Muffled thoughts on grants

In the years that I served in the advisory panels for the District of Columbia Commission on the Arts and Humanities, I confirmed an interesting paradox that exists in the world of grant-giving when it comes to individual artists.

Arts organizations are usually registered as non-profit status organizations, and they rely on philanthropy and grants in order to operate - some gather a few thousand dollars each year, other millions.

Meanwhile, individual artists usually have to rely on their paychecks from their non-arts related day jobs, or teach in order to get a reliable source of income, since they are mostly ineligible to get direct financial support from grant-giving organizations because they are not incorporated with the state, city or federal government as a not-for-profit organization.

Although there are notable exceptions, a quick scan of the Foundation Center database reveals that most visual arts focused foundations in the US restrict their arts funding to not-for-profits.

That immediately also reveals a paradoxical disparity in grant giving to the people who create art and the people who put it on walls.

Around the area, DCCAH, the Maryland State Arts Council, the Heinz Endowments and others do offer individual financial grants for artists, but they are some others are the exception, rather than the rule.

And certainly missing is the individual donor, who may hand out millions at once to a museum or arts organization, but seldom sets up an organization (such as Andy Warhol did with Creative Capital) to hand out financial support directly to artists.

Update: As if to underscore my point, I am told that Heinz Endowments no longer gives grants to indovidual artists.

Tony Podesta's Favorite Artwork

Tony and Heather Podesta are two of the top rare ubercollectors from the DC area, and Tony responds to my request for readers' favorite artworks.

Tony writes that his favorite work is an oil painting by Julie Roberts called Teenage Suicide.

Teenage Suicide by Julie Roberts

Congrats!

To one of my favorite DC area artists, Linn Meyers, whose two-person show with Miriam Cabessa opened earlier this month at the Lyons Wier - Ortt Gallery in NYC.

New Art Blog

Bethesda Art Blog is a new colleague on the Greater DC area artblogsphere and they've already delivering much needed art writing focused on Bethesda art galleries.

Here BAB mini-reviews the "Committed" show at Fraser Gallery and then here BAB says good stuff about Fiona Ross in the same show.

And here is a review of Ivan Depena at Heineman Myers.

Wanna go to an opening today?

Then head out to the Greater Reston Arts Center in Reston, VA where from 4-6 pm on Sunday January 13th there will be an opening reception for the exhibition of new works by Anna Fine Foer and Sonya A. Lawyer.

Before the reception at GRACE you can swing by the Reston Community Center at Lake Anne, where from 2-4 PM there will be a reception for the paintings and prints of Ann Barbieri, Cora Rupp, Dana Scheurer, and Connie Slack.

And later this week, on January 17 you can join me at GRACE for a talk on contemporary art. Details here.

National Defense

"National Defense Test" Watercolor on Paper, c. 1999, 3 x 8 inches
By F. Lennox Campello

This preparatory painting was done in preparation for a painting exhibited in 2000 at the "Strictly Painting III" Exhibition at the McLean Project for the Arts in McLean, Virginia. The exhibition was curated by Terrie Sultan, then Curator of Contemporary Art, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC.

This original watercolor is available at Color Invitations currently on exhibition at the R Street Gallery. Call (202) 588-1701 if you want to purchase this painting ahead of the opening, which will be on January 16 from 6-8PM.

Blogger Show Reviews

The Blogger Show in Pittsburgh and New York has been getting quite a few reviews both in the printed press and the artblogsphere. The show closes today.

In the spirit of me, I wanted to point out the nice things that the Pittsburgh City Paper's Lissa Brennan wrote about this blog.