In addition to celebrating the culture and icons of the Harlem Renassiance period, we are also raising funds for the Alliance’s outreach programs for DC Public Schools.

Very soon, you will be able to view several pieces that will be available for bidding on our Virtual Gallery, however, we wanted to give you a “sneak peek” now:

Don’t envy me (green with envy), acrylic on canvas, 25×28, by James Terrell

Jelly Roll Morton, acrylic on canvas, 37×31, by James Terrell

Now she can see clearly Now she can breath (A whole new world), acrylic on canvas, 21×31, by James Terrell

This month, we opened our new online store Shop 4 Art (in partnership with Art.com), featuring fine art prints for budget conscious collectors!

In celebration of When Harlem Came to Paris, we curated an online gallery that celebrates the Harlem Renassiance. A portion of all sales (10%) of any of the items will be donated to the Anne Bujon Educational Initiative (between February 1, 2010- April 1, 2010).

Today’s featured work is “Black Thunder, Josephine Baker” by Paul Colin.

French poster artist Paul Colin (1892 – 1985) and Jazz Age entertainer Josephine Baker mixed business with pleasure—and reaped the rewards. A master of visual communication, Colin was Baker’s lover and long-time friend. He designed the Art Deco poster for Baker’s La Revue Nègre, which introduced jazz music and dance to Paris, launching both of their careers. Hired by the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, Colin designed 1,900 posters and hundreds of stage sets, mostly for Baker. He created posters for theaters, art, dance, advertisements and charitable causes. Colin also illustrated Baker’s memoirs, which were published in 1927.

To purchase, click here.

“When Harlem Came to Paris”
Alliance Française de Washington
2142 Wyoming Ave, NW DC
Time: 7 pm -12 am
$55 for Alliance Members| $65 for Non-Members

Presented by LilSoSo Productions, co-sponsored Authentic Contemporary Art
For more information and tickets, click here.

The year is 1926 and the Harlem Renaissance is in full swing. On this bright a young band of Negro artists and musicians celebrate their last night in Paris in this salon style party that will feature live music, performances, food, drink, and a silent auction of original artwork.

James Terrell

Visual artists were a major component of the Harlem Renaissance era and so WHCTP is pleased to feature
James Terrell as this year’s visual artist. This year, James has agreed to create 12 original pieces for the event that will be previewed at the pre-events and then auctioned off on March 20th. A portion of all of the proceeds will go towards the benefit the Anne Bujon Educational Initiative for DC Public Schools.

Sharon Burton of Authentic Contemporary Art moderating the panel.

The panelists (L to R): James Terrell, Sylvain Cornevaux of the l’Alliance Française de Washington, DC, John Murph, and Risikat “Kat” Okedeyi of LiL So So Productions

One of James Terrell’s wonderful paintings!

A portion of the audience

Having fun during the reception…

Sharon L. Cyrus of Silent Stylist shows off 1920s fashion flair

A make up demonstration by Evelyn Bandoh

James Terrell poses next to one of the paintings that will be auctioned at When Harlem Comes to Paris main event.

Hats by milliner Crystal Little

These seminars are free and open to the public, no advance registration is required. All lectures begin at 7 pm; doords open at 6:30 p.m.

The Smithsonian American Art Museum is located at 8th and F Streets, NW, Washington, DC. All programs below are held in McEvoy Auditorium, Lower Level

Pleasures of Building a Print Collection
Tuesday, March 16, 7:00 p.m.
Mary Ryan, Mary Ryan Art Gallery

Crafting a Collection
Tuesday, April 6, 7:00 p.m.
Contemporary craft collectors Elmerina and Dr. Paul Parkman and John T. Kotelly, Esq.

Collecting for the Long Haul
Tuesday, May 4, 7:00 p.m.
Richard Kelly, The Kelly Collection of American Illustration

“A trio of annual Baltimore events—Artscape, the book festival, and the New Year’s celebration at the Inner Harbor—generated an estimated $36 million in economic benefits during the past year, according to the Baltimore Office of Promotion and the Arts (BOPA). The estimate is part of a more sophisticated effort to attract additional corporate sponsors and justify continued public subsidies for the events. ‘The impact [of the three events], regionally, is huge,’ said Bill Gilmore, executive director of BOPA, a private, nonprofit organization that works exclusively for the city…Gilmore said he was pleasantly surprised by the findings, especially the numbers generated by Artscape, which the city bills as America’s largest free arts celebration. ‘I was absolutely flabbergasted by the $26 million figure for Artscape. I just never dreamed that people spend $9 million with the vendors,’ he said.”

Read more here.

President Barack Obama presented the National Medal of Arts to ten recipients for their outstanding achievements and support of the arts. (Twelve medalists were announced; however two were not able to attend the ceremony. Their medals will be presented at another time.) The medals were presented by the president and Mrs. Michele Obama in an East Room ceremony at the White House. The National Medal of Arts is a White House initiative managed by the National Endowment for the Arts. Each year, the NEA organizes and oversees the National Medal of Arts nomination process and notifies the artists of their selection to receive a medal, the nation’s highest honor for artistic excellence.

“These individuals and organizations show us how many ways art works every day. They represent the breadth and depth of American architecture, design, film, music, performance, theatre, and visual art,” said NEA Chairman Rocco Landesman. “This lifetime honor recognizes their exceptional contributions, and I join the President and the country in saluting them.”

The 2009 National Medal of Arts Recipients

Individuals

• Bob Dylan, Singer, Songwriter
• Clint Eastwood, Director, Actor
• Milton Glaser, Graphic Designer
• Maya Lin, Artist, Designer
• Rita Moreno, Singer, Dancer, Actress
• Jessye Norman, Soprano
• Joseph P. Riley, Jr., Arts Patron, Design Advocate
• Frank Stella, Painter, Sculptor
• Michael Tilson Thomas, Conductor
• John Williams, Composer, Conductor

Organizations

• The Oberlin Conservatory of Music, Conservatory, Oberlin, OH
• The School of American Ballet, Ballet School, New York, NY

The National Medal of Arts, established by Congress in 1984, is awarded by the President and managed by the National Endowment for the Arts. Award recipients are selected based on their contributions to the creation, growth, and support of the arts in the United States. Each year, the Arts Endowment seeks nominations from individuals and organizations across the country. The National Council on the Arts, the Arts Endowment’s presidentially-appointed and Senate-confirmed advisory body, reviews the nominations and provides recommendations to the President, who selects the recipients.

Image: Arthur Barnes (Vanity Fair)

The Art of The Steal, an absorbing new documentary that chronicles the contentious battle for control over the roughly $25 billion modern art collection assembled by the late pharmaceutical magnate Albert C. Barnes, is a good reminder of just how elusive the dream of an enduring legacy can be for the very rich.

In Barnes’s case, as the comprehensive documentary instructively details, his wish to leave behind a permanent institution that would house his collection of prized European paintings gradually has evolved into a scandalous nightmare. At the end of his life, Barnes stipulated in a will and in trust agreements that his works of fine art must remain in the special location he created for them. But over time, disagreements and uncertainty among the individuals placed in charge of the collection have led to a betrayal of the great art-lover’s inspired vision. And now, Barnes’ carefully laid plan to preserve his masterpieces for posterity on his former estate is being scrapped in favor of a controversial arrangement that will soon transfer his collection to a new public facility in Philadelphia. The move is especially sensitive because the replacement site stands right next to the Philadelphia Museum of Art, an establishment Barnes ardently detested.

Examples of glaringly manipulative, and sometimes unlawful, interpretations of high-profile wills are surprisingly common among wealthy Americans. Contrary to what most people might believe, the rich routinely fail to draft effective trust agreements that faithfully carry out their dying wishes. In fact, power struggles over inherited wealth are so endemic in the culture of affluence that nearly all of the nation’s most profitable law firms maintain trust-and-estates divisions whose sole purpose is to handle such disputes—and reap the financial rewards.

Historically, the leaders of vastly rich families have gone so far as to reserve six percent of their fortunes for payments to long-suffering estate lawyers. Problems of this nature occur so regularly that attending to them becomes practically a permanent job.

Disagreements often result from trust and will documents that can never be specific enough. Products of a particular moment, such documents cannot anticipate future developments, so, while people and financial institutions grow and change, charters do not. Conflicts inevitably arise, and opportunities for manipulative, even illegal, behavior emerge.

Executors of wills and others entrusted with managing supposedly irrevocable trust agreements can seize the chance to alter events in their own favor. Such an instance plays out in much the same way as a military coup. A sudden power play may be denounced when it happens, but once executed it becomes extremely difficult to reverse. Ironically, those hired to protect the benefactor—attorneys, banks, etc.—are as likely as the beneficiaries to stage such attacks.

No illegality has ever been proven in the Barnes scenario, but it’s easy for me to imagine how outsiders could have wrested control of the great collector’s legacy and contravened his wishes. Thanks to the vagaries of legal documents and the general greed that money seems always to breed in humans, the rich rarely get to control their bequests from the grave. One former official from The Metropolitan Museum of Art summed up the phenomenon neatly in a recent conversation with me about naming rights for large gifts. “What does perpetuity really mean?” he asked. “A lifetime?”

The DC Commission on the Arts & Humanities, FotoWeek DC, and DC Counts Campaign are partnering to issue all DC artists, at all skill levels,
a challenge: to capture the diverse beauty reflected in the faces of Washington residents.

Like the census, they are seeking portraits representing people of all ages, races, and ethnic groups in each quadrant of the city. Fifty-one portraits will be selected and exhibited at Social, a Columbia Heights Restaurant.

Entry Deadline: Tuesday | March 30, 2010 | 7PM

Click here to view the Call to Artists and to obtain an application. For more information, visit www.dcarts.dc.gov
or contact Zoma Wallace at zoma.wallace@dc.gov.