Tuesday Night - City Hall Art Collection Opening Reception

Nevin Kelly Gallery artist Sondra Arkin has been working hard for the past year with the DC Commission on Arts and Humanities as curator of the City Hall Art Collection. She's developed a vision for the a growing collection, looked at 4000 works submitted for the collection (153 were chosen by the Selection Panel and another 22 were taken from the Art Bank), put together a beautiful catalog (with the graphic design skill of Mary Beth Ramsey, who was featured in the gallery's June/July 06 show and who also designs many of the gallery's ads), and helped to plan a fabulous opening reception. And for the past few months, I, your trusty deputy director, have been assisting Sondra on this project oustide of my regular gallery duties (I'm listed as editorial assistant in the catalog - hooray!) 12 Linear Feet, a work by Ellyn Weiss, whose work is currently up in the gallery, is included in the collection. Ellyn painted this work on site at Artomatic 2004, and it was this piece that first attracted Nevin to Ellyn's work - her impeccable sense of color and composition allowed Ellyn to "jump off a cliff" and create a gorgeous work of art in public with no knowledge of how the work would turn out. Also included in the collection is a piece by Joan Belmar whose work will be included in a group show at the gallery in the spring of '07.

This is a very important collection for DC area artists and the largest collection of work by DC artists on exhibition downtown open daily for visitors. For those artists whose work is not included, the DCCAH is committed to adding work every few years, so there will be future calls. It is important for any artist and those concerned with the art world in DC to show our elected officials strong support for this program and for the arts in DC.

CITY HALL ART COLLECTION OPENING RECEPTION DETAILS:
The John A. Wilson Building
City Hall Art Collection Opening Reception
Tuesday, October 31, 2006 from 5 to 7pm - Remarks at 6pm

1350 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW Washington, DC

In the past year, the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities' DC Creates Public Art Program has collected 175 works of art representing the work of 100 metropolitan area artists for the inaugural phase of the new John A. Wilson Building City Hall Art Collection. Work is located on the Ground through 5th floors in public hallways. 80% of the artists reside in DC and it is the largest collection of local art open to the public. Established and emerging artists are represented in this important City Hall Art Collection.

General Public is invited; Photo ID Required to enter this building
RSVP Requested: carolyn.parker@dc.gov; (202) 724-2042

Parking is tight so take the Metro to Metro Center or Federal Triangle — or take a cab.

Please feel free to pass this information on -- we want to fill City Hall and show our elected officials strong support for this program.