Call for Artists

DC gallerina Kristina Bilonick has taken on a new extra-curricular gig: organizing a monthly outdoor arts market that will take place at the Ballston Metro on the second Saturdays June - October.

It's called the Ballston Arts + Crafts Market, and she's just created a blog where she's posted the call for artists and will eventually post info on the selected artists, live music and other activities surrounding the monthly event. The blog is here.

Kristina says that so far she's received a lot of jewelry and pottery submissions, but they're also looking for fine art, photography, woodworking, indy fashions, etc...

Contact Kristina at kbilonick at earthlink.net.

Wanna go to a Philly opening tonight?

Kay Hwang and Jackie Tileston open tonight at one of my favorite Philly galleries, Pentimenti Gallery.

The reception for the artists is tonight, Friday, March 16 from 6 - 8 p.m. The exhibition goes through April 28, 2007.

DCist Exposed

By Katie Tuss

Today is the last day to take in DCist Exposed on view at the Warehouse Art Gallery on 7th Street NW. Organized by the indispensable purveyors of capital city activity at the blog of the same name, DCist Exposed highlights the work of 38 metro area photographers and their unique interpretations of all that the district has to offer.

DCist Exposed is the first gallery exhibition organized by DCist and the debut show for many of the featured artists. The Guy Who Powerwashes Your Gravestone, by Thomas Anderson, juxtaposes the daily brush with the grave and serious, as a worker at Arlington National Cemetery cleans the headstones. John Ulaszek’s DC Park Police captures a mounted cop indulging in a red lollipop while surveying a ubiquitous Washington protest.

The diverse images were selected from a pool of over 200 submissions to Flickr.com, the photo sharing website that DCist regularly uses to supply its images. Stop by the Warehouse for a TGIF beer and experience neighborhood stalwarts in a new light.

The gallery is open from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m.

Save the date!

Cause and Effect: What Impact Does Art in the Workplace Have on the Workforce? is a panel at The Phillips Collection on Thursday, March 29, 2007 from 8:45-10:45am (8:45-9:20 Registration/Continental Breakfast; 9:25-10:45 Forum).

Following the forum, participants are invited to tour The Phillips Collection. $35 Registration Required - details here.

Presenters are:

- Paul Boulis, president, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Illinois & Chairman of Arts & Business Council of Chicago, Illinois

- James Fitzpatrick, senior partner & chair of Art Committee, Arnold & Porter; Trustee, The Phillips Collection

- Abel Lopez, chair, Creative Communities for Community Foundation for the National Capital Region.

The Moderator is Glen Howard, President of Strategic Philanthropy Advisors.

Two new Smithsonian American Art Museum curators

The Smithsonian American Art Museum has appointed two new curators. The Consulting Senior Curator for Film and Media Arts is John Hanhardt and The James Dicke Curator of Contemporary Art is Joanna Marsh.

Hanhardt will be responsible for a media arts initiative at the museum which includes acquisitions, exhibitions, educational programs and archival research resources related to film, video and the media arts. Marsh will be responsible for research, exhibitions and acquisitions related to the museum's growing contemporary collection.

Hanhardt was the senior curator of film and media arts at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York City from 1996 until last year. From 1974 to 1996, he was curator and head of the film and video department at the Whitney Museum of American Art. Before that, he established the film department and film study collection at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, Minn.

Marsh comes to the museum from the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art in Hartford, Conn. where she currently is the Associate Curator of Contemporary Art. She will report to the SAAM on April 30, 2007; Hanhardt is already there.

Wanna go to a MICA multi-studio opening tomorrow?

Accompanying the annual series of thesis exhibitions at Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA), 31 first-year candidates in MICA’s master of fine arts (M.F.A) programs are featured in a parallel series of group exhibitions. First-Year MFA I, II, and III Exhibitions showcase works by students from the College’s Hoffberger School of Painting, Mount Royal School of Art, Rinehart School of Sculpture, and photography and digital imaging program. The exhibitions take place in Bunting Center’s Pinkard Gallery (1401 Mount Royal Avenue), in Baltimore.

First-Year MFA I Exhibition runs Friday, March 16 through Sunday, March 25, with an opening reception on Friday, March 16, 5–7 p.m., and open studios on Friday, March 16, 7–9 p.m. The 11 students exhibiting are Mount Royal School of Art students Meaghan Harrison, Jimmy Roche, Mary Tait, and Courtney Wrenn (Scrapworm); Rinehart School of Sculpture students Sebastian Martorana and Virginia Warwick; Hoffberger School of Painting students Jessie Boyko, Alan Reid, and Justin Storms; and photography and digital imaging program students Sarah Jablecki and Christine Tran.

Role of Criticism Today

David Waddell over at ARTifice reports on the "Role of Criticism Today," panel discussion that took place at the Provisions Library in Dupont Circle in DC last Wednesday.

You have to read this.