Tis the Season!
All of us at the Washington Glass School & Studio Wish You and Family a Joyous Holiday Season! And a Happy Healthy New Year!
(L-R) Patricia De Poel Wilberg, Erwin Timmers, Christina Helowicz, Nancy Kronstadt, Kate Barfield, Tim Tate, April Shelford, Michael Janis, Trish Kent and John Henderson. Not pictured: Graciela Granek, Sean Robinson, Diane Cabe, Gabrielle Morris, Kyle Crosby, and Daphne Matyas.
With social injustice a common theme around the world, we are also currently witnessing the injustices committed against our natural environment. Like our ancestors, we sense nature’s vastness, yet we lack the same respect those indigenous peoples had for nature as a sentient being. We take the Earth’s vastness for granted. What we experience as nature pushing back is nature seeking balance.
With this exhibit, Fragile Beauty, 33 DC artists seek to bring a sense of balance to an array of environmental injustices. Their art and their vision advocate awareness, mindfulness, consciousness, and stewardship, offering pathways towards personal partnership with our planet. They tell their stories with painting, sculpture, prints, photography, and installations. They inform us of both the joyful and the sorrowful, the woeful and the hopeful. Their work will challenge, enlighten, and inform your sense of wonder for exploring the beauty, power, and magnificent mystery of our home planet. We thank these artists for their commitment to illuminating the importance of nurturing and protecting the fragile beauty of the place we all call home.
Fragile Beauty is the first juried art exhibition initiated by the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities. The new Juried Exhibition Grant provides support for DC artists to exhibit their creative vision to the residents of Washington, DC.
-Jarvis Grant
Featured artists: Tammy Barnes, Jeffrey Berg, Monica Jahan Bose, Elizabeth Casqueiro, Gloria Chapa, Michèle Colburn, Chris Combs, Shaughn Cooper with Kelsye Adams, Frank Hallam Day, Anna U Davis, R.A. Dean, Julee Dickerson-Thompson, Cheryl D. Edwards, David Allen Harris, Michael Iacovone, Michael Janis, Noel Kassewitz, Sally Kauffman, Barry D. Lindley, Patrick McDonough, Regina Miele, Steven Muñoz, Werllayne Nunes, Chelsea Ritter-Soronen, Lisa K. Rosenstein, Carly Rounds, Amanda Sauer, Alexandra Silverthorne, Ira Tattelman, Roderick Turner, Jessica van Brakle, Dawn Whitmore, Bahar Yürükoğlu.
Fragile Beauty
May 9 – July 1, 2022
Monday – Friday, 9:00 am – 6:00 pm ET
Opening Reception
Thu, May 12, 2022
5:00 PM – 7:00 PM EDT
Masks are required
Location:
DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities
Gallery
200 I Street, SE
Washington, DC 20003
Gallery Hours:
Monday – Friday
9:00 am – 6:00 pm
The District of Columbia Public Library (DCPL) is a dynamic source of information, programs, books and services, among them is their Makers Program, that includes a Fabrication Lab. The Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Library’s “Fab Lab”, complete with 3D printers, a laser cutter, soldering equipment, other machines is part of a new movement of public libraries embracing the “maker movement.” DCPL’s maker program is the largest of its kind in a public library, as they see the program as a force to bring together makers, artists, and creative people of all types and from all fields and backgrounds, encouraging cross-disciplinary cooperation. As part of the public engagement, the DCPL Makers & DIY Program is hosting a series of artists lectures at the newly refurbished MLK Memorial Library auditorium.
On Saturday, May 21, 2022, from 1:00pm – 2:00pm, Michael Janis, co-director of the Washington Glass School, will give a lecture on how the Washington Glass Studio created the “Green Community Gateway” with art made with the help of the community in Ward 7.
The “Green Community Gateway”, public art sculpture marks the symbolic entrance to the Kenilworth/Parkside section of DC’s Ward 7. Through a series of glass “quilting bees”, Washington Glass Studio brought together neighborhood residents, students of the high school, and the staff of the newly constructed Unity Healthcare facility to make glass art that would become an integral part of the arch.
This lecture program will take place in the auditorium at the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library, 901 G St. NW, Washington, DC 20001. Register at bit.ly/labsclasses.
The renovated Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library in Washington, DC, originally designed by Mies van der Rohe, the landmark library was rejuvenated by Mecanoo and OTJ Architects.
Environmental Justice Juried Exhibition Grant now open!
DC’s Commision on the Arts + Humanities invites District-based artists to apply for their new Juried Exhibition Grant! (Note: Must be a resident of Washington, DC)
Application deadline: Friday, January 21, 4:00 pm
Exhibition dates: May 9 – July 1, 2022
Exhibition theme: Environmental Justice. In their work, artists may address local and/or global questions of ecology, environmentalism, biodiversity, climate change, stewardship, the relationship of climate justice to social justice, and/or other related concepts and issues.
Click HERE to jump to CAH website for more info.
No Fake News! All Glass- All the Time!
Washington City Paper’s “Best of D.C.” Awards the Washington Glass School Blog as the Second Best Arts Blog in the DC area!
The new Washington DC City Paper publisher – Katy McKegney – said that their “Best Of D.C.” would mean just that—”a celebration of this city and all it has to offer, and of the work [the] residents, businesses, and institutions do to make D.C. the best it can be”.
And with that – in the Best of Arts & Entertainment category – Washington Glass School Blog was voted as Second Best Arts Blog! Woo-Hoo!
Since 2008 we have been pumping out stories on the DC and national art scene since Sean Hennessey started the blog. A big thank you to all the writers who have worked on the blog over the years!
Our collective hearts are full.
FY20 Art Bank Program (ABP) –In support of local visual artists, District art galleries, and District art nonprofit organizations, CAH acquires fine art from metropolitan artists to grow the Art Bank Collection. Artwork in the collection is owned by CAH and loaned to District Government agencies for display in public areas and offices of government buildings. The Art Bank Collection, which started in 1986, has over 3,400 artworks.
CAH seeks grant applications from qualified artists and District art galleries or District nonprofit organizations representing metropolitan artists for the acquisition of works of original two- and three-dimensional artwork including, but not limited to:
For the purpose of this grant, metropolitan artist is defined as a legal resident of Washington, DC, or a legal resident within a 50-mile radius of the Washington, DC boundaries, for at least one (1) year prior to the application deadline.
Application Release: Friday | May 3, 2019
Application Deadline: Friday | July 19, 2019 | 4:00 pm ET
Click HERE for info on how to submit for DCCAH Art Bank.
DCCAH Staff Contact: Ron Humbertson, Art Collections Registrar | ron.humbertson@dc.gov
The DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities invites all to the
AFP17 Visual Arts Exhibition
featuring applicants of the 2017 Artist Fellowship Program.
Tim Tate, “21st Century Guernica”; Glass, Cast Images, LED; 36″ x 36 x 4″. In this piece a ring of translucent refugee boats float in the center, all with no where to turn to.
This free exhibition presents some of the District’s finest visual artists applying for the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities’ FY17 Artist Fellowship Program (AFP) grant. Through the AFP, artists residing in the District may be awarded up to $10,000 in unrestricted support for FY 2017. Each artist has submitted a piece that represents their body of work and artistic perspective.
Washington Glass School artists Tim Tate and Michael Janis will each have artwork on display at the gallery thru Wednesday, August 31, 2016.
The gathering of these artworks in the District’s first operated public gallery captures the broad scope of the dynamic art scene and provides an opportunity for artists to express their visions directly to the panel of peer reviewers evaluating their applications and to the public.
Opening Night Details
Friday, July 29, 2015, 6 – 8 pm
AFP17 Exhibit dates July 29 – August 31, 2016
I (Eye) Street Galleries
200 I Street, SE, Washington, DC 20003
GALLERY HOURS
Monday – Friday
9 am – 5 pm
Michael Janis at the Smithsonian Museum. Photo by Miriam Rosenthal.
Washington Glass School sgraffito workshop. Photo by Miriam Rosenthal.
The James Renwick Alliance (JRA) is an independent national non-profit organization that celebrates the achievements of America’s craft artists and fosters scholarship, education and public appreciation of craft art. The JRA is the exclusive support group of the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the U.S. national showcase of contemporary American craft. Washington Glass School Co-Director Michael Janis was named “Distinguished Artist” by the JRA. The weekend’s events included a sgraffito glass workshop with Michael held at the Washington Glass School and Michael Janis presented at the Smithsonian Museum’s Turner Auditorium outlining his career, process, and artwork. The talk at the museum was broadcast live and the Smithsonian staff promised that it would be available online soon. 
The final event was the JRA hosted dinner on Sunday evening – it was a very busy exciting weekend for the Washington Glass School!
Congratulations to Michael – well done and well deserved!
The opening reception for the International Glass and Clay 2013 was crazy and fun – meeting all the artists was great, but I didn’t focus on the works. My good friend, Patrick Oberman of Artomatic invited me to come back to the show on a quiet afternoon and really look. This posting is intended to contemplate the media based artwork by the talented artists involved in the International show and see what the works say.
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| The artwork on exhibit invites investigation. |
UK glass artist Roger Tye – Roger has two works in the exhibit, and they each present very different aspects. His wall piece is lush with color and organic plant forms. The glass tendrils curve around and out of the dimensional piece – its a very pretty and appealing work.
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| Roger Tye’s blown glass wall sculpture. |
His other sculpture “Fold” has a different feel – its much more narrative. All over the moors and fells of the North of England and southern Scotland, there are strange dry-stone structures – similar to what Roger has sculpted. The stone structures (aka ‘sheepfold‘) were designed to provide a shepherd with a place to hold a few sheep and protect from theft. Roger’s sculpture “Fold”, made of cast glass and slate, is a witty contemporary commentary on this concept, complete with security camera.
“Fold” by Roger Tye.
US ceramic artist Jeff Herrity has three of his slipcast ceramic “totems” in the show. Jeff’s mother was a ceramic artist, and these works harken back to his childhood memories that include kitschy bits and bobs and elements created from ceramic molds. He sees the stacked figures as representative of a group of people that are a clan. We are all may different, yet we rely upon each other – for if one goes missing, we all fall.
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| Jeff Herrity “Totem I”, “Totem II”, “Totem III” |
UK glass artist James Maskrey has some exquisite narrative glass works in the show – amongst my favorites:
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| James Maskrey “The Worst Journey In The World” |
His blown works all reference the 1910–1913 British Antarctic Expedition led by Robert Falcon Scott. The ill-fated journey was to recover eggs of the Emperor penguin for scientific study. It was thought at the time that the flightless penguin might shed light on an evolutionary link between reptiles and birds through its embryo.
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| James Maskrey, “Winter Journey”, “Last Entry”, “The Barrier”. |
The series based on the story “Worst Journey in the World” and asks, but does not answer, the question of whether their suffering was futile, or whether it would inspire future human beings facing very different challenges.
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| Nancy Donnelly’s fused glass panels. |
US glass artist Nancy Donnelly is exhibiting her beautiful fused glass panels “Thistle & Berries” and “The Night Garden”. Both are made from fused frit powders and enamels fired into panels of glass. Her works have a quiet and thoughtful reserve.
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| Inge Panneels, “Micro Macro” |
UK glass artist Inge Paneels’ fused glass panels are created using waterjet to precisly cut intricate patterns based on aerial imagery of river estuary juxtaposed with blood vessel structure. The fused glass panel highlights the communalities.
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| Joe Hicks “Bottle” |
US clay artist Joe Hicks has some beautiful ceramic stoneware with shino glaze. His works anchor the entry space of the gallery.
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| Philippa Whiteside’s ceramics feature incredible detail. The waterjet cut ceramics tell a story that runs around the cube form in different fonts. |
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| Philippa Whiteside “Hope” |
UK ceramic artist Philippa Whiteside works at creating beauty with her detailed clay works. She clearly loves to experiment with surface decoration and texture, and has a fascination with text and words.
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| Syl Mathis’ boat shaped glass/mixed media forms showcase his master craftsman skills. |
US glass artist Syl Mathis‘ artwork has me fall in love with both the glass and the method he displays the kilncast forms. He is very skilled in his metal and stonecarving techniques, and I love his sandcarving of the glass figures.
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| Syl Mathis, “Ancient Ice”, “Time Bound”. |
The artworks by the artists create intriguing and beguiling relationships with the other works on display. Part of the fun of the show is the new juxtapositions of the different styles and approaches of the art.
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| Allegra Marquart‘s kilnformed & sandcarved glass panels (L) and Erwin Timmers‘ cast recycled glass sculptures (R) have a great dialog in the gallery. |
The International Glass and Clay 2013 exhibit is open through March 23, 2013, at Washington, DC’s Pepco Edison Place Gallery, located at 702 Eighth Street, NW, Washington, DC. The show is organized by Artomatic and the DCCAH.
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| Pepco Edison Place Gallery |