This week the big news is the appointment (PDF) of Dorothy Kosinski as the new Director of The Phillips Collection. She’s currently the Senior Curator of Painting and Sculpture at the Dallas Musuem of Art, and comes with an impressive résumé that include extensive curating, acquisitions, and teaching experience. Kosinski will officially take over next spring, to replace retiring Director Jay Gates, just in time to take the reins on a five-year strategy the…

>> This week, start your arts viewing with a fascinating documentary on the lives of a powerful curator/collector and his ever controversial photographer lover. Black White + Gray: A Portrait of Sam Wagstaff and Robert Mapplethorpe examines the lives of these two men through those who knew them best, such as close friend Patti Smith, and how Wagstaff’s relationship with Mapplethorpe vaulted them both into careers as art world visionaries, not the least of which…

D.C.’s best arts and arts organizations were honored Monday night at the 20th annual Mayor’s Arts Awards. The gala ceremony, which took place at the Kennedy Center, was presented by the D.C. Commission on the Arts & Humanities and hosted by Mayor Anthony Williams and WRC anchor Jim Vance. Leonard Slatkin (shown at left), music director of the National Symphony Orchestra, was presented the Lifetime Achievement Award in recognition of his imaginative musical programming and…