Montgomery County Local Cultural Policy Forum

What: "Cultural Policy at the Grassroots: The State of the Cultural Community in Montgomery County"

When: Thursday, November 17, 2005, 6:00-9:30 pm

Where: Room 204 Resource Center, Montgomery College, Takoma Park Campus, Takoma Park, MD.

The Center for Arts and Culture, a cultural policy think tank affiliated with George Mason University, the Arts and Humanities Council of Montgomery County, and Montgomery College will hold an evening forum for leaders of the cultural community, private supporters, and local government agencies.

The theme of the forum, "Cultural Policy at the Grassroots: The State of the Cultural Community in Montgomery County," will revisit the County Cultural Plan, now five years in action and focus on three primary issues: (1) individual artists and scholars, (2) partnerships, and (3) ethnic diversity.

The purpose of the forum is to discuss these issues with outside experts and move to a consensus on future action steps for the County. Local cultural leaders as well as speakers from outside of the Washington region will participate in moderated panel discussions. This event is a part of a series of cultural policy forums being held in the Washington region.

The forum is free and open to the public, however, seating is limited. For more information about this event or to RSVP, please contact Susie Leong at sleong@culturalpolicy.org.

More information about this project can be found at the Center’s website.

Need a job?

The Arlington Arts Center, a leading contemporary visual arts center located in Arlington, VA, is seeking a part time administrative coordinator. Responsibilities include maintaining database, keeping membership records, coordinating class registration, and organizing exhibition materials and artist applications. This position involves regular public interaction in person and on the phone.

An ideal candidate will be well-organized with an ability to work on different projects simultaneously. A working knowledge of all Microsoft Office Suite programs is essential (particularly Access and Excel), previous experience/internship in an arts organization desirable.

This is a 20-hour/week hourly position. Schedule is flexible, but some evenings and occasional Saturdays are required. Interested candidates should submit a cover letter and resume via fax to: 703-248-6849 or via e-mail at info@arlingtonartscenter.org. No phone calls, please.

Mid City Artists Open Studios

The next Mid City Artists Open Studios will be held this weekend (November 12 and 13). During Open Studios, many artist studios within walking distance of the Dupont/Logan Circles will be open for visitors.

I also hear that Wendy Rieger of NBC News will cover the Mid City Artists Open Studios on NEWS4 at 5pm, Friday and on Saturday morning. Watch for the newscast!

Details of the open studios here.

Airborne really early tomorrow morning and heading back home with a ton of stuff to post and discuss!

Galleries move to Saturday

The WaPo tells me that the reason for the move of the galleries column to Saturdays is that color is available on page two on Saturdays.

They also said that they "hope that one day we'll have a second galleries columnist, but that's currently on hold."

A new level

At the airport last night I pilfered a discarded Sunday WaPo and discovered that the Chief Art Critic of the WaPo now has a new category of artists: barely emerging!

As far as I can remember, artists have unfortunately been referred to as: emerging, mid-career and established. Even those terms are kind of silly, but make somewhat sense.

But in this mention of the current show at Curator's Office, Gopnik tags DC artist Kathryn Cornelius as a "barely emerging" artist.

As everyone else knows, Kathryn Cornelius has exhibited extensively in the DC area, (and most recently in NYC), was the subject of a profile in the Washington Post Express while she was sort of a leading arts activist student at Georgetown, and her work was recently acquired by the Heather and Tony Podesta collecting team at Seven.

Could we at least consider her an "emerging artist?" Methinks Kathryn passed this new "barely emerging" stage a while back.

Ahhh! the silly things we artsy folks argue about...

Tate is the word that we've heard (part II)

Last night I headed off to the Left Coast again, and I am now looking at the Pacific, but hope to be back in time for Tim Tate's opening of his third solo show with us. The opening is Friday, November 11, 2005 at Fraser Bethesda.

This show comes in the wake of two sold out earlier solo shows in 2003 in Georgetown and 2004 in Bethesda, as well as the immensely successful "Compelled by Content" show that Tate curated for us.

And in my obviously biased opinion, this promises to be the best exhibition yet by one of Washington's best-known artists and a leading and very involved member of our arts community.

Tate has absolutely been driven in creating new work for his show, probably because he's under extreme pressure as he's getting kicked out of the spaces that the Washington Glass School (of which Tate is the co-director) occupies. The School is being kicked out as part of the eminent domain scam that allows the city to kick out the people that they attracted to the neighborhood a few years ago, but that they now need to build a stadium for the Nats.

And Tate, who hates being called a "glass artist," nonetheless continues to break new ground (and a lot of glass in the process) by continuing to add and expand a new vocabulary to the glass genre: A vocabulary made of a narrative content that requires an understanding of what the artist wants to express.

In doing so, Tate has absolutely changed and refined his art and vision, a change that was first kindled by the death of his mother, which he expressed by an obsessive desire to create small, beautiful glass hearts, which have nothing to do with religion, but childhood memories of JFK imagery in his home and a receptacle for memory.

In another new series of glass slices that project from the walls, encased in steel, Tate offers us Cryptologic clues to events, influences, social and political statements, as well as the ever-present dialogue about disease and recovery.

Tate, who is HIV-positive, thus continues to incorporate his daily issue with HIV and AIDS into these works, some of which represent his own ideas of surviving the disease. In the wall glass slices, the narrative panels and the reliquaries, are hidden clues and figures that offer a constant desire for a cure that refuses to come into focus.

Don't miss this show. The opening reception is Friday, November 11 from 6-9PM at Fraser Bethesda.