"Alternative Museums and Other Such Art Spaces in Washington"
by
F. Lennox Campello

Even in a city such as Washington, where politics and power dominate nearly every facet of daily life, one can always find a variety of unusual museum art spaces, and sometimes some of the best art viewing does not take place in the stuffy galleries of Dupont Circle or the trendy galleries of Georgetown, but these oddly vibrant spaces. Places where tax dollars (in most cases) allow museum curators to exert an iron hand upon what gets exhibited and set the trend for the art shown at these places.

Often times, these places are way out of step with the same John Q. Public whose tax dollar support them, yet the suffering taxpayer is not invited to vote on what gets exhibited nor which artist gets selected. Once again, the curator or art space director controls what we see and whom we see.

First amongst equals is the Fondo del Sol Visual Arts Center in Dupont Circle. Run by the exuberant Havana-born Marc Zuver, the Fondo is one of those places, which always seems to be a few years ahead of the big power museums in the city. The current exhibition, for example, which is "Bridges from Brooklyn," is a provocative show which presents an ethnic microcosm of Brooklyn. My favorites were the overtly sexual black welded steel sculptures by Susan Spencer Crowe. This exhibition is on display until September 10. The Fondo can be reached at (202) 483-2777.

Perhaps the most sought after exhibition space in the city is the astonishingly eclectic Museum of Contemporary Art in Georgetown. Run by the husband and wife team of Michael Clark and Felicity Hogan, this place has exhibited more artists in the last five years than most of Washington's art galleries combined. Clark and Hogan are two of Washington's art treasures and their impact on the city's art scene by this sometimes grungy, but always razor-sharp art space is enormous. MOCA is located in the Canal Square Gallery complex in Georgetown (31^st Street NW and M Street) and can be reached at (202) 342-6230.

Located in the mall at the National Press Building, the ARTscene is the newest alternative art space in the city. Craig Ekedahl and Cameron Sweeting run the space, which is donated by the leasing company. The opening show, which hangs until mid August, features 17 local artists, led by the wonderful works of Kelly Posey (some of her wax images). The building is located at 529 14^th Street, NW and can be reached at (202) 662-7604. The success of this place will depend on the owners' ability to replicate what Clark has done with MOCA - that is: show as wide a variety of works, styles and skills coupled with as many different artists as possible.

Across the river in Virginia, the Arlington Arts Center in Arlington and the Greater Reston Arts Center in Reston have also begun to make an impression upon the city's art life. GRACE's annual Northern Virginia Fine Arts Festival is one of the best outdoor art shows in the country, and the Arlington Arts Center consistently puts up puzzling exhibitions, which if hard to understand, nonetheless fill a void in the space between abstraction and simple "Uh?" art. The Center can be reached at (703) 524-1494 and GRACE at (703) 471-9242.

Finally, the grandmaster of all the spaces is the huge Torpedo Factory Art Center in Old Town Alexandria. Home to dozens of artists and several cooperative galleries, the Center is Alexandria's biggest tourist draw and a wonderful art space where one can visit artists in their studios and observe the work being created. Additionally, the monthly juried exhibitions, hosted by the Art League, is consistently the best group show in the city, month after month. The Factory is located at 105 N. Union Street in Old Town Alexandria.

In the wish list, DC lacks a big "art fair" or (other than perhaps the Corcoran Biennial), a real international, or even national footprint in the art landscape in the form of a major re-occuring art event. It seems to me that we have a HUGE unexploited art resource here in Washington that could be the way to do this: All the embassies that have art galleries.

Here's the plan: Why not get all the embassies that have an art gallery already associated with them (such as Mexico, Italy, Germany, etc.), and any other embassy who wants to participate to align and organize a Washington version of the Venice Biennale (but call it something else) and host either their (a) Biennale artist or (b) a top artist from their country or (c) (My favorite: their Biennale artist together with a DC area artist of cultural ancestry from the country hosting the show!

And those embassies that do not have gallery space could show in other city venues, such as all the non-galleried embassies from the Americas could show at the OAS, etc.

And voila! We'd have a major, international readu-made DC art show of world class.