D.C. on Display
The Gateway Arts District, in the Mount Rainier to Hyattsville, Md. area, is holding its semi-annual open house event this Saturday, Dec. 12.
With all the art venues open at one time, it’s the perfect opportunity to check out what is fast becoming one of Washington’s key art enclaves.
The area is most noted for its collection of glass- and clay-based artists who have taken those traditionally craft-related materials and brought them into the fine art world.
Virtually all of the artists in the Otis St. warehouse complex are well-known on a regional level. Tim Tate and Michael Janis of the Washington Glass School are both coming off significant successes at Chicago’s SOFA show and Miami Basel.
Tate is starting to get a decent footing on the international level, and is arguably the best known D.C. artist of this generation. Which is not to slight the rest of the pack here.
If you added up all the significant regional shows these folks have been in, it would likely be well over a thousand. When/if the D.C. arts region gets back on the national map again, it’s likely to happen here first. At this rate, you may not have to wait long to see that happen.
Hours are somewhat varied this time around: Washington Glass School will be open 2 – 6 p.m.; Red Dirt Studio, noon – 5 p.m.; Flux studios, 11 a.m. – 4 p.m. All the studios are located in the Otis Street Complex (the 3700 block for map search purposes). The most reliable phone number here is probably the Washington Glass School at 202-744-8222.
The ArtDC.org gallery space in the old Lustine Chevrolet showroom building at 5710 Baltimore Ave., Hyattsville, Md. has a variety of activities planned for the day from 11 a.m. – 6 p.m.
Of special note: Intellectual Property attorney John Mason, of www.artlaws.com, will be giving a talk at 1 p.m.
Grab an event map, and go studio/gallery hopping throughout the area.
The Northern Virginia Art Beat is compiled by Kevin Mellema.
We had such a good time! Such a good time I didn't take any pictures except for this little dumpling, the newest member of Red Dirt Studio.
