1800s 'Fro

 

Introducing WPA's New Director Travis Chamberlain

WPA's Board of Directors announced a few days ago the appointment of Travis Chamberlain as its next Director. Chamberlain—a curator and director with more than 20 years of experience in museum, non-profit, and for-profit contemporary arts spaces in New York City—will begin his new role on September 1, 2023, becoming the 12th Director of one of the most influential and impactful contemporary arts organizations in the region and the U.S. 

Now in its 48th year, WPA is a trailblazer among the region’s contemporary art institutions, with a dedicated project space, bookstore, and gallery. WPA's mission supports the development of experimental projects that build community through collaborations between artists and audiences, with an emphasis on dialogue and advocacy. Artists are invited to curate and organize all of WPA's programming as an extension of their own intellectual research, and their resulting projects may assume a variety of forms including exhibitions, publications, performances, workshops, symposia, community dinners, and more.

"We feel very fortunate to welcome Travis Chamberlain as the next Director of Washington Project for the Arts,” said Board of Directors Co-Chairs Ashley Givens, Ph.D. and Jocelyn Sigue. “His decades-long commitment to community organizing through art and his extensive experience as a curator, producer, and institutional leader working at a local, national, and international level will be a tremendous asset to WPA and the greater region.”

Chamberlain assumes the role as WPA’s principal executive leader after five years as Executive Director at Queer|Art, a community-based nonprofit with a mission to connect and empower generations of LGBTQ+ artists throughout the nation. Prior to this position, Chamberlain spent ten years as a curator of performance at the New Museum in New York City. 

“Washington Project for the Arts is an incubator for new art that is unrestrained by discipline and anchored by ideas that seek to inspire positive change in the world,” Chamberlain notes. “The fact that WPA is in DC, so close to the Capitol and all that comes with it, only makes the questions we ask and the answers we explore together all the more resonant for artists and communities everywhere. I am excited to join the staff and board in furthering their commitment to facilitating collaborations between audiences and artists. Through our work together, WPA will also become a catalyst for nurturing an exchange of ideas and resource sharing among creative communities on a more global level, with DC as the hub from which all WPA collaborations will flow.”

Chamberlain’s appointment follows an extensive national search supported by Claire Huschle of Good Insight. His arrival coincides with WPA’s 2023–2024 Season Kick-Off and BBQ on Saturday, September 9. The event will introduce the roster of 2023–2024 Artist-Organizers and the projects they will be producing through collaboration with WPA, invited artists, and local communities. All are welcome to attend!

Anderson Campello at Tallyho

Anderson Campello at Tallyho

 

BlackRock Center for the Arts presents “Mandy Chesney is gaudy”

BEST.NEWS.RELEASE.EVER!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

On view

15 July–10 Sep 202

Tues–Fri: 10:00 AM–6:00 PM

Sat: Noon–4:00 PM

Sun: 10:30 AM–2:30 PM

Reception & Artist Talk: 18 Aug 2023, 6:00–8:00 PM

IN THE KAY GALLERY

Mandy Chesney is gaudy. Mandy Chesney is gaudy is Mandy Chesney’s first solo exhibition. Born spitting into the wind on the bow of a Mississippi riverboat casino, Chesney has known when to hold ‘em since day one. At age 4, she learned glitter magic from the Lion’s Creek Baptist Church organist, Mr. Robert—known far and wide for his lace drawers. At age 15, Chesney graduated from the Chattanooga Coiffer Academy and spent seven years and a month of Sundays as a beautician to the stars. Her talents have gloried the crowns of Marty Stuart, Pat Metheny, Janice Wendell Crouch, and William Lee Golden of the Oak Ridge Boys, among many others. 

But she also knows how to make a home. A master of the Domestic Arts, Chesney cannot be worn slap out. She will split a frog hair four ways, jerk a knot in your tail, and smell great while doing it.

From 2015 to 2017, Chesney graced the halls of the Mount Royal School of Art at the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) and she’s lived in Baltimore City ever since. 

Mandy Chesney is not a natural blonde. She’s a 42DD. 

Glitter is a particularly divisive material. Glitter is judged as frivolous in a way that is seen as too feminine, irredeemably low class, and possibly queer… It is loud. Glitter demands to be seen, it steals light. Glitter responds when you move your body, it has a conversation with your eyes. Glitter likes to party, it flirts with the viewer. It winks to something more behind the shine.

—Mandy Chesney, 2021, from an interview with Morgan Everhart for awomensthing.org

IG: @mandychesney

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Sheer genius!!!!

Guess who's in the Washington Post today?

A few days ago I expressed my frustration here about the waste of print space in the WaPo's only column dedicated to our area's art galleries. Today the WaPo published my letter on the subject online and then in print in their Saturday issue.

Read it here.

Arts Beat from 1999

Back from the past: When the WaPo used to have multiple columns looking at gallery shows:

In a group show at Georgetown's Fraser Gallery, "Salvador Dali: A Modern Homage to a Modern Icon," many works feature the artist himself, black eyes ablaze, famous waxed mustache in fine form. In synergy with his explosive, colorful works, Dali had a showman's personality and theatrical looks.

Read the piece by Nicole Lewis here.

Spatial thinking activities in PK-12 classrooms

Spatial thinking activities in PK-12 classrooms: Predictors of teachers’ activity use and a framework for classifying activity types is the new research paper where the Professah is a co-author.

Read it here.