Results tagged “museums>”

>> Directions: John Gerrard opens this Thursday at the Hirshhorn. In this exhibit, see Gerrard's farm-scapes and oil fields that raise questions regarding man's use and abuse of the environment.

In a major vote of confidence for the planned Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation announced that it is donating $10 million to the museum. The Gates money will go toward the museum's capital campaign for design and construction of its building along the National Mall. The total cost of the museum is said to be about $500 million, with half that amount coming from Congress and the rest to be raised by the museum. Groundbreaking for the 300,000-square-foot building is slated for 2012.

It's not exactly a holiday to get super worked up over when you live in the District, where the world's greatest empire holds its treasury, which is available for anyone to see for no cost. And many of the exciting fall shows haven't opened yet, meaning that the special exhibition schedule is light. Nevertheless, there are still a few hours of Free Museum Day left and a few spots in the District where that actually gets you something.

Written by DCist contributor Andrew Helms

    

Forty years ago next month, astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first humans to step foot on the Moon. The National Air and Space Museum is celebrating Apollo 11's historic journey throughout July, with book signings, presentations by experts on the Saturn V rocket, the Lunar Module, and even one on the "so-called Moon-landing hoax." The capstone lecture featuring the entire Apollo 11 crew and Mission Control creator Chris Kraft sold-out instantly through a free lottery last month, unfortunately.

>> Photography pioneer William Eggleston (who we heard gave an lively, if ornery, presentation to members last night) is featured in the Corcoran's new retrospective, opening Saturday. Democratic Camera shows how Eggleston changed the way photographers treated and viewers looked at color photography, using every day objects as subjects. The exhibit also includes some of his video and rare black and white photos. This week is also the start of Corcoran's Free Summer Saturdays (through August 29); head down for this Saturday's Earth First Family Day featuring art workshops, music, tours and more.

Today's arts agenda comes to you from Charlottesville, Va., where the annual LOOK3: Festival of the Photograph is starting. About a two and a half hour drive from D.C., you can get a single day or Festival Pass for tons of lectures by the likes of Sylvia Plachy, workshops on software and techniques, and exhibits from James Natchway and more. The festival goes on all weekend, so come on down and say hello to your DCist arts editor -- I'll be the one drooling over everything.

Fun little tidbit to close out the week. The Smithsonian's Air and Space Museum today acquired an 8-foot-high lighted star from New York's Coney Island’s now closed space-age theme park, Astroland. They sent over the above image of them receiving the actual star this afternoon, which shows Curator Margaret Weitekamp and Exhibit Designer Rebekah Brokway supervising their staff as they measure the Star. The Astroland Star will be on display at the National Air and Space Museum's Udvar-Hazy Center in 2011. You can see the sign where the star used to be on Coney Island here.

This weekend is the 26th annual Dupont Kalorama Museum Walk. Enjoy free admission and a plethora of activities at the ten participating museums including the Phillips Collection, the Woodrow Wilson House and the Textile Museum, just to name a few. The Museum Walk will take place Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Sunday from 1 to 5 p.m. Free shuttle bus service is provided between venues and bike parking will be available at key locations. A complete list of activities and events can be found online.

DCist teamed up with the Phillips Collection last month to sponsor the museum's Make Your Own Morandi contest, which challenged local photographers to create images in the style of Italian painter Giorgio Morandi. Morandi was famous for his still life scenes featuring everyday objects that portray a vague purpose, and his work is featured in a special exhibition that runs through May 24.

>> Transformer opens a thought provoking exhibit that challenges traditional notions of gender. Domesticated: Men and the Domestic Interior opens Saturday, with a curator and artist talk at 4 p.m. followed by a reception from 5 to 8 p.m.

You probably read the cute story in the Post on Monday about a woman who returned an overdue library book to Arlington County, 31 years later. Sarah McKee, who is now retired and living in Massachusetts, found the book while cleaning out her basement and mailed it back to the library, along with a check for $25. Well today the PR savvy Arlington Public Library announced it has created a little display of the book, along with a printout of the WaPo story, at their Central Library branch on North Quincy Street.

Don't forget to vote for your favorite Make Your Own Morandi photo from our three finalists. Tonight go see the real things at the Phillips Collection and check out the first installment of this is not that CAFÉ, designed to create interaction between artists and viewers. The café, run by On the Fly, will be open for purchases, and tonight visitors are encouraged to meet the project collaborators, the dB foundation. The event will take place every first Thursday during Phillips After 5.

April showers have overstayed their welcome, but the area's museums are offering some great indoor fun.

Tomorrow is the deadline for our contest with the Phillips Collection, Make Your Own Morandi. Get your photos in by midnight!

>> Presented by Project 4 and Civilian Art Projects, artists Noelle K. Tan and Laurel Lukaszewski exhibit new works tonight in A Fine Line in the lobby at 505 9th St NW. See how each pushes the threshold of their respective mediums, in photography and clay, at an artist's talk and reception. 5:30 to 7 p.m.

>> Tonight is a good time to head to the Arlington Arts Center, where you can always see tons of art in one space. They'll open their annual Spring Solos show, featuring an in-depth look at five up-and-coming artists, curated by the Hirshhorn's Anne Ellegood and D.C. collector Philip Barlow. Also in the Center are two more exhibits: in the "experimental gallery" downstairs, catch Mel Chin's Fundred Dollar Bill Project, and in the Wyatt gallery, Lisa McCarty's Neutrogena ad gone wrong in Time Sheet, made from blotting papers pressed to her face over the course of a year. 6 to 9 p.m.

DCist's guide to lectures and discussions in the D.C. area

>> The National Museum of African Art opened Mami Wata: Arts for Water Spirits in Africa and its Diasporas on Wednesday. The exhibition explores the visual cultures and histories of Mami Wata, examining the world of water deities and their seductive powers. On view now through July 26, 2009.

>> The new exhibit at the National Portrait Gallery is our pick this week, with Inventing Marcel Duchamp: The Dynamics of Portraiture. With 100 portraits and self-portraits of the artist in a wide range of media, the exhibit is a thorough examination of the way he reshaped the field through his own work and by influencing his peers. Fifty-eight other artists are included in the exhibit, such as Richard Avedon, Man Ray, and Andy Warhol. If you can make it by at 10 a.m. tomorrow, catch a discussion by conservators and curators from NPG, MoMA, and the Philadelphia Museum of Art on Jean Crotti's Duchamp portraits. Opens Friday, visit during regular hours, 11:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. daily.

Monday: >> The 14th Street Busboys has an evening of Welsh poetry and song tonight starting at 6 p.m., including work from Welsh writers Catrin Dafydd, Owen Sheers, Fflur Dafydd, Tom Anderson and Eurig Salisbury as well as D.C. poets Ethelbert Miller, Kyle Dargan and Fred Joiner.

>> The 24-hour Drawing Project is back again this year, this time at Hamiltonian Gallery (it was at Warehouse last year). The group of artists involved will work on their own individual projects for the full 24 hours, though "drawing" can be interpreted loosely. Stop by to see them work from 9 a.m. to midnight tomorrow and 7 to 9 a.m. Saturday morning.

Only a few more days to catch the DCist Exposed Photography Show. The show is open daily at the Gallery at Flashpoint, 12 to 6 p.m. through Saturday.

As we'll remind you a few more times over the next ten days, DCist Exposed continues to run at the Gallery at Flashpoint until March 7. See it Tuesday through Saturdays, 12 to 6 p.m. While we'd love to encourage you to attend our panel discussion, Emerge Exposed, next Tuesday, it seems we just hit capacity this morning. Thanks to those of you who RSVP'd early.

As you know, Valentine's Day is this weekend, and with it comes plenty of opportunities for arty couples to go on dates, and for singles to pretend the Hallmark holiday isn't happening at all. Read on for details about a whole art weekend taking place near the Navy Yard Metro, a flamenco festival and Presidential cupcake art.

>> This week we recommend heading to Hemphill Fine Arts for the opening of Selections from the Barnett-Aden Collection: A Homecoming Celebration, featuring two centuries of work by and about African-Americans. The collection began in a private home in Northwest D.C. by a professor and student of Howard University in the 1940s, when African-Americans could not show their work in museums and galleries. A number of people came together recently to recollect the artworks, restore them, and curate a portion of the 250 pieces into the show at Hemphill. DCist got a preview of the exhibition this morning, and we're impressed by the artworks themselves, the broad swath of styles and media they cover, and the rich history — much of it local — they encompass. We'll have a more in-depth review for you next week, but see them at the reception this Saturday from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m.

Did you hear that? It's the squealing tires of art world hitting the gas and letting go of the clutch as they careen into the political art scene like a carful of 16-year-olds off to their first kegger. Sure, there was political art going on the last eight years, but not a whole lot of it, and scanning our arts agendas for the past few years, it wasn't really happening in the District, home of the White House, much at all. The coming out party has arrived with the election of Barack Obama, and artists are harnessing the excitement to say hooray! Happy days are here again! Hope and stuff!

The holiday break is over, so just about everyone in the art world is taking advantage of the first non-brutally-hungover weekend of the year to open a new show. Before we start, we'd like to congratulate the locally based but becoming ever more world famous glass artist Tim Tate on the unveiling of his large-scale piece commissioned for the New Orleans AIDS Memorial. We should also note that Zenith Gallery, which celebrated its 30th anniversary in 2008, is closing its venue on 7th Street NW next month. The gallery owners are staying in the business, though, curating shows and managing art projects around town.

Looks like everyone is gearing up this weekend to open one last show for 2008, and there is so much good stuff, we're not sure how we're going to get to it all. Be sure to go below the fold to find this weekends' holiday art markets around town.

We're still in the belly of FotoWeek DC, with three more days of photography goodness going on all around the city. We'll round-up a few not-to-be-missed events, then see how the art world plans on transitioning back to normal.