Me in the CP

Me in the Washington City Paper.

Let's see how many Incas get pissed off at being called Maya.

Openings

Thursday, March 9 - New works by Ed Cooper at Susan Calloway Fine Arts. Opening reception is Thursday, March 9, from 6-8:30pm.

Friday, March 10 - The Bethesda Art Walk from 6-9PM with 12 participating galleries, art venues and studios. Free guided tours begin at 6:30pm. Attendees can meet their guide at the Bethesda Metro Center, located at the corner of Old Georgetown Road and Wisconsin Avenue. Attendees do not have to participate in tours to visit Art Walk galleries. On exhibition we have the IV Annual Bethesda International Photography Competition.

Saturday, March 11 - Open Studios at Load of Fun (formerly Lombard Office Furniture) located at 122 West North Avenue in Baltimore. Includes work by painters Gloria Mack, Jerry Prettyman, Bart O'Reilly, Daniel Stuelpnagel and others. They will have numerous paintings on display and will provide refreshments and information about future events in the Station North Arts District. From Noon until 4:00pm.

Saturday, March 11 - "Little Differences" at 87Florida, which is a new art venue located at 1st and Florida NW, and their grand opening reception is Saturday, March 11 from 5-7 pm.

Saturday, March 11 - "Sweet and Sour" juried art show at the Capitol Hill Arts Workshop with a opening reception from 5-7PM.

Sunday, March 12 - Photographs by Danny Conant and Colleen Spencer at Multiple Exposures Gallery (inside the Torpedo Factory) in Alexandria. Opening reception 2-4PM.

Thursday, March 16 - Roxanne’s ARTiques, located at 3426 9th Street NE, on Historic Brookland’s emerging Gallery Row and across the street from the neighborhood landmark Colonel Brooks Tavern, will feature original prints by artist and professor George H. Smith-Shomari. An opening reception will be held from 6 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. on Thursday, March 16th. A graduate of Howard University and the Pratt Institute, where he worked under Jacob Lawrence, Professor George Smith-Shomari has taught printmaking and African-American art history at the University of the District of Columbia for 26 years.

Saturday, March 18 - Itsy Bitsy Bollocks at Transformer. Featuring the work of artists Mr. Eggs, Mark Jenkins, Travis Millard, and Kelly Towles. Opening Reception on Saturday, March 18, 2006, 7-9 pm. The show runs through April 22, 2006. There's an artists' talk on Sunday, March 19, 2006, at 3 pm.

Saturday, March 18 - "Other Than Art," curated by Milena Kalinovska (who is the Program Manager for the Education Department at the Hirshhorn Museum) and on view at three different District art venues: Provisions Library, at Curator's Office and at G Fine Art. Kalinovska selected the following artists: Siemon Allen, Allora & Calzadilla, Kendall Buster, Richard Chartier, Carlos Garaicoa, Linda Hesh, Virgil Marti, Ivan Navarro, Olaf Nicolai, Lucy Orta, Jorge Pardo, Marjetica Potrc, Elissa Slevy, Do-Ho Suh, and Atelier van Leishout.

Friday, March 24 - League of Reston Artists (LRA) 2005 Award Winners Exhibition at the University of Phoenix Northern Virginia Campus. This exhibition features award winning artists from 10 exhibitions sponsored by the League of Reston Artists during its 2005 exhibition season. Some of the featured artists include: James W. Bailey (yes that Bailey), Shannon Chester, Pam Coulter, Leo Deege, Helen M. Goodrum, Laura Howell, Susan Isakson, Christine Lashley, Vicki Kirby, Loy McGaughy, Gennara Moore, Edward J. Reed, Irene Renslow, Yelena Rodina, Carla Steckley, and Amie G. Tannenbaum. The exhibition opens Friday, March 17, and runs through Friday, April 28. An opening reception will take place Friday, March 24 from 6:00 – 8:00 pm at the University of Phoenix Northern Virginia Campus, 11730 Plaza America Drive, Suite 200, Reston, Virginia. For directions, see the LRA’s web site at www.leagueofrestonartists.org.

Here we go

Kriston over at g.p. polices my piece on Pete Panse and writes that it would be "disturbing, if true."

Read his case endorsing Panse's suspension here and my comments as well, as I think that Kriston actually helps my case!

Disturbing, period.

Gazette on the Bethesda Art Walk

The Gazette has a nice piece on tomorrow's Bethesda Art Walk.

Read it here.

A little help

DC you're letting me down!

Yesterday I brought you the case of Pete Panse and asked you to sign an online petition to help this gentleman get his job back.

And yet only a handful of DC, MD and VA signatures appear on the petition so far, and most of them are from fellow bloggers.

C'mon! Go here and sign the damn petition!

Art Teacher Suspended for Recommending Figure Drawing Classes

The case of Pete Panse takes the cake and makes our own DC area's antipathy towards nudity in art seem tame by comparison.

Pete Panse is a High School art teacher in Middletown, NY whom we are told uses traditional techniques to train his students.

Last December Mr. Panse was suspended from his teaching job for apparently recommending (that's right: recommending) that some of his advanced students consider taking figure drawing courses that included nude figure drawings.

Panse was suspended from his teaching job pending hearings. Depending on the outcome of these hearings, he may be permanently fired, ending a 25-year teaching career. Panse is a National Board Certified Teacher (in Adolescent and Young Adult Art), the highest level of certification that a teacher can achieve in America. He is also one of only two National Board Certified Teachers in his New York District, and "is a trained Facilitator for helping teachers explore and pursue the requirements needed to achieve National Board Certification."

According to this excellent summary by Brian Yoder:

"In his discussions with students Mr. Panse mentioned several options for advancing their figure drawing skills; the local community college, a nearby frame shop that sponsors art classes, and the prestigious New York Academy of Art. He also described pre-college figure drawing programs at several other New York City art schools, and a highly successful art college prep program called the Mill Street Loft.

In addition to these established courses, Mr. Panse also indicated that he was considering the possibility of offering an intensive figure drawing program of his own (8 hours a day every Saturday for 35 weeks). This proposed course would also be open to area art teachers, and would have required that parents serve as chaperones to ensure a strong adult presence. Ultimately, Mr. Panse was unable to locate inexpensive space for a studio and was prevented from carrying out his plan because of the controversy that erupted over the proposal.

Panse told his students that if his own figure drawing class materialized, he would be obligated to submit any advertisement to the school principal for approval, and that a denial might preclude him from offering the course to his own students, for their consideration."

It was the mention, or discussion of the "possibility" that Panse would offer an intensive figure drawing class, that apparently got him suspended and may get him fired.

As Brian Yoder points out in the article:

"This seems particularly odd, since the ninth grade art history survey course includes dozens of images of nudes. Mr. Panse's students had completed that unit previously, and are now upperclassmen.

Moreover, art teachers are required to speak of career options in the art field, what training is required, and how students might prepare for art school, so according to the official school policy, art teachers are required to show nude images to their students and are required to tell them about nude figure drawing courses that they might enroll in."

And Yoder further clarifies that:

"Just to be clear about the charges in this case, it is worth mentioning what Mr. Panse is not being accused of.

He is not being accused of recommending that these students attend these classes without parental permission or without proper supervision and chaperones.

He is not even being accused of carrying out any figure drawing courses, only of recommending them and proposing that he offer such a course.

Nobody is accusing him of forcing anyone to go to these sessions and indeed, neither the four students who attended the sessions last summer nor their parents have any complaints at all about the experience.

Nobody is claiming that anything unsavory was going on in any of these figure drawing sessions, involving Mr. Panse, Academy instructors, his students, the models, other artists, or anyone else."

What can we do?

Write Letters of Support: Letters of support (especially if you have some kind of professional qualifications) will help bolster Mr. Panse’s case. In order to prevent a flood of mail from overcoming Mr. Panse, Brian Yoder has volunteered to collect the letters and deliver them to Mr. Panse in bulk. You can send letters to him at:
Brian Yoder
972 Cornell Road
Pasadena, CA 91106

Write to the Board of Education:
Middletown School District Board of Education
223 Wisner Avenue
Middletown, NY 10940

Sign the online petition:
ArtRenewal.org has created an online petition at this website for supporters to sign. Add your name to the petition as I will.

Read the entire Brian Yoder article here.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH!!!!!

Studio space

The folks over at ArtDC.org have been working hard to get studio space for area artists and Jesse tells me that there is now a great space available.

If you are looking to find studio space and have several artists to work together, then visit 411 New York Ave, NE DC 20002 and ask for Gail on the 4th floor. Be sure to tell them that the ArtDC group with Steve Mead sent you.

It's between 1,000 and 2,000 square feet. Prices up to $1500 a month. It's a great deal for this area. Bathrooms included and space has just been renovated. 4 to 5 artists could fill it well in a building that already has other artists' studios.

Email Jesse for more info.