ECA News Briefs

The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden will reopen its outdoor sculpture garden to the public Monday, August 17, marking the Washington DC, debut of two major outdoor sculptures by contemporary artists Huma Bhabha and Sterling Ruby. The new acquisitions join an array of more than 30 modern and contemporary works of art on display in the garden, which visitors will be able to enjoy with new health and safety measures in place due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The museum’s building and outdoor plaza remain temporarily closed to the public.

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ArtsFairfax board member and Virginia Speaker of the House Eileen Filler-Corn accepted the 2019 Public Leadership in the Arts Award for State Arts Leadership presented by Jay Dick, Americans for the Arts, and Tim Storey, National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) in a socially distanced presentation at the ArtsFairfax office. The award recognizes Speaker Filler-Corn’s commitment and leadership in the arts and her role as a state legislator who has consistently advocated for the advancement of pro-arts legislation, funding, and promotion.

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Kate Gibney and Divya T. Ahuja are two local artists from Northern Virginia area who have teamed up to keep the arts alive in these challenging times. When the pandemic affected the entire world, the arts and crafting community was among the hardest hit. With craft shows coming to a complete standstill, the two women decided to come up with an alternative for the crafting community to display and sell work.

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Hamiltonian Artists is pleased to announce the 2020–2022 Fellowship Program cohort. Maria Luz Bravo, Jason Bulluck, Joey Enriquez, Stephanie Garon and Lionel Frazier
White III will begin their Fellowship at the end of August 2020. The cohort was selected for their artistic vision, experience, potential, and their commitment to the Hamiltonian Artists’ mission and values. Representative of the artistic excellence and diversity found in and around Washington DC. This newest class of Fellows explores a wide range of mediums and conceptual frameworks
with particular emphasis on research-based exploration and community engagement. The new cohort will be joining the continuing 2019 – 2021 cohort of Fellows; Amber Eve Anderson, Tommy
Bobo, Yacine Tilala Fall, and Madeline A. Stratton.

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From October 1-25, Strathmore welcomes the community back with care to its 16-acre campus in North Bethesda, MD to experience Monuments: Creative Forces, an outdoor installation by Australian artist Craig Walsh. The exhibition’s subjects will be artists whose work and artistic endeavors are changing the shape of our community in profound ways. Expansive video portraits of these creative heroes, chosen by a diverse panel of community and arts leaders, will be projected on to towering trees, transforming them into animated sculptural monuments.

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In collaboration with Kindred Arts, All Power to All People—a traveling public art exhibition by acclaimed conceptual artist Hank Willis Thomas—will tour multiple locations across the United States leading up to the US presidential election in November 2020 to maintain the momentum of the ongoing protests for racial equity and offer a platform for civic leaders and activists. After a successful unveiling in Atlanta in July, All Power to All People will be exhibited at the Human Rights Campaign headquarters in DC (1640 Rhode Island Ave) from August 13 to 28 . The closing weekend of the exhibit coincides with this year’s anniversary march celebrating the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, where Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered his 1963 “I Have a Dream” speech.

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Portico Gallery and Studios announces the addition of Mary Turpin who will occupy Studio #1 following the departure of Valerie Watson. Turpin is returning to the Gateway Arts District; she previously worked out of EZ-Storage studios in Brentwood Maryland.

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The National Museum of Women in the Arts (NMWA) reopens to the public on Saturday, August 1. With guidance from the DC government, DC Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the museum has developed new cleaning, safety, health and operational protocols. A maximum of 200 visitors per day are allowed, and advance purchase of a timed ticket is strongly encouraged. On most days, the museum’s hours of operation remain unchanged. Extended hours are planned on select dates. Visitors should check https://nmwa.org/reopening for updated schedule information.

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The National Gallery of Art has announced the appointment of Sheila McDaniel as administrator. The Gallery’s administrator oversees the divisions of administrative support, architecture and capital improvement, facilities, horticulture, personnel, procurement, and security, which comprise more than one-third of the museum’s staff. Since 2004, McDaniel has been the deputy director of finance and operations at The Studio Museum in Harlem. When she begins her tenure on September 14, she will become the Gallery’s seventh administrator since the museum was founded in 1937 and will succeed Darrell Willson, who retired on July 3.

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Introduction of Two Contemporary Artists to the Sculpture Garden Expands Collection, Anticipates Reopening and Eventual Revitalization

The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden has announced significant acquisitions of new works by leading contemporary artists Huma Bhabha and Sterling Ruby. Through their respective practices, Bhabha and Ruby have worked for decades to create thought-provoking artwork that challenges viewers to understand sculpture in new ways. (more…)

The organizers of the annual art event have announced the cancellation of the 2020 Northern Virginia Fine Arts Festival due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The festival, which had already been rescheduled from its normal spring date, will return in 2021 to its typical weekend, the third weekend in May (May 14–16).

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On July 16, 2020, The Arts and Humanities Council of Montgomery County (AHCMC) announced the approval of $5,623,159 FY21 annual budget appropriation for AHCMC grants and administration and an additional $3,250,000 special appropriation for COVID-19 Relief Funding by the Montgomery County, MD Council. The $5.6M appropriation represents the County Executive Marc Elrich’s recommendation of stable funding over the FY20 budget and the $3.25M supports creative and scholastic professionals and arts and humanities organizations struggling financially due to the coronavirus pandemic.

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