New Interim Director for the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities

The search for a permanent Executive Director is active and underway...

The DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities (CAH) Board of Commissioners announces the appointment of Heran Sereke-Brhan as Interim Director for CAH. The agency's previous Executive Director, Terrie Rouse-Rosario, officially ended her incumbency on September 30, 2019. "I am appreciative of the work that Terrie has done in preparing the agency as it transitions to new independent status," said DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities Chair Kay Kendall. "The Board of Commissioners and I support and look forward to working with Heran to keep the agency moving forward until a permanent Executive Director is identified." Interim Director Sereke-Brhan has been Senior Grants Officer for CAH since July 2017. Prior to joining CAH, she served as Deputy Director for the Mayor's Office on African Affairs. Over the past two decades, Interim Director Sereke-Brhan has worked at a number of cultural and educational institutions, including the Harn Museum at the University of Florida, Addis Ababa University, and the Smithsonian's National Museum of African Art. She holds a PhD in History with a minor in African Art History from Michigan State University. The CAH Board of Commissioners will nominate, and with the advice and consent of the Council of the District of Columbia, appoint the new Executive Director for the agency. CAH has engaged DC-based recruiting firm POLIHIRE to manage the search process for the position

Wanna help me out?

Lecture: Art with a Twist
Sunday, October 13, 2019, 2 pm
Montpelier Arts Center
9652 Muirkirk Road, Laurel, MD 20708

Join me as I take a fun walk through art history that culminates in contemporary art where I will discuss the work of some DC area artists. Lecture is free and open to the public. Please call Montpelier Arts Center at 301-377-7800 to register.

Challenge to my reader peeps: Nominate an artist for me to discuss at the lecture - some of the ones already on my list: Sam Gilliam, Tim Tate, Rik Freeman, Mark Jenkins, Shanthi Chandra-Sekar, Tim Vermeulen, Joey Manlapaz, Percy Martin, Sharon Moody, Judith Peck, and others...

Send me a note or leave a comment if you wanna bring an artist up to my attention for me to discuss at the lecture.

What is going on at the DC Arts and Humanities Commission?

From the DC Cultural Forum:

Over the past few months, the Commission has been unfairly used as a political pawn by District of Columbia Mayor Muriel Bowser. Here are the highlights (as listed from WAMU's most recent article):

• Last fall, Mayor Bowser illegally appointed a director of the DC Commission on the Arts & Humanities who slipped in an amendment to the grant agreement that recipients had to sign to receive funds. It would have banned “lewd, lascivious, vulgar, [or] overtly political” works, but it was scrapped within a week due to a backlash from the arts community.
• In April, the city introduced its long-awaited Cultural Plan, an inter-agency effort that laid out ways the city would support DC’s cultural economy. Some artists and cultural leaders said the document lacked a clear rollout plan and overemphasized loans over grants.
• Before yet another illegally appointed director resigned, she hired a number of senior positions with six-figure salaries, as the Washington City Paper reported.
• Late last month, Bowser introduced a new Creative Affairs Office to serve as an intermediary between the executive office and the Commission on the Arts and Humanities.
• At the same time, Bowser announced the return of the Mayor’s Arts Awards, which had previously been cancelled this year. In the past, the Arts Commission oversaw the awards and a panel would select the winners, but the program will now be under the purview of the Creative Affairs Office.
• In early September, the City Paper reported that Bowser’s office locked Arts Commission staff out of the agency’s vault of public art.

It's time for our community to speak up.

Here are things you can do right now to take direct action, with just one click: HERE

Lectures, boot camp, free lunch!

You are invited! These book fast! So call now!

 Lecture: Art with a Twist
 Sunday, October 13, 2019, 2 pm
 Montpelier Arts Center
 9652 Muirkirk Road, Laurel, MD 20708

Join Lenny Campello as he takes a fun walk through art history that culminates in contemporary art where he will discuss the work of some DC area artists. Lecture is free and open to the public. Please call Montpelier Arts Center at 301-377-7800 to register.    
.......

Boot Camp for Artists
Saturday, November 2, 2019, 10 am - 4 pm
Harmony Hall Arts Center, John Addison Concert Hall
10701 Livingston Road, Fort Washington, MD 20744
Harmony Hall Arts Center presents Mr. Lenny Campello’s seminar, “Boot Camp for Artists”, open to all Prince George’s County artists, 16 and up. Mr. Campello is the Greater Washington D.C. area’s pre-eminent art dealer, critic, consultant and blogger as well as artist. He designed his seminar to deliver information, data and proven tactics to artists, and to allow them to develop and sustain a career in the fine arts. Some of the topics that he will cover are, creating a resume, creating a body of work, selling your art, juried shows and news releases, just to name a few. The seminar is free and lunch is included. Seating is limited so please call 301-446-3251 or email stuart.diekmeyer@pgparks.com to register and provide lunch preference (vegetarian or non-vegetarian), by 5pm, October 25, 2019.

.......

Boot Camp for Artists
Saturday, April 18, 2020, 10 am – 4 pm
Montpelier Arts Center
9652 Muirkirk Road, Laurel, MD 20708
Montpelier Arts Center presents Mr. Lenny Campello’s seminar, “Boot Camp for Artists”, open to all Prince George’s County artists, 16 and up. Mr. Campello is the Greater Washington D.C. area’s pre-eminent art dealer, critic, consultant and blogger as well as artist. He designed his seminar to deliver information, data and proven tactics to artists, and to allow them to develop and sustain a career in the fine arts. Some of the topics that he will cover are, creating a resume, creating a body of work, selling your art, juried shows and news releases, just to name a few. The seminar is free and lunch is included. Seating is limited so please call Montpelier Arts Center at 301-377-7800 to register and provide lunch preference (vegetarian or non-vegetarian) by 5pm, April 13, 2020.

Wanna design a sock?

The competition is hosted by the Sock It to Me, a business that sells fun, funky socks. What do you draw inspiration from? Picture it on a sock! Win up to $2,000 and they'll make your sock design. 

They prefer 6 colors per design, because their socks cannot be created with more than 6 colors. 

No Entry Fee. 

Details here.

Hope Harrison's words

Adah Rose Gallery's former intern and now UVA student Hope Harrison wrote these very cool words about one of my pieces - from my Obsessive Drawings series...

“Suddenly She Wasn’t Afraid Any Longer”
F. Lennox Campello, 2016 Charcoal on Paper
In the Hope Harrison Collection

A woman leaping in a white void, with arms up, legs outstretched, and a tan line on her butt fully exposed in a moment of glory. This individual may be part dancer and part warrior, but, surely, she is fearless. Indeed, the bronzed figure in mid-leap seems to distill all freedom and courage within her, as she dynamically flies on the paper. The space around this figure is left to the imagination of the viewer; the woman may be jumping off a cliff and into a lake, or she may be plunging into the depths of space, her mind, or a vast unknown. All space and time collapse into this one figure, a form that is faceless yet ubiquitous in the sense that we may all hope to feel a similar same sense of liberation, be it from mental, physical, or extraneous challenges that may limit us.

F. Lennox Campello’s 2016 piece, “Suddenly She Wasn’t Afraid Any Longer”, is a figurative drawing made with charcoal. In the presence of larger or more colorful works, this piece in theory could hang on a wall inconspicuously; however, the contrast and surprising sense of depth that Campello creates by placing such an active and expressive figure in a nonexistent, and therefore stagnant, background is striking. The stylistic decisions made for this piece, which is relatively simplistic for Campello’s work, emphasize line and form in a singular way.

Hope Harrison

UVA 2020

Affordable Art Fair NYC

Affordable Art Fair NYC will return to the Metropolitan Pavilion in September for its Fall edition, welcoming over 70 local, national and international exhibitors, showcasing original contemporary work from over 300 contemporary artists.

Matthew Langley

We are in two separate booths on the ground floor, booths C3 and D20 - This fair showcases the work of New York City artists Macyn Bolt and Matthew Langley, Alexandria ceramicist Lori Katz, Texas artists Kathleen Hope, Seth Fairweather and Jodi Walsh.

Macyn Bolt nstallation at the Grand Rapids Art Museum in Gand-Rapids, Michigan

Opening times
Wednesday September 25 2019
Private View*
6.00pm - 9.00pm

Thursday September 26 2019
Trade Hours 11.00am - 12.00pm
Public Hours 12.00pm – 6.00pm
Art After Dark 6.00pm – 9.00pm

Friday September 27 2019
11.00am - 12.00pm
12.00pm – 6.00pm
6.00pm – 8.00pm

Saturday September 28 2019
10.00am - 11.00am
11.00am – 8.00pm

Sunday September 29 2019
10.00am - 11.00am

11.00am – 5.00pm