WPA Executive Director Kim Ward Resigns‏

From the WPA:

Dear Artists and WPA Friends,

In the next few months I will be transitioning from my role as Executive Director of the Washington Project for the Arts and join the WPA Board of Trustees. The decision to leave as Executive Director is solely precipitated by my desire to spend more time with my immediate and extended family. In the next few years my children will begin leaving home and starting college and I would like to be more present in their lives and see them as much as possible.

Working in various capacities at the WPA over the last six years has been richly rewarding and unequivocally, one of my best life experiences. The organization has given me far more than I have contributed. I am honored to have been a part of this incredible arts group that has served the greater DC community for almost 35 years. Whether you have created contemporary art, attended WPA events, purchased artwork, or written checks to support and sustain all connected with such, you have helped move us to the healthiest position the organization has held in over 20 years. While leaving the WPA staff is difficult for me, it is easier knowing that all of our hard work has placed the organization in a solid position to continue serving artists and the contemporary visual arts community in the years to come. In recent years, the WPA has:

- Created the digital ArtFile Online, a benefit and resource for all artist members, and the arts community

- Achieved complete independence at the end of 2007, separating from the Corcoran Gallery of Art

- Grown from 300 to 1200 artist members

- Maintained five continuous years of profitability and budget growth

- Featured over 1000 artists in exhibitions in the last five years

In the next few weeks I will begin working part-time, and remain on the staff to ensure a smooth transition of responsibilities to the new Executive Director. I would like to encourage members and friends of the WPA to send any qualified candidates my way. The position description will be posted on our website and a variety of arts job banks.

Again, it is a pleasure to pause and thank all of you for your generous support, direction and guidance over the years. There are too many people to thank who gave me a “leg up,” going out of their way to help me in all possible ways. I am looking forward to staying involved and rooted in the local arts community, while continuing to support the WPA through my new role in the organization. Please stay in touch, keep me on your lists, and finally, I want to wish all of you and your families a happy and healthy holiday season.

Best,

Kim Ward

Primera Nieve

I was surprised to look out my backyard window this morning and see this:

Get your book signed this Sunday

Some of my favorite photographers in all the world will be signing their books at Fraser Gallery in Bethesda this Sunday as part of Fotoweek DC; here's the schedule:

Sunday November 23, from 12PM - 5PM

Noon - Joyce Tenneson "A Life in Photography: 1968 - 2008"

1PM - Frank Van Riper and Judith Goodman "Serenissima"

2PM - Maxwell MacKenzie "Markings," "Abandonings" and "American Ruins"

3PM - Karen Keating "Cuba: Watching and Waiting"

4PM - Danny Conant "Vanishing Tibet"

Pat Goslee opens tomorrow at DCAC

Pat Goslee: Flow, new mixed media works by Pat Goslee opens at the District of Columbia Arts Center with an opening reception on November 21, 7-9pm.

"Flow" represents the most recent work by Washington, DC's Pat Goslee, an intuitive artist whose paintings seek to part the curtain that, according to Kabbalah, separates the physical world from the spiritual. The work raises the questions: How do we store information, emotional baggage, and awareness? What do we absorb and what do we filter out? What layers need to be removed, or rearranged, in order to achieve change?

The exhibition runs through January 4, 2009.

Mellema on Cuban Show

Kevin Mellema reviews "Aqui Estamos (Here We Are)" which is currently on exhibit at H&F Fine Arts through November 30th.

Read the review here.

Go see this show and go buy some artwork.

When Absence Becomes Presence

Curated by Sonja Simonyi and Niels Van Tomme and part of the WPA's Experimental Media Series, the opening reception is today Thursday November 20th, 7-9pm at the WPA and there's a Screening & Curator’s Talk on Thursday, December 11, 6pm at The Phillips Collection in DC.

This event is the launch of the fourth annual Experimental Media Series and "When Absence Becomes Presence," is an exhibition that "explores the play between two separate, but linked conditions of absence and presence, and which reflects upon the very nature of time based media. Curators Sonja Simonyi + Niels Van Tomme have selected a staggering variety of experimental artworks that include sound art, music, literary readings, video art, as well as a mysterious sound recording."

Artworks from: Herman Asselberghs, The Conet Project, Paul Chan, Martin Creed, Andrea Geyer, Ibro Hasanovic, Miranda July, Damir Niksic, and Douglas Ross

Stay tuned for a screening of selected works and a discussion with the curators at The Phillips Collection on Thursday, December 11, at 6pm. During the screening, the Kraft Prize for New Media and the WPA Experimental Art Prize will be presented to two winning artists from the When Absence Become Presence Call for Entries competition.

Aquilino at Neptune in Bethesda

“Another Level” is the title of John Aquilino’s new exhibition on the elevated walls of Neptune’s new loft like gallery in their beautiful renovated green building in Bethesda, MD.

Aquilino had a highly successful solo sold-out debut at Neptune in May, 2007, and an impressive year at the art fair circuit.

Reception for the artist is on November 22, at 7 PM and the gallery is also open for the Bethesda Art Walk, December 12, 6-9 PM. The show runs through December 20, 2008.