Pages

Fantastic Opportunity for DC artists

2010 WPA PUBLIC ART RESIDENCY PROGRAM
Deadline: Friday, April 23, 2010
Public Talk: Tuesday, April 6, 2010 4-6PM at the Corcoran Gallery of Art Auditorium


Washington Project for the Arts (WPA) and the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities (DCAAH) are
partnering with Socrates Sculpture Park (SSP, the Park) in Long Island City, NY to create a Public Art
Residency (PAR) Program to instruct and inform artists about practical and conceptual issues related to
the creation of public art. Through this program, artists will learn the fundamentals of developing a
proposal for public art work, identifying sources for materials and funding of projects, and access a
support network for technical assistance and future opportunities related to creating and presenting art
in the public realm.

In this pilot program, one artist who resides in the District of Columbia will be selected to receive a two
month paid residency and exhibition opportunity at Socrates Sculpture Park. The work will be
exhibited under SSP's "Open Space" program from September 12, 2010 to November 2010
(end/deinstallation date to be determined and agreed upon by the artist and SSP). Once the exhibit has
ended, the artist will re-fabricate or re-install, in Washington, DC, the work made through the
residency. The artist will be required to give a public presentation about his or her residency experience
and may also be asked to advise WPA and/or DCCAH on other public art initiatives.


ABOUT SOCRATES SCULPTURE PARK
Socrates Sculpture Park was an abandoned landfill and illegal dumpsite until 1986 when a coalition of
artists and community members, under the leadership of sculptor Mark di Suvero, transformed it into an
open studio and exhibition space for artists and a neighborhood park for local residents. The Park is an
innovative public/private partnership that has become an internationally renowned outdoor museum
and artist residency program that also serves as a vital New York City park offering a wide variety of free
public programs.

Located in an industrial neighborhood in Long Island City, Socrates is a waterfront park that overlooks
the Manhattan skyline; the site is an affecting and inspiring place for artists to work and a spectacular
setting for the presentation of public art. To date, Socrates has hosted close to 800 artists and currently
attracts more than 78,000 visitors annually. Socrates Sculpture Park's existence is based on the belief
that reclamation, revitalization and creative expression are essential to the survival, humanity and
improvement of our urban environment.

Socrates Sculpture Park is the only site in the New York Metropolitan area specifically dedicated to
providing artists with opportunities to create and exhibit large-scale sculpture and multi-media
installations in an outdoor environment that invites interaction between artists, artworks and the public.
Socrates is a laboratory where experimentation and innovation expand, reinvent and redefine the tradition of art in public spaces. To learn more about the Park, please visit their website:
www.socratessculpturepark.org.

ARTIST ELIGIBILITY
This opportunity is open to all artists who live in the District of Columbia. Artists who are enrolled in a
school, college or university at the time of the residency (May - September 2010) are not eligible for the
PAR Program.

PROGRAM DESCRIPTION
For this pilot program, WPA, DCCAH, and SSP will select one artist from an open call to receive financial support in the amount of $4,500 ($2,500 production grant + $2,000 living/travel stipend), a residency in the SSP outdoor studio, and access to facilities, materials, equipment and technical assistance to create a work for exhibition at SSP to coincide with the Park's annual Emerging Artist Fellowship Exhibition. The selected artist will also be given (by SSP) limited administrative assistance to conduct additional fundraising for his/her project, procure in-kind support, and pursue future commissions, residencies and placement for his/her work. The selected artist will have to make their own living and travel arrangements.

Artists interested in this opportunity are asked to submit a proposal for an artwork to be created and
exhibited at SSP. Artists applying for this opportunity are strongly encouraged to visit SSP and/or
attend the public talk by SSP Executive Director Alyson Baker at the Corcoran Gallery of Art Auditorium on April 6, 2010 from 4-6pm before submitting their application. The auditorium is located
at 500 Seventeenth Street NW, Washington, DC.

Applicants must take into account the site's rugged, urban outdoor environment and be aware that
sculptures installed in the Park must meet safety requirements and be able to withstand the effects of
weather and public use. Visiting the site will give applicants a clearer idea of the factors that affect
installations at the Park and an overview of the facilities that the Park has to offer, including the tools
and equipment available in the studio and the materials and resources available in Long Island City.
Interest applicants can visit the SSP website, attend the public talk by Alyson Baker on April 6, or contact WPA for images of past Open Space projects at the Park.



click here to download the full call for artists and entry form>>


The 2010 WPA Public Art Residency Program is funded in part bythe DC Commision on the Arts & Humanities DC Creates! Public Art Program and made possible with assistance from Socrates Sculpture Park.

# # #

WPA is supported by its members, Board of Trustees, invaluable volunteers, and by generous contributions from numerous individuals and the D.C. Commission on the Arts & Humanities, William C. Paley Foundation, The Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation, Gallery O/H, Haleh Design, MOI Inc., Allied Telecom Group LLC, Arent Fox LLP, Arnold and Porter LLP, Conrad and Ludmila Cafritz, Akridge, American University Museum at the Katzen Arts Center, Hickok Cole Architects, TTR Sotheby's International Realty, The Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation, Michael-Cleary, Vivo Design, The Washington Post Company, Yvette Kraft, Salesforce.com Foundation, Conner Contemporary Art, and PLAZA Artist Materials.

Click here to join the wpa mailing list
Support wpa today
www.wpadc.org

Washington Project for the Arts
2023 Massachusetts Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20036
202.234.7103
www.wpadc.org
reade more... Résuméabuiyad

Son of Hamas by Mosab Hassan Yousef

Son of Hamas: A Gripping Account of Terror, Betrayal, Political Intrigue, and Unthinkable Choices









This book left me terribly conflicted. I was forming an opinion of the author and his actions as I read, but his postscript turned my opinions around at the end. I was left with lots of discussion material, and lots of questions. This is a great reading club book.

This man, born and raised in the Palestinian settlements of the West Bank, is the son of a leading Hamas figure. Jailed by the Israelis at eighteen years old, he becomes an informant for the Shin Bet, the Israeli intelligence service upon his release. His recruitment is detailed in the book, and it is classic. The good-looking, polite, smiling, soft-talking, friendly blond recruiter takes this essentially fatherless youth from an extreme prison situation and explains the delicacy of his position.

One can only imagine the exhaustion of those involved with demands for Palestinian rights--over forty years they have been living in increasingly putrid settlements feasting on hate and resentment. I am not going to judge this man, but I will say that I was aghast and horrified to read of his role as informant. I completely understand how one can see the contradictions in the Qur'an, and reject its literalness. I completely understand how one would want to get away from the misinformation, boredom, sanctity-of-death mirage, and cruel inequities of life on the West Bank as a Palestinian. He sounds like an ordinary young man with extraordinary demands placed upon him.

Yousef is clearly a religious man. His father is a cleric, and taught him the importance of the written word. When Yousef failed to find comfort and peace (and perhaps justification for his chosen path) in the words and teachings of the Qur'an, he found what he sought in the words of Jesus Christ in the Bible's New Testament. I was astonished to read in his early years studying Christianity that he found no violence or vengeance in the Bible. Later we learn he'd never read the Old Testament. Years on now, he has probably found that Christians can be as closed and vehement and intolerant as any Muslim, as full of righteous indignation and fervid vengeance as any Israeli Jew. And none of it matters so much as the constant, plodding insistence on trying to see and speak reason, to live an admirable and courageous life, to give and receive love. I imagine all the religions write about this, but hardly anyone actually lives it. It is not for me to judge Yousef. That is between him and his God.
reade more... Résuméabuiyad

glass panels

Lining up some works-in-progress to think about concrete and color
reade more... Résuméabuiyad

The Big Short by Michael Lewis

The Big Short








Lawd. This book took my breath away. I remember what I was doing at several critical moments described in the book and to have been so unaware makes me breathless. I learned things and feel oddly vindicated and cheated at the same time. I knew dumb people were making money with my money: vindicated. I thought some people in the government might be smart enough to realize what happened and know what to do: cheated.

Michael Lewis played two roles in writing this book about the subprime loan debacle. One the one hand he did the plebian job of untangling a very messy ball of knotted threads and on the other hand did a herculean job of elevating the discussion above the rock-slinging and shouting to which some angry losers are wont to resort. His characterizations of those involved on both sides of the trades are intimate enough to involve our emotions as well as our interest, but I think what really charmed me was the absurdity of some phrases that matched so perfectly the absurdities he was describing:
Inside Morgan Stanley, the subprime lending boom created a who-put-chocolate-in-my-peanut-butter moment. (p.201)

Osama and his team of bombers couldn't have done what our own Wall Street firms and their rating agencies and regulators did to the U.S. people and to the credibility of the U.S. government:
It was as if bombs of differing sizes had been placed in virtually every major financial institution. The fuses had been lit and could not be extinguished. All that remained was to observe the speed of the spark, and the size of the explosions. (p.225)

It seems ridiculous for me to urge you to read this book. Don't read it. You'll sleep better. But please don't go investing on Wall Street unless you want your nuts torn off.
reade more... Résuméabuiyad

Rock and Roll Jihad by Salman Ahmad

Rock & Roll Jihad: A Muslim Rock Star's Revolution








The best thing I liked about this book is something that is not in it: the music. As a result of reading of Ahmad's struggle to be a musician in a country that no longer valued new forms of musical expression (Pakistan in its ideologue phase), I downloaded some of his music and found it fascinating and accessible, retaining some essential South Asian characteristics while sharing some of our instruments, rhythms, and feel. But Ahmad does a good job of showing the trajectory of his life, the choices he made, the kismet he enjoyed, the focus he retained. What struck me most was that through his telescope, time in Pakistan became a lens through which we view could changes in the society, and in the government. One can see that the rich cultural underpinnings of the society are squelched by religious fervor for a period of time, like a wave. In that sense, this book reads a little like a history book of modern Pakistan, and is interesting for that.
reade more... Résuméabuiyad

Katzen Design fürs Notebook


Mal was besonderes.

Ein Katzendesign für das Notebook.

Bei 123skins bekommt noch viele mehr. Auch für Katzenfreunde finden sich einige Motive.
Das Highlight - man kann auch sein eigenes Lieblingsfoto für jedes gängige Notebook, Netbook oder Handy hochladen und als Designfolie schneiden lassen.

Tolle Geschenkidee!

Hier kann man die Folie erstellen lassen.




123skins

reade more... Résuméabuiyad

so many places

Maybe i'm in too many places. maybe not. i'm happy and excited about the work that i do, so i guess its working out fine.
I make glass art: www.dcsean.com
I create painted and plastered finishes on peoples walls: Scenic Artisans
I'm engaged in my neighborhood: Blooomingdale
I tweet: wheresmycoffee
I tumble: Sean's Inspiration Sketchbook
I flick: Scenic Artisans
I look at faces: Sean Hennessey Fan Page
I have a space: (does anyone use myspace anymore?)
I blog: wheresmycoffee.com
I sell some small easily shippable sculpture: ScenicArtisans.etsy
I still sometimes work in Theatre: Pepe!
I refinish furniture: Gilded Mirror
I help my wife with designs: Notebooks
I make signage: Law Office Sign

I think if i just did one kind of thing i'd get bored.
reade more... Résuméabuiyad

Washington Glass School 9th Anniversary Open House and Studio Sale


Washington Glass School 9th Anniversary Open House and Studio Sale

This May marks our 9th year providing some of the highest level glass/metal/sculpture classes in the region. We are joining with the Gateway Arts District's scheduled open studio tours to also celebrate Mt. Rainier Day.

Always one of our favorite events, from the Mt. Rainier parade in the morning to a huge selection of art from our instructors, TA's and invitees, all surrounded by other incredible ceramic and painting studios. Music, Art, Food, Class Specials, Demos, Fun!

Where: The Washington Glass School, 3700 Otis St, Mount Rainier, MD
Date : May 15th
Time: 1pm to 6pm
FREE
Website for more info
reade more... Résuméabuiyad

Neu: ein Katzenkalender der besonderen Art

Träumkatzenbilder von Wolfgang Schwerdt jetzt als Kalender

Das digitale Zeitalter machts möglich. Über die Internetgalerie "redbubble" können nun hochwertige Kalender zu erschwinglichen Preisen produziert werden. Diese Gelegenheit habe ich genutzt und einen Träumkatzenkalender gestaltet.





















Ach ja, wo ich gerade dabei bin, erlaube ich mir auch noch meinen neuen Blog vorzustellen, für alle, die Bücher, Kunst und vor allem Fantasy mögen, ein absolutes muss, immerhin wird hier auch mein neues Buch "Die Drachenwächterin" präsentiert, das ab 29.03.2010 im Handel zu finden ist.
reade more... Résuméabuiyad

No One Would Listen by Harry Markopolos

No One Would Listen








This is an outstanding piece of work. Bernie Madoff was investigated by Markopolos and his team over a period of ten years, and yet this book reads with all the urgency and thrills of a case unfolding now and in a short window. Markopolos admits he is not politically correct, and he holds back no punches for agencies that obstructed, obscured, and ignored information that could have led to the detention of Madoff years before his scheme became widely known. And Markopolos is funny. The language in the book reads as though he were speaking--it has an immediacy, and an irreverence that most of us wouldn't dare commit to paper but which gives the book a refreshing and unstudied artlessness. It is so not lawyerspeak.

This is a book we all need to read. I am here to say it is no burden to put this on your reading list. It is another example of how a good democracy can work. Citizens must take notice of fraud, and speak of it, lest it overtake us. Incompetence in the regulatory agencies we hire to protect us is unacceptable. We might even recognize unfettered greed as the social ill it is. Sometimes I think Americans get confused about this--they might even admire it.
reade more... Résuméabuiyad

things to do at 87 Florida

Bookmaking with Sush
@ 87FLORIDA: Celebrating Stories. Celebrating You!
87 Florida Avenue, NW, WDC 20001
Metro: Shaw/Howard University (green/yellow), NY Ave/Galludet U (red), Bus # 90, 92, 96

FAMILY CLASSES
Celebrate Love & Bookmaking:
Storybook Games
Sat, Feb 27. 10:30-11:30 am
Parent and child ages 2-5 · $20.00/2 persons
I am an artist, a bookmaker, a storyteller, and a mom. My story POP! A Tale of Fun is about my daughter and the fun things she makes me do. Hear the story, make the book, play the game with your child, and take it home to enjoy over and over.

Celebrate Love & Bookmaking:
Recording Memories
Sat, March 6. 10:30-11:30 am
Parent and child ages 5-9 · $20.00/2 persons
Inspired by the book LeLeMeNoPe: A Collection of Mis-spoken First Words etc., parent and child remember funny first words children said when they were "little." Like "lololip" for lollipop? Or "I cweams" for ice-cream? Spend an hour together, reminisce, make a book with stories of your child's own first words, bring home a keepsake!
TO REGISTER: Send NAMEs & AGEs of participants, PHONE, & E-MAIL to sushmitaideas@comcast.net. Fee includes materials and a $5.00 charitable donation to 1000FLOWERZ. Checks only. Registration on day of event welcome!

ADULT CLASS
You ARE Creative: Inspiration is Everywhere
Fri, Feb 26 and Mar 5. 6:30-7:30 pm
2 Adults 18 + · $30.00/2 persons/2 sessions .
Light refreshments will be served.
Transform an everyday object into a handmade book that tells a story about you. What do you see in the mirror? What does some object tell about you? Bring in something, take off your shoe and use it, or choose from "artifacts" we have. And make a unique storybook about you!

Click here TO REGISTER: Send me NAMEs & AGEs of participants, PHONE, & E-MAIL. Fee includes materials and a $5.00 charitable donation to 1000FLOWERZ. Checks only. Registration on day of event subject to availability.

www.87FLORIDA.com
www.HandmadeStorybooks.com
reade more... Résuméabuiyad

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks







Rebecca Skloot does a great job researching the material for this book--one gets the feeling she could make anything interesting. It must have been a difficult book to write because of the yawning time lag since the death of Henrietta Lacks and sketchy family and town histories. But Skloot manages to make the material immediate, fresh, and personal by introducing us to the remains of the Lacks clan, and by sharing with us her route to uncovering the science that makes Henrietta Lacks immortal. The sheer doggedness of her pursuit and the art involved in making the story not only readable, but riveting, parallels the best scientific research, much of which is healthy doses of perspiration with dashes of inspiration. I am pleased to see the book reach the bestseller lists, not simply because this is a story we all need to know, but because Skloot has promised to set up a scholarship fund for the family with some proceeds from the book. That payback must come from this source is regrettable, but somehow payback seems required. Skloot tells us that people often ask if taking cells without permission is illegal either then (in the 1950s) or now (in 2010). It is not. But even asking the question makes it clear that those people have some sense that payback is required. What kind of payback would be fair is something we need to think on.
reade more... Résuméabuiyad