THE CONTEMPORARY ART SCENE IN WASHINGTON TODAY

THE CONTEMPORARY ART SCENE IN WASHINGTON TODAY
Panel 2 in a Series of 3 Organized by Washington Project for the Arts

Reframing the Gallery Model: Alternative Paths for Artistic Success
A panel discussion on achieving success without following the traditional gallery representation path co-presented with the Corocoran College of Art & Design.

Monday, April 26, 2010, 6:30 – 8:00 pm
@ Armand Hammer Auditorium, Corcoran College of Art + Design,
500 Seventeenth Street NW, Washington, DC 20006

Panelists:
Whitney Frazier, Artist, Educator, Community Arts Organizer (Child First Authority)
Janis Goodman, Artist, Professor (Corcoran College of Art + Design), Arts Reviewer (WETA’s “Around Town”)
Judith HeartSong, Artist
Allison Marvin, Art Advisor (Sightline)
Moderator:
Andy Grundberg, Associate Dean of Undergraduate Studies and Chair, Photography Department (Corcoran College of Art + Design)

The Washington Metro area is home to a number of commercial galleries and an even greater number of artists searching for some form of commercial success. Obtaining representation by a commercial gallery may be the goal of some artists, but not all choose to define success by that metric alone. And should an artist actually obtain representation by a commercial gallery (whether in DC or NYC), the artist-gallery relationship is no guarantee of success. So, what does constitute artistic “success?” Do artists differentiate between commercial and artistic success? What are viable solutions for artists to support themselves by making art if there is no gallery in the picture? Artists, academics, and arts professionals provide a few answers to these questions and more.

Whitney Frazier is an artist and the Child First Authority Community Arts Coordinator. She organizes ART CORE, a team of community artists working with students in after-school programs for Baltimore City Public Schools. Frazier is a graduate of the MACA (MA in community arts) program at the Maryland Institute College Art, the first program of its kind in the US to offer an advanced degree with an arts and social justice focus. (http://www.whitneyfrazier.com)

Janis Goodman is an artist, professor of fine arts at the Corcoran College of Art + Design, and arts reviewer for PBS/WETA. She is represented by Reyes + Davis Independent Exhibitions in DC, and her work has been shown nationally and internationally with recent exhibitions at JK Gallery in Los Angeles and the Peruvian North American Cultural Institute in Lima. Goodman is also a member of the artist group “Workingman Collective.” (http://www.janisgoodman.com/)

Andy Grundberg is a critic, curator, teacher, and arts consultant who has been involved with photography and art for more than 25 years. He has been a critic for The New York Times, organized major exhibitions, and has authored a number of books on the subject of photography. Grundberg was the director of The Friends of Photography in San Francisco, where he founded the quarterly journal see.

Judith HeartSong has been painting and muraling for more than 29 years in private residences and public spaces.  She served as the Membership Chair for the Orlando Chapter of The Women's Caucus for Art, worked on the committee to organize the Winter Park Autumn Art Festival, and has planned, organized, and hung countless juried shows.  HeartSong has developed and hosted popular painting workshops for law enforcement professionals, hospital care-givers, and mental health professionals, and has created and taught numerous programs to serve at-risk teens. Judith is currently on the Board of Directors for the Metropolitan Center for the Visual Arts (VisArts at Rockville), and maintains studio space there. In 2003 she painted a large mural at the National Zoo, and her limited edition prints are now available on Princess Cruise Line and the Queen Mary 2. In 2009 she licensed her original painting, Peacock Crimson, to Transformational Threads for a series of 100 limited edition thread paintings. (http://www.judithheartsong.com/)

Allison Marvin is the founder of Sightline (www.sightline.biz), an art consulting service that guides individuals and companies through art galleries and artists' studios. Marvin graduated magna cum laude from Haverford College in 1993, where she studied Comparative Literature and Art History with a focus on American and European modern and contemporary art. She organizes art events, such as open houses, meet-the-artist dinner parties, and solo exhibitions. Marvin serves on the Board of Directors of Transformer, a non-profit, artist-centered visual arts organization in DC, and runs a solo legal practice specializing in intellectual property, art, and business law (www.allisonmarvinlaw.com).

This panel is co-presented by WPA and Corcoran College of Art + Design.

Admission is free and open to the public.