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.
Save The Date! May 14th is the proposed date for Washington Glass School Open Studio Tour! Many of the surrounding art studios and galleries will be participating! We will follow health protocols – and it will be great to see all in real life! Come and see what’s new and what has been shaking at the studio!
This Thursday, Dec 16th, from 12 noon- 8pm, join us at the Holiday Open House at Arts’tination @ National Harbor. Prince George’s County Arts & Humanities Council (PGAHC) features artworks by local artists and has a space dedicated to artworks by artists of the Washington Glass School. Shown cast glass by Erwin Timmers.
The 2020 Prince George’s County Juried Exhibition: Symbiotic Presence is installed at the Brentwood Arts Exchange. A diverse array of works from glass sculpture, to painting, to video art represents this year’s theme of the strength and willpower of artists, bringing people together to help heal fractured communities.
View of Brentwoood Arts Exchange installation of Symbiotic Presence.
Maryland’s Prince George’s County artists will tell their stories and explore our community relationships in this year’s county juried exhibition, featuring work from thirty-two local artists.
Erwin Timmers’ cast recycled glass sculpture “One Another” is featured in the exhibit. Works by four Washington Glass School artists are exhibited.
This exhibition was juried by Shanti Norris. The Prince George’s County Juried exhibition is sponsored by The Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission (M-NCPPC), Department of Parks and Recreation, Prince George’s County, Arts and Cultural Heritage Division. This exhibition will be physically installed at Brentwood Arts Exchange Main Gallery and presented digitally for online viewing.
Virtual Gallery Tour and Artist Talk via Facebook Live: Saturday, January 9 at 2 pm
November 9, 2020 – January 9, 2021
A video walk-thru is online – click on link below to jump to video
2020 Prince George’s County Juried Exhibition:Symbiotic Presence
Symbiotic Presence: The 2020 Prince George’s County Juried exhibition
The Prince George’s County Juried exhibition is sponsored by The Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission (M-NCPPC), Department of Parks and Recreation, Prince George’s County, Arts and Cultural Heritage Division. The exhibition will be on display at Brentwood Arts Exchange from November 16 through January 9, 2021.This Call ends on October 2, 2020
SYMBIOTIC PRESENCE
Throughout time, artists have shown the strength and willpower to bring people together and help heal fractured communities, especially during times of crisis. This year’s county juried exhibition, Symbiotic Presence, presents the opportunity for Prince George’s County artists to explore these mutually beneficial and supportive relationships and to tell their stories. Artists inspire communities to re-examine, re-invent and move forward together by showing us that we are not alone, by creating beauty amidst challenges and by revealing truth, thereby returning us to meaning.
JUROR – SHANTI NORRIS
Shanti Norris is chief curator for the Integrated Arts and Healing program at the Inova Schar Cancer Institute in Fairfax, VA. She is Co-Founder and Executive Director emeritus of Smith Center for Healing and the Arts, where she founded the Joan Hisaoka Healing Arts Gallery. A long-time resident of Prince George’s County, Shanti is the mother of three adult children, and is a sculptor, painter and curator.
ELIGIBILITY
This call is open to all artists who are 18 years of age or older who live, work, study, or have a studio in Prince George’s County, Maryland. Artists may submit a maximum of 3 artworks for consideration.
EXHIBITION TIMELINE
DEADLINE TO APPLY ONLINE: Friday, October 2, 2020, 11:59 pm
ARTISTS NOTIFIED: Tuesday, October 13, 2020
ARTISTS DROP OFF WORK AT THE BRENTWOOD ARTS EXCHANGE: Saturday, October 31, 2020. Selected artists will be given the opportunity to schedule their drop off times via SignUpGenius.com prior to the 31st.
EXHIBITION OPENING DATE *: Monday, November 16, 2020
*If The Brentwood Arts Exchange remains closed to the public, the exhibit will be made available virtually.
EXHIBITION CLOSING DATE: Saturday, January 9, 2021
CLOSING RECEPTION, ARTIST AND CURATOR TALK: Saturday, January 9, 2021
*If The Brentwood Arts Exchange remains closed to the public, the artist/curator talk will be made available virtually.
ARTISTS PICK UP WORK FROM THE BRENTWOOD ARTS EXCHANGE: Saturday, January 16, 2021
SUBMISSION CRITERIA
Artists may submit a maximum of 3 artworks for consideration, including 3-Dimensional or video work. All works must be original (no reproductions). Images of works should be high quality and with enough resolution to see significant details.
A bio, artist statement with current contact info and a list of the works submitted with titles, media, date, dimensions, and price listed are also required with submission.
Applications must be submitted online at: m-ncppc.submittable.com
GALLERY LOCATION & HOURS
The Brentwood Arts Exchange is located at 3901 Rhode Island Ave, Brentwood, MD 20722. The phone number is 301-277-2863 and website is arts.pgparks.com.
ABOUT BRENTWOOD ARTS EXCHANGE
The Brentwood Arts Exchange is The Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission’s component of the public-private partnership with Gateway Arts Center, serving as an anchor for Prince George’s County Gateway Arts District. We focus on connecting audiences to diverse forms and ideas within contemporary art through visual arts exhibitions, live musical performances, curated film screenings, and classes. We also operate a retail store, selling functional art by local artists.
Peppermill Community Center public art by Washington Glass Studio and the Peppermill/Landover community.
Cassi Hayden, the Senior Visual Media Photographer for The Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission (M-NCPPC) was at Peppermill Village Community Center covering an event recently and found the artwork (made by Washington Glass Studio) in front to be exceptionally beautiful!
Detail of the internally illuminated glass panels made with the Peppermill community as part of the public artwork.
Cassi took some shots attached high-res files for your use. All photos in this posting by: M-NCPPC/Cassi Hayden
The artwork reflects well in the glass of the new center – and on the community that inspired the creation!
Click HERE to see the public art sculpture in the daytime and how the work came to be!
“All art,” Federico Fellini once said, “is autobiographical.” One might go a step further and say that all art is an act of self-portraiture.
Prince George’s County presents this year’s county-juried exhibition that highlights the variety of artistic thought processes and ideas that artists use to create solutions to their own struggles with self-reflection.
Reflections of Self
November 2–December 31, 2019
Public Reception: Saturday, November 9, 3-5 pm
This year’s work was selected by John Coppola, who served as Director of the Smithsonian Institution’s Office of Exhibits Central, providing design, production and installation services to the national museum complex. Selected works by over 40 artists, including:
Leon Allen, Patricia Autenrieth, Judith Bell, Diane Cooper Cabe, Sara Caporaletti, Aislinn Cohen, Barbara Joann Combs, Ellen Cornett, Christopher Corson, Alonzo Crawford, Sally Davies, Max DeMulder, Anne Whitfield Edgin, Annie Farrar, Vincent Ferrari, Ric Garcia, Jan Garland, Marliyn Gates-Davis, Nico Gozal, Winston Harris, Lorraine Harris, Leslie Holt, Michael Janis, Tom Kenyon, Liz Lescault, Allen Linder, Liza Linder, Debbi LoCicero, Shelley Lowenstein, Kimmary MacLean, Rashad Muhammad, Angie O’Neal, Mary Celestine Ranney-Howes, Patricia Steck, Niles Tatum, Kim Thorpe, Andrei Trach, Rosa Valladares, Juliana Vallejo, Dominique Vargo, Richard Weiblinger, Warren Wilson, Curtis Woody.
Reflections of Self
November 2–December 31, 2019
Presented by: Maryland-National Capital Park & Planning Commission
Venue: Montpelier Arts Center
Free!
Montpelier Arts Center
9652 Muirkirk Road
Laurel, MD 20708
Montpelier Arts Center is located on the grounds of historic Montpelier Mansion in northern Prince George’s County and is part of the Prince George’s County Department of Parks and Recreation.
The Prince George’s County Juried exhibition is sponsored by The Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission (M-NCPPC), Department of Parks and Recreation, Prince George’s County, Arts and Cultural Heritage Division.
Peppermill Community Center with the internally illuminated artwork “Telling Our Story…” by Washington Glass Studio.
The Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission (M-NCPPC) commissioned Washington Glass Studio (WGS) to create a public art sculpture for the new addition to the Peppermill Community Center in Landover, MD.
Shop drawing of sculpture by WGS.
Some communities see public art as a way of enhancing or personalizing otherwise impersonal spaces. Others view it as a means to activate civic dialogue or provide a vehicle for the community to express its identity.
These landmarks and special events enhance our experience of a place and our quality of life. They engender a sense of pride and community identity. They reach audiences outside museums, galleries, and theaters, and they add to the beauty of everyday life. They declare the worth of a place and a time in our shared culture.
Erwin Timmers leads a community glass making workshop at the Washington Glass School.
As such, the design of the site-specific sculpture by WGS was centered on finding ways to get the community excited and engaged with the convergence of art, history and community. The proposal for the art was based on a 15’H tower of glass and steel that would be internally illuminated with over 100 glass inset panels. The artwork of the insets were to be created by involving the community via a series of glass-making workshops held at the Washington Glass School.
A great cross section of community came out to be part of the creation of the new public art for Peppermill Community Center.
The residents and stakeholders were tasked with showing what they felt important to them and what inspired them were made. Images of family, nature, the environment, their neighborhoods, their sports teams were rendered in glass.
All sorts of imagery and glass techniques were employed to great effect.
Cast glass images of the social groups – the sewing groups, the cheer squads, the state flag – even a Maryland blue crab were crafted. Historical references to the nearby horse farms and the old roller rink were included in the mix of glass panels. Part of the fun of the artwork is seeing how this mix of images and references all somehow work together.
The tower, titled :”Telling Our Story…” adds a powerful and dramatic artistic element at the new entry at the community center.
Shaping places—with landmarks and landscapes, events and ideologies—sets the stage for a critical part of our existence: our connection with our environment; with our past, present, and future; and with other human beings.
The mix of images and stories told create a compelling and inclusive mixture – each distinctive and unique – yet cohesive as a whole.
“Telling Our Story…”
Artist: Washington Glass Studio
Project Team: Teri Bailey, Michael Janis, Erwin Timmers, Tim Tate and Lee Kind.
Media: Cast and fused glass, steel, LED lighting, concrete.
Location: Peppermill Community Center, 610 Hill Rd, Landover, MD 20785
Client: The Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission
Installation of Suitland’s William Beanes Center new public art sculpture.
Washington Glass Studio recently installed the site specific commission for the William Beanes Community Center in Suitland, MD. As mentioned in an earlier post, the artwork was commissioned by Prince Georges County for the new community center named for William Beanes, MD, who played a pivotal role in the history of The Star-Spangled Banner. If not for Dr. Beanes, Francis Scott Key would not have been on a ship in Baltimore’s Harbor, and he would never have written the poem which became our National Anthem.
The original design was modified to allow for installation on the center’s special exterior cladding.
The design by Washington Glass Studio is characterized by abstracted fireworks “Bursting In Air” to connect the National Anthem and to reference imagery inspired by Suitland’s residents and heritage, the community, its history and goals.
Each circle medallion is internally illuminated with LED lighting.
The images were designed and selected by the community after a series of interactive meetings and finalized with the help of local council members. The LED illuminated discs were mounted to a powder coated structure that was mounted to the building structure.
The completed artwork helps draw visitors to the new community center.
On the day, all the preplanning and preparation paid off, as installation went smoothly.
Soon, WGS will take professional photos of the finished project and we will publish them online!
Splash: Attitude & Process – Prince George’s County Juried Exhibition
Attitudes are catalysts for new processes, and re-envisioned ways of making. To use any material, or even to make work that is ethereal, arises from widely varied practices, but always embodies the artist’s attitude about creating. Furthermore, to act with style and intention in creating articulates and shares the position of the artist. Pushing the boundaries of art informs not only making art but also seeing it.
Michael Janis: “A Light Touch In Passing” Fused and Cast Glass with glass powder imagery and steel frame, 23″ x 36″
Splash: Attitude and Process
November 6 – December 30, 2017
Brentwood Arts Exchange at Gateway Arts Center
3901 Rhode Island Ave., Brentwood, MD 20722
Opening Reception: Saturday, November 11, 5-8 pm
On view: November 6 – December 31, 2017
Featuring works by: Maryamm Abdullah, James Coley, Felicia Cowser, Lindsay D’Andelet, Elliott Hamilton, Tom Hill, Paul Hrusa, Michael Janis, Khadija Khaalis, Aselin Lands, Rashad Muhammad, Sarah O’Donoghue, John Paradiso, Jose Piedra, Mary Celestine Ranney-Howes, Federico Ruiz, Tina Silverman, Ronnie Spiewak, Kim Thorpe and Acquaetta Williams.
Juried by Ginevra Shay – an artist and curator living and working in Baltimore, Maryland. She is the Artistic Director of The Contemporary Museum, and curator of Rose Arcade, founder of the Current Space Community Darkroom and Photo Program, and was recently artist and curator in-residence at Gallery Four. She has worked with a number of private collections and Baltimore institutions, including The Jewish Museum of Maryland and The Afro-American Newspaper, to aid with research and assist with digital archiving processes. She has exhibited her own work at Present Company (NYC), LVL3 (Chicago), Rock512Devil (Baltimore), The Finnish Museum of Photography (Finland), Notre Dame University (Maryland), John Hansard Gallery (United Kingdom), Galleri Vasli Souza (Sweden), and Flying Object (Mass). Her work and publications are in the libraries of Yale University Art Gallery Library, The International Center for Photography, Indie Photobook Library, Houston Center for Photography, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Ginevra has lectured widely at The Maryland Film Festival, The Queens Museum, Oakland Museum, National College Art Association Conference, the Society for Photographic Education National Conference, and American Philosophical Society. She has been a visiting artist at Rutgers, Maryland Institute College of Art, and Towson University. In 2013, she selected as “30 Creative Minds Under 30” by Maryland Art Place.