Monday, May 26, 2014
Sunday, May 25, 2014
DC Judge rules in favor of DC gallery
From DC's Charles Krause Reporting:
After two years of threats, refusing to meet with me or even tell me the nature of the complaints they had received, the Solo Piazza Condominium Board where I live filed suit on March 16 to shut down the gallery I opened in December 2011.Read the review of their current exhibit by Mark Jenkins in the WaPo here.
The issue before the Court was whether an art gallery was an "accessory office use" permitted by the condominium's by-laws, which I was bound by when I purchased my apartment seven years ago. In letters to my attorney, Benny Kass, and to me before the suit was filed, the board changed its story a number of times about why it was so opposed to allowing me to operate the gallery---especially after it learned that I had obtained a permit from the DC government giving me the right to do so.
Nonetheless, the board clearly expected to win the suit, allocating only $500 for legal fees in the building's 2014 budget (because the bylaws say that if the board has to go to court to enforce the bylaws and wins, the co-owner who loses has to pay both his own legal fees and the condominium's legal fees as well).
Pushing its luck even further, the board filed a motion for summary judgment shortly after it filed its complaint, arguing that since an art gallery is obviously not an "office," the judge should execute summarily; obviously, they were thinking the judge would make short work of my gallery, not their credibility.
As it turned out, however, the only thing that was obvious about the board's complaint and its motion for summary judgment was that neither they nor their attorney had bothered to do the most basic legal research to determine how the word "office" is defined.
What my attorneys at Kass, Mitek & Kass discovered, much to their surprise and very much to their credit, was that the word "office" had never been litigated before-- in which case the DC courts rely on Webster's Unabridged Dictionary to define legally undefined words for them.
And sure enough, Webster's defines "office" as "a place where a particular kind of business or service for others is transacted."
So, dear friends and art aficionados, the judge denied the board's motion for a summary judgment and, instead, ruled in my favor. It's official: my home is now an office and my office is now a place where I can show and sell art that might not otherwise have a home if DC Superior Judge Michael O'Keefe hadn't found that the condo board where I have my home, my gallery and my office hasn't a clue what the bylaws mean nor the wit to look in a dictionary before they file a mean-spirited and expensive lawsuit contending that an art gallery isn't an office and therefore isn't a permitted "accessory office use" of my home office which, by the way, is located in a section of Washington that's an officially designated arts zone.
Is this the end? Probably not. But it's a good beginning.
Saturday, May 24, 2014
Friday, May 23, 2014
Thursday, May 22, 2014
Opportunity for Artomatic 2012 Artists
Artists
who participated in Artomatic 2012 are invited to exhibit in Artomatic
Takes Flight opening July 25 in The Gallery Walk at Ronald Reagan
Washington National Airport.
They'll send an email soon with details about the call for entries, online artist registration at noon on May 31, art drop off on the evening of July 18 and the morning of July 21 at the airport, and the reception on July 25.
They'll send an email soon with details about the call for entries, online artist registration at noon on May 31, art drop off on the evening of July 18 and the morning of July 21 at the airport, and the reception on July 25.
Wednesday, May 21, 2014
2015 Maryland Individual Artist Awards
The
2015 Maryland Individual Artist Award guidelines and application are
now available. Applicants must be full-time Maryland residents. The
funding categories for 2015 include:
- Non-Classical Music: Composition
-
Non-Classical Music: Solo Performance
-
Playwriting
-
Visual Arts: Crafts
-
Visual Arts: Photography
All applications must be submitted online. Applicants can click here to access the guidelines and application. The deadline for 2015 applications is 4:30 PM on Thursday, July 24, 2014.
The
Maryland State Arts Council and Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation will offer
three webinars for prospective Individual Artist Award applicants that
will:
- Address applicant eligibility, discipline categories, and work sample formats;
- Provide instructions on how to complete the online application; and
- Provide information on the submission of digital images for visual artists
Advance registration is required.
To register, please follow the link listed next to your desired webinar date.
WEBINAR 1: June 19, 2014
2:00 PM - 3:30 PM
2:00 PM - 3:30 PM
WEBINAR 2: June 21, 2014
10:00 AM - 11:30 AM
WEBINAR 3: June 25, 2014
10:00 AM - 11:30 AM
An instructional video to assist
artists with the application process and work sample preparation guide
is also available online here.
Questions about Fellowships or webinar registration?
Please contact Kimberly Steinle-Super at kimberly@midatlanticarts.org
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