Friday, October 10, 2014
29th Annual Mayor's Arts Awards
The DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities (DCCAH)
has announced the special honorees and finalists of the 29th Annual Mayor's
Arts Awards. The awards are the highest honors conferred by the District
of Columbia in recognition of artistic excellence and service. The
event will take place on Wednesday, October 29 from 6:30 to 8:30 PM at
the renowned Lisner Auditorium. Andrea Roane, Morning Anchor, WUSA 9,
will host the evening's festivities. The Awards ceremony is free and
open to the public.
Special awards
will be given to several individuals and organizations, recognizing
their outstanding support to DC's arts, entertainment, and creative
industries. This year's chosen finalists demonstrate the wide range of
talent the District of Columbia arts community has to offer. Finalists
were selected by the Mayor's Arts Awards Advisory Jury comprised of
prominent members of the District's arts community with expertise in
dance, music, theatre, literary arts, visual arts, arts service and arts
education.
Those
receiving special recognition are Dr. James Billington, The Librarian of
Congress; Cathy Hughes, Chairperson, Radio One and TV One; Maida
Withers, founder and artistic director of Maida Withers Dance
Construction Company; Victor Shargai, theater advocate and interior
designer, Victor Shargai and Associates Inc.; and Rebecca and Hugo
Medrano, founders, GALA Hispanic Theatre.
The finalists for the 29th Annual Mayor's Arts Awards are:
Excellence in an Artistic Discipline
- Children's Chorus of Washington
- DC Jazz Festival
- The In Series
- Washington Jewish Film Festival
- DC Arts and Humanities Education Collaborative
- Washington Project for the Arts
- Women in Film & Video
- The Embassy Series
- Lance Kramer
- Urban Corps Transatlantic Urban Dance Festival
- 826DC
- DC SCORES
- Washington Performing Arts Society
- Young Playwrights' Theater
- Tarik Davis
- Rachel Kerwin
- Alan Paul
- Tommy Taylor Jr.
- Nakia Espinal
- Bryan Hill
- Garwin Zamora
"The District of Columbia is a national and international arts leader largely due to the drive and talents of our city's artistic individuals and organizations," said Mayor Gray. "This year's nominees celebrate DC's cultural capital and spotlight the significance of our city's vibrant arts and entertainment community. Arts education, artistic service and the myriad contributions of local artists influence our city and make it a great place to create.""The Mayor's Arts Awards celebrates the District's thriving and diverse arts community," said Judith Terra, Chair of the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities. "The nominees represent the artists, arts organizations and educators who have made the District a world-class cultural capital.""The Commission is proud to honor the District's premier individual artists and arts organizations," said Lionell Thomas, Executive Director of DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities. "The District's arts, entertainment and creative industries are booming, contributing to our sustainability and helping to make the city a better place to live, work and play."
Since 1968,
the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities has supported community
development through the arts by promoting artistic excellence. The
Commission's commitment to raising the profile of the arts in the
District of Columbia continues through the Mayor's Arts Awards. This
year's awards will be presented in the following categories: Excellence
in an Artistic Discipline, Excellence in Service to the Arts, Innovation
in the Arts, Outstanding Contribution to Arts Education, Outstanding
Emerging Artist and the Mayor's Award for Arts Teaching.
Thursday, October 09, 2014
Curious
Do the people who clean airplanes in between flights have a new, special protocol for cleaning commercial airplanes coming from Ebola hot zones?
Wednesday, October 08, 2014
A few thoughts on (e)merge and the theory of Thermodynamics
The fourth edition of the (e)merge art fair just concluded on Sunday, and I feel pretty sure that I can take a decent shot at guessing that the fifth iteration will come next year.
I remember how surprised the DMV art scribes were in announcing (e)merge's return for a second iteration in 2012. After all, the international art fair model, so successful in most of the planet's capitals had been tried before here, most recently by ArtDC, and had been an abject failure.
The DMV "art press" was really surprised!
I remember how surprised the DMV art scribes were in announcing (e)merge's return for a second iteration in 2012. After all, the international art fair model, so successful in most of the planet's capitals had been tried before here, most recently by ArtDC, and had been an abject failure.
The DMV "art press" was really surprised!
"People in DC just don't buy art," will tell you failed gallerists and failed art dealers (and most DMV artists).
In any endeavor, the reasons for failures usually appear to trump the reasons for success (and thus why many slackers love socialism as long as somebody else is willing to work hard), and thus the scribes' 2012 surprise that (e)merge was returning was but a true representation of shock from the scant DC area art press; they all but expected for (e)merge to fail.
In any endeavor, the reasons for failures usually appear to trump the reasons for success (and thus why many slackers love socialism as long as somebody else is willing to work hard), and thus the scribes' 2012 surprise that (e)merge was returning was but a true representation of shock from the scant DC area art press; they all but expected for (e)merge to fail.
When it came back in 2013, and again this year, the surprise was somewhat lessened, and the hardworking bloggers added impetus to the drive. The mainstream media's "lessened surprised" will hopefully never be replaced by the DMV mainstream media's usual attitude towards the capital region's visual arts: apathy.
In fact the WaPo is a 2014 sponsor - Yay!
In fact the WaPo is a 2014 sponsor - Yay!
Back on track: It is clear that (e)merge's continuity is mostly the result of Connersmith's dynamic duo partners' hard work and faith on the DMV visual arts future. Jamie Smith and Leigh Conner are savvy, experienced and connected art world personalities, and they are not afraid of hard work, extraordinary leaps of faith on the promise of the future, as well as the occasional ass kick... to make things happen.
But I think that the most positive result to that unexpected continuity for DC's only art fair model (and as I think the near future will show) is that (e)merge is now providing a bridge to what can best be described as a kindling new revival to the DMV visual art scene.
Think warmth.
The "outside the DMV" art cabal is sensing something here in the area... I know this because there's no one on this planet that knows more about the DMV visual art scene than I do.
That was not irony, that is fact, and my evidence is that I am constantly getting emailed, queried, called, probed and asked for data, info, opinion and input about a diverse and mind-blowing set of issues all centered on the focus of DMV visual arts... this has happened for years, after all, I am an eloquent, erudite, outgoing, high IQ, likable, sexy, good-looking, hard working person who doesn't think of any of this stuff as "work."
Newspaper editors, everybody else's art critics, radio, art fair organizers, artists, gallerists, blah, blah, blah... they are all always reaching out to me for the most precious thing on the universe: Information.
And there's a theory (actually a law) of thermodynamics that is also adapted to other fields and now often used to predict (of all things) a virus or cyberspace attack (before it happens) based on the second law of thermodynamics as exemplified by the flow of hot water through a pipe... cough, cough.
If you don't know what I'm talking about, then you probably are really, really good at what you do, but stand zip chance of being invited to join Mensa.
And that law of thermodynamics, which when first discussed over a decade ago in application to cyberspace traffic was laughed at, can now routinely be applied to nearly everything dealing with information.
The DMV visual art scene's water is warming up folks... and (e)merge's continuity is a big part of it... is it the gas heater heating the pipe? or the warming water running though it? Not sure, and there's very little tangible evidence to prove what I am submitting here, but listen to the Lenster when he tells you that there are a lot of excited Rydberg atoms in the DMV visual arts waters, as the temperature of a group of particles (of which (e)merge is a key one) is always a great indication of the level of excitation of a system.
There are (of course) notable exceptions to this rule, such as systems that exhibit negative temperature -- like the DMV mainstream press, which (ever since Gene Robinson killed the visual arts coverage of the Washington Post's Style Section a few years ago when he was sadly made the Style Section editor for a disastrous few years), continues to fail to inform its diminishing readership about the plastic arts.
When it all happens, whatever it is about to happen with the DMV visual arts scene in the near future, they will be surprised and shocked once again...
Go (e)merge! See ya next year! And... Thank You!
Think warmth.
The "outside the DMV" art cabal is sensing something here in the area... I know this because there's no one on this planet that knows more about the DMV visual art scene than I do.
That was not irony, that is fact, and my evidence is that I am constantly getting emailed, queried, called, probed and asked for data, info, opinion and input about a diverse and mind-blowing set of issues all centered on the focus of DMV visual arts... this has happened for years, after all, I am an eloquent, erudite, outgoing, high IQ, likable, sexy, good-looking, hard working person who doesn't think of any of this stuff as "work."
Newspaper editors, everybody else's art critics, radio, art fair organizers, artists, gallerists, blah, blah, blah... they are all always reaching out to me for the most precious thing on the universe: Information.
And there's a theory (actually a law) of thermodynamics that is also adapted to other fields and now often used to predict (of all things) a virus or cyberspace attack (before it happens) based on the second law of thermodynamics as exemplified by the flow of hot water through a pipe... cough, cough.
If you don't know what I'm talking about, then you probably are really, really good at what you do, but stand zip chance of being invited to join Mensa.
And that law of thermodynamics, which when first discussed over a decade ago in application to cyberspace traffic was laughed at, can now routinely be applied to nearly everything dealing with information.
The DMV visual art scene's water is warming up folks... and (e)merge's continuity is a big part of it... is it the gas heater heating the pipe? or the warming water running though it? Not sure, and there's very little tangible evidence to prove what I am submitting here, but listen to the Lenster when he tells you that there are a lot of excited Rydberg atoms in the DMV visual arts waters, as the temperature of a group of particles (of which (e)merge is a key one) is always a great indication of the level of excitation of a system.
There are (of course) notable exceptions to this rule, such as systems that exhibit negative temperature -- like the DMV mainstream press, which (ever since Gene Robinson killed the visual arts coverage of the Washington Post's Style Section a few years ago when he was sadly made the Style Section editor for a disastrous few years), continues to fail to inform its diminishing readership about the plastic arts.
When it all happens, whatever it is about to happen with the DMV visual arts scene in the near future, they will be surprised and shocked once again...
Go (e)merge! See ya next year! And... Thank You!
Tuesday, October 07, 2014
Emergence 2014 at Galerie Myrtis
Artists’ Talk
Sunday, October 19, 2014
2:00 – 4:00 pm
Join Galerie Myrtis for an engaging afternoon as artists and jurors share their prospective about the exhibition.
Register for this event by sending an email to emergence2014@galeriemyrtis.com
Monday, October 06, 2014
"Eyes" is the word that we've heard...
Over the weekend I heard from a gallery (not a DMV gallery) that sold a huge new piece by a DMV uberartist for $80,000!
The very cool part is that, if YOU had been on the ball, you too could have had work by this artist in your collection, just a handful of years ago, for a fistful of dollars.
More later once I verify details...
P.S. - By the way... I was on the ball back then... cough, cough
The very cool part is that, if YOU had been on the ball, you too could have had work by this artist in your collection, just a handful of years ago, for a fistful of dollars.
More later once I verify details...
P.S. - By the way... I was on the ball back then... cough, cough
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