March 19, 2008
Artomatic Comes Back to D.C. in May
This morning Artomatic announced that they'll be holding court with their massive art fair in North Capitol Hill from May 9 to June 15 this year. Originally a biennial deal, Artomatic suffered from lack of a venue in 2006, causing a three year gap. But this will now be their second show in two years, after their success in Crystal City last spring.
This year's venue is the Capitol Plaza 1 building, located at 1st and M Streets, NE, and will hold artwork on no less than eight floors, making it the biggest Artomatic ever. Located one block from the New York Avenue Metro stop on the Red line, the NoMa Business Improvement Distrist will act as the host for Artomatic this year by welcoming, judging from last year's numbers, around 800 artists and 50,000 visitors to the neighborhood.
Artomatic has not opened the door for submissions yet, but interested parties should sign up for their newsletter to get the information when it comes out. For those of you unfamiliar with the event, artists wishing to participate usually have to pay a small fee and commit about 15 hours of volunteer time over the month-long event, but there are no juries and it is generally a first-come-first-served selection. Visual, performance, and musical artists are showcased, all the way from established fine artists to, well, crafters making hideous clay ashtrays in their spare time, making it one of the most loved and hated art events in the region. Mark your calendar!
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Too bad about that entrance fee. I'd submit Perino the Sewage Trebuchet, but I'm having a hard time convincing my Nigerian investment partner to release my funds.
1st and M NE is now considered North Capitol Hill?
Well, it's in the NoMa BID area, which they call "Capitol Hill North," so I'll defer to their expertise on the neighborhood.
Yup. Just like huge stretches of Ward 8 are "East Capitol Hill" or "EEEK-a-Hell."
it's good to see they're finally doing SOMETHING with that office building. it's been kinda sad to see a nice big class-A, K street-style building just sitting there all alone in north swampoodle, waiting to be tagged or turned into a giant homeless shelter...
Gridskipper pretty much crapped all over NoMA this morning. Kinda sad that I had to come to Swampoodle's defense.
IMgoph:
Did you mean to write "class AK-47 office building" or am I still thinking of that Supreme Court story?
monkey -- bravo to gridskipper! i already decided this morning that i'm going with swampoodle when i write about it from now on. i'm boycotting the corporate focus-group tested name.
mike -- the class ak-47 building is across the street (the atf, natch)
NOMA may be dull, but that area between H Street NE and NOMA, sortof east of the Amtrak tracks, has the potential to be interesting.
what exactly are you talking about hillman? could you draw a box around the area you're talking about, because it isn't clear to me.
you've got me thinking h street on the south, about l street on the north, the tracks on the west, and 3rd street on the east — is that about right?
I'd say H Street going North, up to Florida Avenue, the tracks on the West, and probably 6th Street to the East.
Sortof depends to some extent on what they end up doing with the Florida Market, and what Doug Jemal does with the Uline arena.
you should come out to one of the florida market tours and see what it's like there now. if they just had a decent publicist, a lot less people would think of it as a blighted place that needs to be knocked down and rebuilt as clarendon east.
i think artomatic is fun and a huge asset to the arts community in dc. i'm happy its going on.
Artomatic 2008 will be 200,000 square feet.
Life is too short to look at 190,000 square feet of bad art.
Can someone go through it and map out the good stuff?
ML: I'll say, it was hard enough to find the good stuff last year, but 8 floors?! hopefully they will feature some good DC bands this time around.
ack. that picture of noma the facial gangrene just made me feel sick.
Well, I am psyched that Artomatic is back in DC. It'll be pretty dang convenient this year. And we won't have to listen to people complaining about how they are too stupid to find their way around Virginia.