Millennium Arts Salon: Scholars Speak

Against the backdrop of the Jacob Lawrence Migration Series (he's one of my former professors and now on view at The Phillips Collection through October 26), three leading scholars on African American art speak:

- Dr. Beth Turner, University Professor at the UVA and curator of two major national traveling exhibitions on Jacob Lawrence, Over the Line: The Art and Life of Jacob Lawrence (2001-03) and The Migration Series (1993-1995) for The Philips Collection, former senior Phillips curator and vice-provost for the arts at the University of Virginia.

- Dr. Leslie King-Hammond, Dean of Graduate Studies and Professor of Art History, at the Maryland Institute College of Art and Chair of the Board of The Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African American History and Culture.

- Dr. David Driskell, an emeritus professor at the University of Maryland, College Park where the David C. Driskell Center of African American and African Diaspora Visual Arts and Culture was founded in his honor, artist, collector, and cited as one of the world's leading authorities on the subject of African American Art.

One scholar asks, the others respond. All reflect on artists of the 20th century and look ahead to artists in the new millennia.

Millennium Arts Salon and The Phillips Collection are jointly sponsoring this event, to be held in the Sant Auditorium at The Phillips Collection, 1600 21st Street, NW, Thursday, May 29th starting at 6:30pm. The cost is free with museum admission.

Early Look Peek

Here's another early peek at another student whose work I've selected for the "Early Look" student exhibition at the Long View Gallery in DC next month.

Her name is Deborah Shapiro and she's a student at Virginia Commonwealth University in Virginia. See more of her work here.


The show opens at Long View Gallery DC on June 7 from 5-8PM.

AOM Panel on "how to price art"

On Thursday May 22, 2008 at 7:30PM at AOM. The panel includes Arthur Mason, lawyer and art collector with his wife Jane Mason, Lee Eagle, Eagle Associates, Collector and Specialist in the DC secondary art market, Zenith Gallery owner, Margery Goldberg, Gallery Directors Amy Cavanaugh and Briony Evans from Honfluer Gallery, and artists Joyce McCarten and Matt Sesow.

They will each offer their own unique perspective on the subject of pricing art. Free and Open to the Public. For more information contact Adah Rose Bitterbaum, Studio Gallery, 202-232-8734. Sponsored by the Washington Project for the Arts.

Tonight is the "Information Overload: Finding Reliable and Useful Information About Art Collecting" panel at 7PM.

It will be moderated by DC ubercollector Dr. Fred Ognibene and will include JW Mahoney, Sharon Burton, Martin Irvine and yours truly.

See ya there!

Rik Freeman at GRACE

Last weekend when I was in Reston I had an opportunity to look at the current GRACE exhibition, the Chittlin' Circuit Review which features the gorgeous paintings of DC area artist Rik Freeman at the Greater Reston Arts Center.

They are powerfully painted, sensual imagery of dancing, singing, sweating, moving, shouting... in a sort of visual musical African American experience.


And on Wednesday May 21 from 7:30 - 9pm (Free and no reservations required) you can join artist Rik Freeman for an insightful and very personal evening of discussion about his work, the Chittlin' Circuit Review.

Participants will be taken on an imaginative journey of blues history and treated to a recitation of his original spoken-word poem The Ballad of the Grit Gal.

I like this course

The course "Gallery and Museum Resources for Contemporary Art" is being offered on both a credit and non-credit basis in the School of Art + Design at Montgomery College, Takoma Park/Silver Spring Campus in MD. It will be taught by Dr. Claudia Rousseau.

It will meet on Wednesdays, 7/9/08 - 8/06/08, all day. Mornings will meet in the new Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation Arts Center at 930 King Street (just off Georgia Ave) for a lecture, followed by field trips to galleries in the afternoon.

Here's the course description in the non-credit tab:

Gallery and Museum Resources for Contemporary Art

Field trips to Washington DC and Montgomery County galleries, museums and art centers will provide a working laboratory for this course which will expose students to contemporary art in the area and to the extraordinary range of resources available for viewing contemporary art. The course will focus on developing a critical approach to modern and contemporary art through understanding of its recent history and current trends. The goal is to make students more confident about individual encounters with contemporary art, especially in gallery settings. Tuition waiver applies; seniors pay fee only.

Course: ART041, 5 sessions, Wed., 7/9-8/6.

For credit the course is listed under ART, School of Art + Design
AR285L Individual Workshop Art History, 3 credits.

Early Look Peek

Here's another early peek at another student whose work I've selected for the "Early Look" student exhibition at the Long View Gallery in DC next month.

His name is Aaron Miller and he's a student at George Mason University in Virginia. Below is "Banana," which will be in the show:

Banana, oil on canvas by Aaron Miller
The show opens at Long View Gallery DC on June 7 from 5-8PM.

2008 International Peace Corps Show

Deadline: May 29, 2008

A national juried exhibition of photographs created by current and former Peace Corps Volunteers. No entry fee. Submission is completed online. For more information, contact:

The Center for Fine Art Photography
400 N. College Ave.
Fort Collins, CO 80524

Phone: (970) 224-1010; or check website: www.c4fap.org.