...
Congrats to DC area Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Lorraine Adams, whose book Harbor, was rated Fiction Book of the Year in the Entertainment Weekly Best of 2004 issue.
Bravo Ms. Adams!
Opportunity for Artists
Hispanic Heritage Poster Contest
Deadline: February 11, 2005
Washington DC, Maryland and Virginia artists throughout the metropolitan area now have the opportunity to compete for the $2,500 grand prize of the First Annual VEGA Hispanic Yellow Pages Poster Contest sponsored by the VEGA Hispanic Yellow Pages, DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities and The Mayor’s Office on Latino Affairs. The deadline is February 11, 2005.
The poster theme should be the artist’s interpretation or rendition of Hispanic Heritage in the Greater Washington DC Metropolitan Area.
The winning poster will be featured on the front cover of the VEGA Hispanic Yellow Pages. The design may also be used for other promotional items such as billboards, T-shirts, programs, etc. Only one work may be submitted per artist.
For more information contact Jose Dominguez at (202) 724-5614 or email Jose here. You can also download the prospectus here.
Artists need not be Hispanic/Latino/Latins/Spanish/Latin-American/Spaniards/Iberians in order to submit entries (I hope).
Critical Alignment II
In response to my thoughts on Critical Alignment, a friend emailed me a very interesting essay by Dave Eggers (co-founder of the now-defunct Might Magazine and editor of McSweeney's, and author of "A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius").
It is too long to post in its entirety here, but the essence of it can be beautifully distilled to:
"What matters is that you do good work. What matters is that you produce things that are true and will stand. What matters is that the Flaming Lips's new album is ravishing and I've listened to it a thousand times already, sometimes for days on end, and it enriches me and makes me want to save people. What matters is that it will stand forever, long after any narrow-hearted curmudgeons have forgotten their appearance on goddamn 90210.Bravo Mr. Eggers!
What matters is not the perception, nor the fashion, not who's up and who's down, but what someone has done and if they meant it. What matters is that you want to see and make and do, on as grand a scale as you want, regardless of what the tiny voices of tiny people say.
Do not be critics, you people, I beg you. I was a critic and I wish I could take it all back because it came from a smelly and ignorant place in me, and spoke with a voice that was all rage and envy. Do not dismiss a book until you have written one, and do not dismiss a movie until you have made one, and do not dismiss a person until you have met them. It is a fuckload of work to be open-minded and generous and understanding and forgiving and accepting, but Christ, that is what matters. What matters is saying yes."
