Arts Agenda: No Money, No Problem
If you've been complaining that Memorial Day weekend wiped out your wallet, D.C. art venues heard your pleas for something a little less draining on your finances. This weekend the city is chock full of free activities, from private gallery openings to neighborhood wide social events. Put on your walking shoes and check out the following:
>> It's time again for the annual Dupont Kalorama Museum Walk Weekend. Held on the first full weekend in June, eight area museums are opening their doors on Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Sunday 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. with free admission and activities for all ages. See the complete schedule of activities here, like live Latino and Caribbean music at the Fondo del Sol Visual Arts Center, toy vendor Ben Sherman demonstrating his delightful playthings at The Phillips Collection, and hands-on activities in the Textile Museum's garden. Be sure to check out the event-wide activities and meet some of your neighbors during the Embassy Row tour or the children's scavenger hunt.
>> Warm-up for the weekend long event with First Friday, the monthly open gallery night in the Dupont area. See a map of participating venues here. You might want to make sure to stop by Studio Gallery, which just opened Re-creation - A green artist's view by Washington Glass School co-founder Erwin Timmers, who manipulates found glass items to create works that stimulate environmental discussion. Timmers uses his art to encourage sustainable design, like the "green" furniture and art he recently made for the Environmental Protection Agency's courtyard.
>> On Saturday, continue your free culture ride with the 1515 14th Street NW openings. Check out The Amazing Career of an Imaginary Soul Superstar in Hemphill's Galleries 1 and 2, and New Paintings by Tina Newberry in Gallery 3. If the abstraction and one-note hits of the ongoing Color Field movement bore you, stop by Adamson Gallery's new show Pulp Fiction, a group exhibit featuring pieces that work in narrative, telling stories of poets and cowboys, poker playing and fortune telling. Finally, swing by G Fine Art to see José Ruiz explore immigration issues, Vesna Pavolovic question image and desire with her photographs of staged houses, while Lisa Marie Thalhammer digs her artists hands into the trucker community. All three receptions are 6:30 to 8:30 p.m.
Photo by techne.
>> Then head on over to U Street, where Ellyn Weiss opens a new show at the Nevin Kelly Gallery. Her prints in Time of War seem to focus more on the "War is Hell" concept than any political leanings. Weiss is a busy, busy woman, and you may have also seen her work recently at Artomatic, or in the ongoing exhibits at Warehouse and Touchstone. So if that ain't enough, stop by Nevin Kelly Saturday between 5 and 8 p.m. to see more.
>> Trade your Patriot fries for the good ol' French variety at Honfleur Gallery in Anacostia. They're opening a new show titled Tisse Sa Soile by French painter Delphine Perlstein. Her work focuses on the European viewpoint of American culture based on her travels through the U.S. Take a look through someone else's eyes and discover her integration of abstract and realist features at the opening reception Saturday at 7 p.m.
>> The Free keeps going at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, which is squeezing all it can out of their ongoing Saul Steinberg exhibit. This Saturday take at seat in the McEvoy Auditorium for a production by improv troupe Now This!, which will use Steinberg's New Yorker cartoons as a jumping-off point for their improvised sketches. The hilarity will ensue at 3 p.m. sharp. On Sunday, same time, same place, listen to New Yorker Cartoon Editor Bob Mankoff talk about Steinberg's "Funny Years."
>> If moving pictures are more your style, check out FLIK, an "International Flash Film Festival" by the folks at Art Outlet, held at Warehouse. This weekend long ode to Macromedia's Flash and its ability to provide artists of all levels a useful tool to create films is in line with Art Outlet's mission to bring art (and the ability to make art) to The People.