Arty stuff this week . . .

Multiplicitocracy
Muriel Hasbun
Barbara Liotta

Wednesday, July 23
7 - 9 pm
@ Katzen Center
4400 Massachusetts Avenue, NW

Thursday, July 24
Hip Hop Happy Hour
5 p.m.–6:45 pm
@ National Portrait Gallery
8th and F Streets, NW
Robert and Arlene Kogod Courtyard

Face-to-Face Portrait Talk with curator Jobyl Boone
6 p.m.–6:30 pm
Meet at F Street

Reel Portraits
Paul D. Miller (DJ Spooky) and New York Is Now
7 p.m.; doors open 6:30 p.m.
Nan Tucker McEvoy Auditorium.
A conversation with Paul Miller follows.


To Say the Least
Sarada Conaway, Adam Davies, Patrick McDonough, Ding Ren, Matt Seymour, Imin Yeh
Curated by Faye Gleisser
July 24 – August 4

Opening Reception:
Thursday, July 24
6:30 - 9:30 pm
@ Boiler Gallery
1829 California Street, NW, #33



Barrelhouse Roller Derby Issue Launch Party
Brought to you by The Pink Line Project and Scion

Friday, July 25
6 - 10 pm
@ Hillyer Art Space
Behind the Phillips Collection
21st Street, NW, between Q and R

AAC Closing Party and Panel Discussion
SHE'S SO ARTICULATE: Black Women Artists Reclaim the Narrative

6 - 7 pm
Panel Discussion with Renee Stout, Nekisha Durrett, Torkwase Dyson, Maya Asante, and Stephanie Dinkins, curators Henry Thaggert and Jeffry Cudlin, and moderated by professor of contemporary art at the University of Illinois, Champaign, Terri Weissman.

Party with DJ follows!

Friday, July 25
@ The Arlington Arts Center
3550 Wilson Boulevard

Modern Love
Friday, July 25
@ National Museum of Women in the Arts
1250 New York Avenue, NW


MUSIC NIGHT AT CIVILIAN:
Friday, July 25
9 pm - 1 am

Presented by Civilian Art Projects and Planaria Recordings
@ 406 7th Street, NW, 3rd Floor

Featuring:
- ILYA MONOSOV (Planaria / Holy Mountain / Drag City / Language of Stone)
- DUANE PITRE (Important Records)
- PREE (May from Le Loup)
- SCOTT ALLISON (of Kohoutek)
and DJ sets from ED PORTER and SCOTT BAUER

"THE SHOP" SUMMER TRUNK SHOW:
Saturday, July 26th
@ Civilian Art Projects
406 7th Street, NW, 3rd Floor



Flik Movie Festival and Interactive Exhibit

Saturday, July 26
6 pm
@ Art Whino Gallery
173 Waterfront Street
National Harbor


SUMMER EXHIBITS
Through August 20, 2008

Lobby James Hilleary, Paintings from the '60s
Gallery Washington Color School

@ Osuna gallery
7200 Wisconsin Avenue
Bethesda

Port Towns Music History Mural
Sunday, July 27
3 pm
@ Mango Cafe

Policy launch

The Pink Line Project is helping Billy Colbert launch his line of Urban Pop mens and womens wear under the brand name Policy. Please come to the launch party!

Policy Brand Trunk Show & Launch Party
Thursday, July 31
6 - 8 pm
2125 14th Street, NW

Music by DJ Anish!

Thanks to our sponsors!
PNHoffman
The Velvet Lounge
Busboys & Poets
Utrecht

East Wing needs more space

Tyler Green wrote an interesting article about the National Gallery East Wing's space problems.

In the coming months, the NGA will undertake efforts to address its major issues: the inconsistent quality of the 20th- and 21st-century collections, the awkward way they’re installed, and the NGA’s need for more space.

...

The East Building’s weaknesses are legendary: The atrium dominates, making the building feel like an atrium with a couple of art-display spaces attached. The galleries are awkward and incoherently spread through the building. They’re too big or too small. There are too few of them. Every gallery but one is cut off from natural light.

“The display of modern or contemporary art doesn’t live up to the architecture even though the architecture is now 30 years old,” says Michael Brand, director of the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles.

Noche Crist liked pink

Noche Crist loved the color pink. She was a very wise woman. See review by Michael O'Sullivan of her show at the Katzen here.

Fish net stockings

I love this line from a post that C-Monster linked to about Jocelyn Foye’s Roller Derby Project:

They’re still both wearing fishnet, which really transfers well to clay, ...

More on the project here. I'm not really into these "sculptures," but slamming into a wall of clay at high speed on roller skates looks like a lot of fun.

High brow graf

(Thanks yet again to C-Monster!)

Barrelhouse launch party

First Ever Roller Derby Themed Barrelhouse Issue 6 Launch and Arm Wrestling Extravaganza!
Brought to you by Scion and The Pink Line Project

To celebrate Roller Derby, a protofeminist wave of bone crushing awesomeness, we bring you a night of amazing roller derby themed stories and poems and one gigantic Roller Derby mural by Cory Oberndorfer, food eating, beverage drinking, DJ dancing, and (damn well better!) Barrelhouse buying.

AND, you get to arm wrestle a Roller Derby Girl!! IF YOU DARE!

Friday, July 25
6 - 10 pm
@ Hillyer Art Space
Behind the Phillips Collection
(on 21st Street, between Q and R)

$10 at the door / Free food and drink!
Barrelhouse Issues available for $5!
And a chance to get your ass (or arm) personally kicked by a roller derby chick.

Communitarianism as art

MAN isn't impressed with the Fritz Haeg installation in the Cottage Industry show at the Baltimore Contemporary Museum. I haven't seen it, but I know and admire his work as an activist who uses art to convey ideas. And the concept of communitarianism-as-art sure does appeal to me. (Although it's hard for me to imagine myself as somewhere between hippie and hipster!) And so does the idea of providing a place to nurture ideas. Sorta like a Washington think tank but for art. A Kunsthalle is just what DC needs.

Haeg is a leading figure in an increasing trend toward communitarianism-as-art. If we feel good about what someone is doing and want to be a part of it, so the art world's approach seems to be, let's claim it as art and feel good about getting together. It's where hippie meets hipster.

All that said, even if the Haeg here is a 60-year old idea with origins in wartime Britain, he fits what Cottage Industry is: A show that works hard to avoid art objects, that's more interested in a post-Brooklyn/Silver Lake utopia. Sure, a lot of the work here isn't really art, but it isn't really anything else either. That's fine. It's refreshing to see a kunsthalle such as the Baltimore Contemporary used as an idea lab. But of all the 'presentations' here, Haeg's is the least original and the least exciting. I'll get to the 'exciting' tomorrow.

Arty stuff this week . . .

Screams and Screens Happy Hour
Wednesday, July 16
6 - 10 pm
@ Civilian Art Projects
406 7th Street, NW


DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities
FY 2009 Visual Arts Applicants' Showcase
July 17 - August 1

Opening Reception:
Wednesday, July 16
6:30 PM
@ Katzen Arts Center
American University
4400 Massachusetts Ave., NW



Artscape 2008
July 18 - 20

Opens:
Thursday, July 17
6 - 8 pm
@ Charles Street Bridge, Baltimore, MD (North of Penn Station & South of
Lanvale Street)


Zenith in the Abstract
July 17 – August 30
Artists: John Blee, Chris Hayman, Anne Marchand, David Richardson, Bill Suworoff

Meet the artists:
Thursday, July 17
6 - 9 pm

Saturday, July 19
3 - 5 pm

@ Zenith Gallery
413 7th Street, NW



HOME: Spoken Word Poetry Series
Friday, July 18
6 - 9 pm
6 pm Sign up
7 - 9 pm Open mic
@ Hillyer Art Space
9 Hillyer Court

All Member Show
Opening:
Friday, July 18
6 - 8 pm
@ Studio gallery
2108 R Street, NW

It's magic

Find magic within yourself.

DC can become a cultural capital too

Ed Alcock for The New York Times

Lisbon is becoming a cultural capital partly because its creatives are taking charge. A travel article from the New York Times explains:

One of the most prestigious galleries in Lisbon — along with the likes of Vera Cortes Art Agency and Cristina Guerra Contemporary Art — Luís Serpa has been a passionate advocate of Portuguese artists (including Cabrita Reis), championing their work in global forums like Art Basel and the Frieze Art Fair in London. The gallery has also shown creations by boldface foreigners like Chuck Close and Robert Wilson.

But its most ambitious project is yet to come. Next year, the gallery’s namesake owner is creating a “think tank” of international experts — urban planners, cultural impresarios — who will devise strategies for fully elevating Lisbon, at last, into a globally recognized cultural capital. A large part of his hope, he explained, is to lure creative people from around the world and “to create a cosmopolitan place where new talent can come and create in a new way.”

FOMO

From Garfield Minus Garfield.

After I nearly wore myself out at the Venice Bienale last summer trying to hit as many events as possible: receptions, cocktail parties, after parties, pre-parties, dinners, artist talks, video screenings, panel discussions, oh, and art exhibitions, my friend Henry diagnosed me with FOMO - the fear of missing out. This affliction is not life threatening, but it can cause severe exhaustion, occasional grumpiness, and violent bouts of anxiety. Persistent art-filled weekends like the last two days in DC can aggravate the ailment!

At Harvard Business School, it's called FOMO: fear of missing out. Symptoms include a chronic inability to turn down invitations to any party, dinner, or junket attended by anyone who might be a valuable addition to one's network—no matter the cost.

That definition makes FOMO sound so sinister! When you're passionate about something, like contemporary art, the desire to immerse yourself in it comes naturally. The key, of course, is to impose some level of moderation or else pursuing your passion won't be much fun anymore at all.

Elena del Rivero at Corcoran

Elena del Rivero, [Swi:t] Home: A Chant, 2001–2006, installation of found papers mended, burnt, embroidered, and stitched to five rolls of muslin. Courtesy of the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., and the artist. (c) Elena del Rivero

You have got to go see this installation by Elena del Rivero in the Corcoran's rotunda room. Gorgeous.

When the World Trade Center was attacked on September 11, 2001, Del Rivero’s living and working space—located just across the street from the towers—was also a casualty. Returning home to find her windows blown out and every surface covered with ash and debris, the artist began the process of making sense of an event that had, in an instant, supplanted the memories made and recorded there during the previous year. Over the next five years, Del Rivero painstakingly collected, catalogued, and, ultimately stitched together the bits of paper and debris that she found in her apartment. The result is a majestic curtain of sewn paper, more than 500 feet long. Installed in the Corcoran’s rotunda through November 16, the work cascades from the ceiling onto the floor—at once dramatic and humble, mournful and reparative. Like [Swi:t] Home, it speaks to the complex intermingling of daily routine and chance events, and the ways in which life intersects with art.

Nirvana

In tribute to my favorite ukelele-ist, Cousin Roger. (Thanks again C-Monster!)

Hey Kool-Aid!

Ha! As much as I love street art, it's not often that a piece makes me laugh out loud and keeps me smiling long after. Thanks Wooster Collective! I hate that "drinking the Kool-Aid" has taken on diabolical meaning!

Catching air

Above: Julia Fullerton-Batten, "Mirror" (Randall Scott Gallery).
Below: Kerry Skarbakka, "Reflected" (Irvine Contemporary).

I like 'em both a lot!

Jeff Koons retrospective

Thoughts from New Yorker art critic Peter Schjeldahl here about Jeff Koons' retrospective show at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago. Schjeldahl's apocalyptic summary of Koons' work:

We might wish for a better artist to manifest our time, but that would probably amount to wanting a better time.

Arty stuff this week . . .

Looking Up
Scott Ponemone
July 8 - August 16

Artist reception:
Tuesday, July 8
6 - 9 pm
@ Heineman Myers
4728 Hampden Lane
Bethesda, MD

Water, Water
July 10 – August 16

Graham Caldwell
Noriko Furunishi
Gianfranco Gorgoni
An-My Le
Cameron Martin
Linn Meyers
Maggie Michael
Dan Steinhilber

Opening reception:
Thursday, July 10
6:30 – 8:30 pm
@ G FINE ART
1515 14th Street, NW

Truly Herbert
All-media exhibition through August 2

Artist's talk:
Thursday, July 10
7:30 pm
@ Greater Reston Arts Center
12001 Market Street Suite 103
Reston

New Directions and Alternative Processes:
An informal discussion about prints from the Hand Print Workshop International

Thursday, July 10
7:30 pm
@ Civilian Art Projects
406 7th Street, NW, 3rd Floor

Eva Jacob
Neighborhood Watch
July 10 – August 4

Opening Reception:
Thursday, July 10
6:30 – 8:00 pm
@ The Art League Gallery
105 North Union Street
Alexandria, VA

Ann and Philip Bennet
Dual Reality
July 2 - July 27

Opening reception:
Friday, July 11
6 to 8 pm
@ Foundry Gallery
1314 18th Street NW

Hereinafter & Death and Glory
by Torkwase Dyson and Mario Wagner
July 11 - August 1

Opening Night:
Friday, July 11
7 - 9 pm
@ Meat Market Gallery
1636 17th Street, NW



Figurative/Narrative: Memories of a Presence
July 11- August 28
Billy Colbert
Paul Andrew Wandless
Micheal Janis

Reception:
Friday, July 11
5:30 - 8 pm
@ Smith Farm Gallery
1632 U Street, NW


Richard Currier
July 11 - August 9

Opening reception:
Friday, July 11
6 - 9 pm
@ Longview Gallery
1302 9th Street, NW


ACADEMY 2008
July 11 – 26

Reception:
Friday, July 11
6 - 8 pm
@ Conner Contemporary
Taurus Development
1341 H Street, NE

Definition
Celina Amaya, Steve Ioli, Patrick McDonough, Teresa Sites
Curated by Academy Artist, Diane F. Ramos
July 11 - August 10

Opening:
Friday, July 11
6 - 8 pm
@ SOVA Espresso and Wine Bar
1359 H Street, NE



8
July 11 - September 5

Peter Van Agtmael
Alison Brady
Alexandra Catiere
Jessica Dimmock
Kyoko Hamada
Tema Stauffer
Ryoko Suzuki
Shen Wei

Reception:
Friday, July 11
7 - 9 pm
@ Randall Scott Gallery
1326 14th Street, NW

Focus On Washington:
Reynolds & Griffin - My Name is Jason
Mandy Burrow - Every Day
Ben Tolman - An Allegory in Ink
July 11 - August 29

Opening reception:
Friday, July 11
6 - 9 pm
@ Hillyer Art Space
9 Hillyer Court (behind the Philips Collection)

A People’s Geography: The Spaces of African American Life
May 2 - September 7

Panel discussion with artists and scholars:
Saturday, July 12
2 pm
@ Reginald F. Lewis Museum
830 East Pratt Street
Baltimore, MD

Featuring:

Jason Miccolo Johnson
Photographer and Author of Soul Sanctuary: Images of the
African American Worship Experience

Deborah Willis, Ph.D.
Photographer and Professor, New York University

Stephen Marc
Photographer and Professor, Arizona State University

Linda Day Clark
Photographer and Professor, Coppin State University

Suzette Spencer, Ph.D.
Professor of Afro-American Studies, University of Wisconsin-Madison



Exquisite Corpse
July 12 through August 9

Karren Alenier . Mark Behme . Bobbi Clay . Christopher Conlon
Warren Craghead III . Patrick Finley . Fred Folsom . Gail Gorlitzz
JoAnne Growney . Stephen Hanks . Elyse Harrison . Neil Joffe . John Landis
Emery Lewis . Donna M. McCullough . Emily Piccirillo . Shelley Sarrin
Rima Schulkind . Ed Thomas . Joyce Zipperer . Birdie Zoltan . Student Artists
Voices from Eastern Village . Voices from Silver Spring Drop-In Center

Opening:
Saturday, July 12
5 - 8 pm
@ Gateway's Heliport Gallery
8001 Kennett Street, Suite 3
Silver Spring, MD



We Are Mixing It Up For You
and helping out
Doctors Without Borders

Mixology I: Paintings and Works on Paper
July 12 - July 19

Mix it Up with us:
Saturday, July 12
6:00 - 8:30
@ curator's office
1515 14th Street nw

Curator's Office is covering the gallery walls with paintings, drawings, and prints to help out Doctors Without Borders / Médecins Sans Frontieres. Our goal is to raise at least $ 5,500, which could pay for an emergency health kit to care for 10,000 displaced people for three months. Together, we and art can make an important difference.

Artists to date:

Breck Brunson | Charles Cohan | Eric Finzi | Peter Fox

Eric Hibit | Leslie Holt | Jason Hughes | Ben Jurgensen

Michele Kong | Kristofer Lee | Jessica Langley | J.W. Mahoney

Kate McGraw | Jiha Moon | Cory Oberndorfer | Tim Rollins & K.O.S.

Eduardo Santiere | Chris Scarborough | Ann Tarantino | Denise Tassin

Jacques Vidal | Andy Moon Wilson | and quite a few others...

Michael Dax Iacovone
The Numbers Behind

Opening reception:
Saturday, July 12
6 – 8pm
@ Flashpoint
916 G Street, NW

Surfboard inspiration

I have been coveting these Peter Dayton "surfboards" inspired by stripe artists, like Barnett Newman and Kenneth Noland, who were favored by the powerful critic Clement Greenberg. I also liked this Matt Spahr installation at Civilian Art Projects last November. A couple of the pieces were inspired by Greg Noll surfboard designs and their construction employs actual surfboard-making techniques. Why am I posting about this now? Because after many months I will finally take possession of the Matt Spahr on the left. Woooooo!

July 4th festivities

I always feel like such a slouch next to glamorous Xavier. For one thing, he owns more shoes than I! Plus he's totally hot. And get a load of that view from his terrace for crying out loud! He is among the finest hosts I've ever come across, making his guests feel totally welcome and loved. A wonderful way to spend the 4th of July.


I know it's hokey, but I absolutely love fireworks.


Two of my best pals.

Washington Life mentions Salon Contra

The Contrarians Ride Again
The quick-witted French of the 17th century snapped up the delicious Italian word sala, or "room," and deftly applied to the gatherings of their bewigged, literary precieuses. Pink Line Project founder Philippa Hughes translated this concept into Salon Contra, hosted at her own Logan Circle apartment, where Contrarians ranged from architects, framers, and image stylists to interior decorators, performance artists, real estate developers, and even a magician. After wine, dumplings, and merriment, Mike Weber and guests vowed to make 14th Street nightspot Marvin (2007 14th St., NW) the Tuesday-night-hub of the District's creative community. At the very least, it'll be a nice way to get all the art history majors into one place.

Toast at Poste for Obama

Toast at Poste

benefiting the Obama Victory Fund

Performance by No Second Troy

Wednesday, July 16
@ The Courtyard at Poste
555 8th Street, NW

6 pm - VIP reception
$150

7 pm - General reception
$50

RSVP Required

More unsubstantiated accusations

More local art luminaries are now being accused in a McCarthy-style witch hunt of being "The Collector," the person who ransomed Tim Tate's glass rocket sculpture for monopoly money and resurfaced at this year's Artomatic with additional weird escapades. I refuse to sit back and allow my good friend Kristina Bilonick to be publicly charged with this malfeasance. She is much too subtle and cool for this sort of thing. Plus I seriously doubt she has had time for these shenanigans considering she has been preparing for her show at Transformer, which opened last weekend and which is awesome. See above for picture of me and Claire Huschle enjoying Kristina's show immensely!

From Amy Argetsinger and Roxanne Roberts in the Washington Post's Reliable Source:

Our quest to unmask "The Collector" -- the manifesto-writing, D.C.-artist-promoting, wild-goose-chase-leading prankster of the Artomatic show-- seems to have sent the local arts world into a tizzy, with artists eagerly dropping a dime on one another (perhaps to steer scrutiny away from themselves?). The latest suspects:

Kristina Bilonick

Glass and multimedia artist, Washington Project for the Arts staffer

Why her? A former Washington Glass School associate of Tim Tate, whose sculpture The Collector kidnapped (and returned) last year; like the author of The Collector's manifesto, an activist championing the local arts scene.

She says:"I emphatically deny it."

Alibi: The masked man who met us on the midnight ransom drop was clearly a dude.

Andrew Wodzianski

Oil painter, mixed-media artist

Why him? A fan of Tate, and a serious prankster who once dressed as a masked ninja at a gallery opening.

He says:"I'm flattered. [But] I am not The Collector. Most of my pranks are for self-promotion. What makes The Collector unique is that he's completely selfless. It's an altruism that's missing from any arts scene.

Alibi: Much taller, much skinnier than The Collector.

Not a magician

(Photograph by Darrow Montgomery)

I've spent some time getting to know David London and have seen him perform on a few occasions and I still cannot exactly verbalize what he does, though in some gut-level way, I sorta get him. Author Oliver Lucaks figures it out pretty well in this article for the City Paper. I suspect one reason I am drawn to this kooky person is that I kinda have the same problem: I can't explain what I do. Which sucks because most people want and need to categorize people. I often get pigeonholed as an event planner. But planning art events is simply a means to an end and the end is to see DC rise as a creative urban center.

Here's what I had to say about David London for the City Paper:

One person who understood the distinction is Philippa Hughes, founder of the D.C. art-event network the Pink Line Project. Upon meeting London at an artsy social last December and learning he was a magician, she was initially in a hurry to extract herself from the conversation.

“Well of course, the first thing I thought was David Copperfield,” she says, pantomiming corny magician hand gestures. “Great. A cheesy magician. Let me politely get away and talk to someone else. But it took about 30 seconds to realize that’s not what he was at all.”

Hughes decided to book London for one of her Salon Contra gatherings.

The odd thing, Hughes says, is that it wasn’t the magic tricks that wooed her, it was the showmanship.

“He’s pretty nerdy, but he’s very charismatically nerdy. That’s what fascinated me about him.” She says. “Here’s this nerdy kid who always wanted to be a magician,” she said almost vomiting the word, “doing card tricks. And he turns into this thing where he has people mesmerized. It’s pretty impressive. He embodies exactly what we need more of in D.C.”

Young arts patrons

(Moris Moreno for The New York Times)

Lin Arison, the Miami arts patron, with her granddaughter Sarah Arison, president of the Arison Arts Foundation.

Interesting piece in the New York Times about young people becoming arts patrons by taking over their family foundations that are dedicated to the arts. What I got from this article: running a foundation is far from glamorous and requires a great dedication to supporting the arts, but what you get in return is the opportunity to "witness creation." This kind of private support for the arts is critical to the survival of the arts and in turn the survival of humanity. I don't have gobs of family money, but I want to be a witness to creation so I seek out creative ways to become a patron of the arts. Anyone can do it.

While a previous generation of women turned to philanthropy because their career options were often limited, today’s young women (and men) have far wider horizons. Writing checks and attending benefits are a pretty easy sell for those who can afford it, but beyond that, full-time arts patronage means life in the nonprofit trenches. It is not necessarily something everyone wants to do.

“Real funding is not about parties,” said Patsy Tarr, a tireless dance advocate through 2wice Arts Foundation, which supports art, film, dance and performance through grants and charitable gifts, and publishes a magazine by the same name. “Real funding is about attendance, about sitting in the back of the theater during rehearsals and performances, about witnessing creation.”

Mrs. Tarr’s daughter, Jennie Tarr Coyne, knows her way around benefits; most recently she served as a co-chairwoman of the Dance With the Dancers gala at New York City Ballet (her first time at the helm). But she is also learning, as she puts it, that in order to be a true patron, “You have to be the real deal.”

This means drudge work like paying bills, fielding phone calls, answering mail and going to rehearsals to become more fully informed about an artist or choreographer. “I believe passionately that philanthropists are handmaidens to the art they support,” said Mrs. Tarr. “We do not see ourselves in the world of philanthropy at all. We see ourselves in dance and museum education.”

Hello Kitty!

An interview in The Art Newspaper with installation artist Thomas Hirshhorn explaining why Nietzsche is like Hello Kitty:

Both have a moustache! More seriously Nietzsche Car is the customised car made with the language of a Nietzsche-fan, and Hello Kitty is a form for showing love, and in this work, love for this specific philosopher. It is also my attempt to connect the two because I want to express: Yes, you can love both Nietzsche and Hello Kitty. Yes, you can agree with philosophy and you can agree with a toy kitty-cat.

More strange blog comments

I am fascinated by blog commenters who write anonymous opinions that don't make sense, or maybe I am missing something. Like this one. I am really curious what Confusing Anonymous Blog Commenter (CABC) means about this post by writing this:

DC Magazine trying to usurp it's way into Washington's creative community, yet they're not willing to pay fair value to artists who work with them. That doesn't seem right to me.

Please explain! Sure DC Mag is capitalizing on the coolness of contemporary art. Who can blame them. Contemporary art is super cool! But what does CABC mean when he/she says that they're "not willing to pay fair value to artists who work with them?" Magazines use publicity as their currency. They give that to you in exchange for you letting them print your name and pretty pictures of you and flattering stories about you on their pages. That's how it typically works and for the most part it works quite well. As far as I know, DC Mag has been doing a great job trying to step up its local art scene coverage and, in the big picture, that's good for all of us and I am happy to work with them to give greater exposure to artists and other key players who are doing good things. But if CABC is refering to some other kind of more nefarious situation, then I'd really like to hear about it because CABC is making quite an accusation.

Arty stuff this week . . .

Paul Vinet

is pleased

to invite you to the inauguration of
his first large scale outdoor sculpture

at Fort Totten,
5210 3rd Street NE
Wednesday July 2nd from 6 pm to 8:30 pm.

Investing In Creativity

Attribution for this image.

Thanks James Alefantis, collector and restaurateur extraordinaire, for sending me this link to a piece entitled: "Why Artists need More Than Creativity to Survive".

This research identifies the critical contribution that artists make to our society and economic the difficulty of being an artist.

Throughout our history, artists in the U.S. have utilized their skills as a vehicle to illuminate the human condition, contribute to the vitality of their communities and to the broader aesthetic landscape, as well as to promote social change and democratic dialogue. Artists have also helped us interpret our past, define the present, and imagine the future. In spite of these significant contributions, there's been an inadequate set of support structures to help artists, especially younger, more marginal or controversial ones, to realize their best work. Many artists have struggled and continue to struggle to make ends meet. They often lack adequate resources for health care coverage, housing, and for space to make their work. Still, public as well as private funding for artists has been an uneven, often limited source of support even in the best of times economically.

The research then suggests ways to improve the situation.

...improving support structures for artists in the U.S. will not be accomplished simply by restoring budget cuts, though we will certainly need to rebuild these kinds of direct financial support going forward. Making a real difference in the creative life of artists will entail developing a new understanding and appreciation for who artists are and what they do, as well as financial resources from a variety of stakeholders. Achieving these changes involves a long-term commitment from artists themselves, as well as arts administrators, funders, governments at various levels, community developers and real estate moguls, not to mention the business and civic sectors (emphasis added).

It's simply not enough to rely on government grants. Supporting a creative community requires participation by many stakeholders, including art collectors! I've said it before and I'll say it again, though buying paintings is an important way collectors can support artists, there are many other ways that collectors can participate in developing a thriving art community. And it doesn't take lots of dough to move beyond a passive role, just a little creative thinking.