Grants for Artists

The LEF Foundation accepts grants applications on an ongoing basis. They offer funding for contemporary works in the visual arts, performing arts, literary arts, architecture, design, film and new media. The intent of the grants are to provide opportunities to produce and present new work; to honor creative merit and foster critical discourse; encourage dissemination of work by emerging and under-recognized artists; increase exposure of established artists in regions where they have not been widely represented; to promote new concepts, technologies, and approaches that are experimental or innovative; to support work that may be considered controversial or provocative; and to enhance the voices of marginalized cultures. Interested applicants should send a one page Letter of Intent. For more information or program guidelines, contact:

LEF Foundation
945 Greene St.
San Francisco, CA 94133

Wanna go to nude body painting opening in DC this Friday?

On Friday, March 16, 2007, the five Canal Square Galleries in Georgetown (Parish, Alla Rogers, Rebecca Cross, Anne Fisher and MOCA DC) have their usual 3rd Friday Georgetown openings and MOCA DC is hosting its Erotica 2007 show opening starting at 6 pm until the beer and wine runs out. They will also have a nude body painting event (three females and three males) as part of the festivities.

Oh yeah! The event is free and open to the public.

Jasper Johns and Target

Adam Benforado (identified as "a lawyer and art history buff") writes a really insightful and sensitive piece for the WaPo on corporate sponsorship of art, an issue which has been largely ignored by most art critics, writers and other artworld symbiots.

Currently hanging outside the East Wing of the National Gallery is a large banner of Jasper Johns's 1955 "Target With Four Faces," advertising a show celebrating the first decade of his work. The painting is dominated by the title motif: a blue dot surrounded by four concentric circles of alternating yellow and blue. Walking in recently, I joked to my companion that I was surprised that Target wasn't sponsoring the show.

Out of the mouths of babes . . .

It turns out Target is sponsoring it, "proudly," in fact.

Offering financial backing to the exhibition was undoubtedly a savvy move for Target. After all, the show is filled with paintings that, though they aren't red and white, evoke Target's corporate logo. Johns's targets also appear on the exhibition catalogue and posters for sale in the gift shop. On the busy Sunday I was there, hundreds of people were strolling through, staring intently at various depictions of an image that has been engrained in our heads as standing for one of America's most powerful and successful companies.

And then Adam Benforado offers up a solution:

First, if we care about art -- if we value it as a social good -- we must increase public funding so that museum directors and artists can remain independent. While the United States is unlikely to shift to the centralized European model of art sponsorship, the federal government's stingy arts budget could be increased without any of us feeling much of a bite in our pocketbooks.

Second, we should demand that corporations give money to art galleries without sponsoring particular shows. If Target is really committed to "arts and education," as it says in the Johns show brochure, then it should be just as satisfied with its donation going to support the excellent exhibit on Rembrandt's prints and drawings in the adjoining building.

Or the operating budget for the WPA/C, or finding a place for the Wyeth mural, etc. My kudos to Adam. Read the whole article here.

Sight Scene

Several writers from the WaPo Express have been surveying the DC area art scene including some good postings by SSGT Capps and Kriston & Co. have been doing an excellent job. His most recent survey of some terrific DC area shows is here.

On the Lot

My good friend, the very talented Jon Gann has applied for a new reality TV show called "On the Lot." This American Idol styled show will involve 16 filmmakers from across the country competing for a $1 million development deal at Dreamworks. The show is a co-production of Steven Spielberg, Mark Burnett (Survivor) and FOX, and is scheduled to air in May.

The show's producers have finally uploaded Gann's 2004 award-winning film, "Signs" as a sample of his work.

We can help: Please visit a web site that Gann has put together at PutJonOnTV.com. The site has information on how you can register, watch his film, rate it, and leave a comment on his blog. By participating in this process, we can all help increase his chances of getting the interview that he needs to be cast.

Randall School renovation discussions

The Southwest advisory neighborhood commission draft agenda for its March 12 meeting has a discussion on the Randall School renovation issue.

For interested artists and other interested parties, the meeting begins at 7 p.m. on March 12 at 25 M St., SW. For more information, call (202) 554-1795.

A Breath of Fresh Art Writing

One of the most pleasantly shocking things to unexpectedly find in the Washington Post's Style section on a Monday morning is a huge profile by the WaPo's chief art critic of a DC area artist.

Gopnik profiles DC area glass sculptor Graham Caldwell, whose show at G Fine Art runs through March 31, 2007. We also learn that Graham, is apparently soon leaving the DC area and heading back to NYC as well as the fact that "Caldwell, normally a trendy dresser -- a shy smile, slight build and artfully tousled hair give him teen-idol looks -- is in old khakis and a scruffy shirt."

This is the first time in my memory that I recall the WaPo profiling a living DC area artist; usually such profiles come in the form of an obit-type article. Kudos to Gopnik.