ECA News Briefs

For the sixth year, Torpedo Factory Art Center welcomes four emerging artists to participate in the Post-Grad Residency Program: Ashley Llanes, Luis A. Navas-Reyes, Fanni Somogyi and Vi Trinh.

This competitive juried program provides three months of exclusive access to a studio in the Art Center. Therein, artists can create and sell work, interact with the public and connect with other arts professionals. The residency is unique for addressing the critical post-graduation juncture in an artist’s career, offering an opportunity for professional development, networking and a chance to define their practice outside of the academic context.

Applications were open to recently graduated students who earned a bachelor’s or master’s art degree from an accredited university. Submissions were accepted from across the nation, provided artists submit proof of their permanent residence in the area and/or commitment to contributing to the future of the region’s arts scene.

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Light Sculptor Craig Kraft’s piece Spiky Haired Woman of Sulawesi has been acquired by the government of Sulawesi, Indonesia.

As part of his 7-year inquiry into the universal urge to connect through mark making. Kraft traveled to South Sulawesi, under the guidance of a government supplied archeologist and translator to view 11 ancient cave sites. These Drawings and paintings are dated up to 40,000 BP including images of freshwater fish, ubiquitous handprints, areoa, a nearly extinct species resembling a small deer-pig. The spiky-haired woman drawing was graphic, dramatic and had attitude. Her action suggested a wild female hunter caught in action! It suggests that, at least in this part of the world, women were important as hunters in ancient times. The artwork will be sited at the welcome center at the ancient Sulawesi cave sites.

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The Capitol Hill Arts Workshop (CHAW), in partnership with Eastern Market Main Street (EMMS), is excited to announce the next phase of the Capitol Hill Alphabet Animal Art Project, a community-based public art project featuring installed sculptures on selected street signs in the Southeast quadrant of DC. In 2014, 10 sculptures were successfully installed through a pilot partnership with the DC Department of Transportation (DDOT).  Funded by a recent grant from the DC Community of the Arts and Humanities, the Alphabet Animal Art Project will work with DDOT to install ten additional sculptures throughout Advisory Neighborhood Commission 6B to intentionally broaden the span of the Alphabet Animal “path.” The new animal sculptures will be unveiled on Thursday, April 16, 2020 during Eastern Market Main Street’s Third Thursday celebration.

“The Alphabet Animal Art Project is so special,” says Hannah Jacobson, Project Manager, “and all of the sculptures both already completed and in production tell a story: individually in conversation with their street corners, their artists, and their materials, and together as a collective pathway encouraging new ways of engaging with spaces that may feel familiar. We are thrilled to be able to add another 10 animals to our community.”

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Kreeger Museum announces two new staff appointments: Danielle O’Steen joins the Museum as Curator; and Joanna Baker has been promoted to Registrar and Collection Manager. These positions, newly created by director Helen Chason, support the Museum’s mission to share art, reflect an increased focus on research, exploration, and stewardship of the permanent collection, and bring new opportunities to collaborate with other Washington, DC arts organizations.

“We are delighted to welcome Danielle to our staff and to announce Joanna’s newly expanded role,” said Chason. “These new positions are important steps forward for the Museum as we increase our engagement with the arts communities across the city and country; we are thrilled to have Danielle and Joanna with us.”

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At the regular monthly meeting of the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities (CAH), members voted to nominate Dr. Heran Sereke-Brhan to be the next executive director for CAH.

“This is a historic moment for the Commission as we select our first executive director as an independent agency within the District of Columbia government,” said Kay Kendall, Chair of the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities. “The Commission appreciates the great work that Heran has done during her time as interim executive director. She understands the agency and the challenges of the position from an on the ground perspective, but more importantly, she sees the opportunities for success. Heran is positive in her forward-thinking and is always focused on working as a team to develop the artistic and cultural community, and serving the residents of the District of Columbia.”

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The Smithsonian’s Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden announces “One with Eternity: Yayoi Kusama in the Hirshhorn Collection,” on view April 4 to Sept. 19, 2020. The exhibition debuts the museum’s new acquisitions by the Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama, including two of her renowned Infinity Mirrored Rooms. Building on the legacy of the museum’s 2017 blockbuster survey “Yayoi Kusama: Infinity Mirrors,” the forthcoming exhibition cements the enduring art-historical connection between the visionary artist and the Smithsonian’s national museum of modern art on the National Mall.

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Tennessee was FUN! We didn’t get a whole lot of work done, and we’re pretty sure we’re going to have to make a second visit, but we sure did have a blast while we were there. We spent a couple of nights and one full day in Nashville: eating, playing tourist, and, oh yeah, eating (Kate can’t control herself when biscuits are involved). We walked down Broadway and saw the honky tonks (which were in full swing at 11:00 am on a Tuesday), ate at Biscuit Love in the Gulch (and then needed a nap), visited Jack White’s Third Man Records, poked around Vanderbilt, and hung out in East Nashville.

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The City of Alexandria has unveiled the concept designs for the next temporary art installation coming to Alexandria’s Waterfront Park in 2020. Wrought, Knit, Labors, Legacies by Olalekan Jeyifous is the second in the Site See: New Views in Old Town annual public art series, which will be on display from March to November 2020.

Jeyifous’ concept frames Alexandria’s African American history through the lens of the city’s industrial and merchant history from the 17th to 20th centuries. Once a prosperous port city that was home to one of the largest domestic slave trading firms in the country, Alexandria was a major center for shipping and manufacturing with an economy inextricably tied to the work of enslaved and free African Americans.

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International Arts & Artists (IA&A) is pleased to announce a new traveling exhibition, Fire and Earth: Early Chinese Pottery, organized in partnership with the MacLean Collection of Asian Art.

Endowed with rich deposits of earth and clay, China claims one of the oldest and most exalted traditions of ceramic production in the world. Historically, pottery has long been an integral part of everyday life and burial practice in China. With its ever-evolving cultivation of new materials, kiln technologies, and glazing techniques, Chinese pottery has developed over thousands of years into one of the most significant and innovative of global art forms.

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Istrico Productions releases a new documentary to celebrate the anniversary of Torpedo Factory Art Center. Torpedo Factory Art Center celebrates two major milestones in 2019, the building turned 100 and the Art Center is 45.

The film is produced by Anthony Istrico and is written and directed by Nora Kubach. It explores the Art Center as an early example of placemaking in our country, a structure that went from making weapons of war and serving our nation, to now producing meaningful works of art by inspirational artists, and now serves its community in a different way.

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HEMPHILL Fine Arts has announced that after 15 years on 14th Street, they are moving the gallery to 434 K Street NW. HEMPHILL Fine Arts’ final day at 1515 14th Street NW was December 9, 2019. In January 2020, HEMPHILL Artworks LLC will begin operation at 434 K Street NW, branding as HEMPHILL.

During the remainder of December, they will fine tune systems, put the finishing touches on interior design, and welcome visitors by appointment to see the new gallery space. In early 2020, they open to the public with an exhibition of paintings and sculptures by Linling Lu. The Lu show follows her move into an expanded studio space in a historic Baltimore factory and a year of producing large-scale commissions. Lu has created an exhibition tailored to the new gallery space.

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In Situ Conservation of Six 18th-Century French Marble Sculptures
The 15-month in situ conservation treatment of six 17th- and 18th-century French marble sculptures in the East Sculpture Hall of the West Building will begin on December 12 and continue through early 2021. A live video feed will provide a close-up view of the conservation work, and gallery talks, including discussions with conservator Robert Price, will bring the conservation to life. Conservation of the sculptures is funded by a grant from the Bank of America Art Conservation Project.

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“We spent an amazing few days in Charles Town, West Virginia — less than two hours away from home, but a place neither of us had ever been before. In Charles Town we met Bob Shefner, the director of Jefferson County Community Ministries (JCCM) — an incredible organization that provides services to help folks without homes get back on their feet. Bob understood our project immediately and set up an entire day of meetings for us. We talked with everyone from JCCM staff, to the police chief, to the founder of the community gardens. It was a long and intense but incredibly rewarding day. We walked away so impressed by the way Charles Town’s community leaders have learned to disagree amicably and respectfully, and also by the city’s incredible history. Thank you Bob!!!

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