Mark Dion wins Lucelia award

The Smithsonian American Art Museum announced today that Mark Dion is the 2008 winner of the museum's Lucelia Artist Award. He was selected by an independent panel of jurors for "his prolific creativity and impressively varied body of work, which includes mixed-media installations, sculptures and public projects that explore the relationship among art, science and history through pseudoscientific methods of investigation and display."

Dion is the eighth annual winner of the $25,000 award, which is intended to encourage the artist's future development and experimentation. The Lucelia Artist Award is part of the museum's ongoing commitment to contemporary art and artists through annual exhibitions, acquisitions and public programs.

The five jurors who selected the winner are Mark Bessire, director of the Bates College Museum of Art; Allan McCollum, artist and senior critic in sculpture at the Yale University School of Art; Nancy Princenthal, senior editor at Art in America magazine; John Ravenal, the Sydney and Frances Lewis Family Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts; and Heidi Zuckerman Jacobson, director and chief curator at the Aspen Art Museum.

Congrats to Dion!

Art gallery raid charges dropped

The ACLU of Michigan said today that the City of Detroit has dropped loitering charges against more than 100 people who were detained and ticketed by Detroit police during a raid at Contemporary Art Institute of Detroit in May.

Details here.

Whaling Wall coming to DC

Marine life painter and conservationist Wyland has been cited in the Congressional Record as, “the finest environmental artist in the world.” Beginning September 26, the California-based artist will have one of his monumental murals, “Hands Across The Ocean” – the 100th and final work in his “Whaling Wall” series – installed on the National Mall for 8 days.

The 7 block-long piece can be viewed opposite the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History.

Wyland began his “Whaling Wall” series in 1971, and it is the largest environmentally themed public art project ever. The first 99 “Whaling Walls” are seen by an estimated one billion people annually at permanent installations in the U.S., Canada, Japan, Australia, Palau, Mexico and France. Following its exhibition on the National Mall, "Hands Across The Ocean" will tour the U.S. before finding a permanent home.

Sarah Palin in Philly Pub

How important is Pennsylvania?

Palin will be at the Irish Pub on Walnut Street [Philadelphia] on Friday night for a public debate watching party, if the debate between John McCain and Barack Obama continues as planned.

And last week, while I was gone to Florida, McCain had a huge rally in my crib in Media, PA. A few days earlier, Biden was also in Media, but his rally was at a local orchard.

By the way, we recently went apple picking at that orchard and now we have a million pounds of apples. I could use some good apple recipes!

Whino Films and an art party

Whino Films is the latest from the innovative minds over at Art Whino. They will be documenting the art Scene in the DMV (DC, MD, VA).

If you missed that opening, then make sure you come out tonight to "Block party 2" from 7-11pm This special event will have music by DJ Munch, and a special appearance by Grammy Winner Tony Rich (Hidden Beach Records). Complimentary beverages, light food, plus giveaways/door prizes provided.

Details here.

Glass Evolving Glistens

Cindy Cotte Griffiths reviews Glass Evolving at VisArts in Rockville.

There's a revolution in fine arts glass going on right now, and many of the guerrilla leaders are right here under our noses in the Greater Washington, DC area.

Go see this exhibition in Rockville (through Nov. 15) and then this Sunday go to the opening reception for this show at the Maurine Littleton Gallery in DC.

PMA names new photography curator

The Philadelphia Museum of Art has named Peter D. Barberie as its new curator of photography.

Barberie is currently a lecturer at Princeton University. He replaces Katherine C. Ware, who is leaving soon to become the new photography curator of the New Mexico Museum of Art.