peep show at Artisphere attracting big crowds

The opening of a multi-scene peep show at Artisphere on last Saturday attracted over 1000 viewers.  A large number of enthusiastic and happy children made their own peep shows at free Artisphere workshops today.  Another set of family peep-show workshops will be held next Saturday, May 21, at noon, 1:30pm and 3pm (no registration required).  If you have kids ages 6 to 12, you should also check out Artisphere's Art Brains, a Saturday afternoon creative camp for kids.

Peep shows are not only fun to view, but also educational. The exhibit program noted:

Americans ate more than 600 million Marshmellow Peeps and Bunnies this Easter.

Peeps®, which are like marshmellows with some extra sugar decoration, have the following ingredients:

sugar, corn syrup, gelatin, and less than 0.5% potassium sorbate (a preservative), natural flavors, Red #3 (dye), and Carnauba wax.

Play with this "food," don't eat it.  Peep shows help to teach children and adults the difference between colorful toys and real, truly satisfying food.

Above is a photo of one of the finest peep scenes in Artisphere's peep show.  It's "Escalator Collapse at Peepy Bottom Station," by Elliot Seibert and Claudine Roshanian.  It re-presents the escalator collapse at Foggy Bottom Metro Stop on Feb. 18, 2011.  Rosslyn's escalators fortunately have been performing impressively.

Artisphere needs more signs

Artisphere's large revenue and visitor shortfall may be due in large part to lack of public awareness. Persons traveling through the busy intersection of Wilson Blvd. and Lynn St. could easily be unaware that they are less than 100 yards from the DC-area's most inviting arts venue. 

Artisphere signage should be added to Central Space to Central Place.  JBG Company, like Monday Properties, surely should recognize that Rosslyn is more attractive when it's attractive Monday through Sunday, days, evenings, and nights.  A few banners for Artisphere in Central Place could help push that idea along.  Even better would be to erect in Central Place a large, multi-colored globe with a weather vane on top pointing toward Artisphere.  At least stick atop the Neighborhood Rosslyn info board something funky and weird indicating Artisphere!

meet with friends for drinks at Artisphere

Tired of noisy, crowded, boring bars and restaurants?  Artisphere is the perfect place to spend some quality time with friends. It's a casual, comfortable atmosphere with a variety of interesting exhibits and displays to browse with your friends. Starting April 5, Artisphere's cafe and bar Here will be serving a good selection of beers, wines, margarittas, and Mojitos.  So you can have a drink and a conversation without needing to yell to communicate with the person right next to you.

You can also have some food.  According to Here's co-owner Karen Barroso, big hits at the April 1 Here launch party were the mushroom burger (vegetarian mushroom patties / lettuce / tomato / onion / salsa verde), the Here Burger (local dry aged beef / serrano ham / machego cheese/ avocado/ ancho chili aioli), and meatballs (served with hominy polenta/ chipotle salsa).  Local foodie Queen Cuisine favored the three meats sandwich:

Hands down my favorite item was the three meats sandwich. I thought the blending of the salty meats topped with the tart red wine vinegar all bundled on some fresh french bread was just the right combination of flavors.

While Here offers some different tastes, don't expect a small morsel of high-priced food with an exotic name.  Barroso believes in providing good value.  So you can go to Here at Artisphere just when you get a craving for a different bite to eat.

Artisphere, unfortunately, is experiencing major shortfalls in revenue and visitors.  Part of the problem seems to be that persons who don't read the Ode Street Tribune and other fine news sources aren't even aware of Artisphere's existence.  Artisphere is crucial for making downtown Rosslyn more than just an office park.  Artisphere supports deep, imaginative personal interactions.  Go to Artisphere, or they will fade away!

countdown to Yuri's night

On April 12, 1961, cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first person to go into outerspace.  To celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of that far-reaching event, Artisphere is hosting an out-of-this-world party on Saturday, April 9.  This Countdown to Yuri's Night (C2YN) party will include the sensational 2011 Burlesque Space Show (Cosmonaughty Variety Show), Lunar Dance Party with the Atomic Mosquitos and the ska band Eastern Standard Time, Reduced-Gravity Chamber (aka moonbounce), Celestial Costume Contests, Complimentary Space Junk, and Sci-Fi Trivia.  Tickets for this blowout are $20 in advance, $25 at the door.  Get them here.

Associated with the party is the C2YN Astro-Pop Art Exhibition.  This exhibition is freely on display in Artisphere's Mezz Gallery through April 30.  Curator Jared Davis has organized an exhibit to rival a meeting of the G-40.  Davis' Monkey Moonshot (detail above) illustrates the fantastic drive to explore space that space enthusiasts, engineers, scientists, and these artists share.  Andrew Wodzianski's Assembly Ball is a more formal composition, yet with pastel coloring and an alien player escorting six exotic dates.  Meanwhile, Dana Ellyn's Zero Gravity Blackout rockets sideways.  Professional illustrator Elstabo has created two pieces especially for this exhibit.  Look for the fearfully smiling cosmonaut.  Relish the feel of the earth under your feet.

Laika preceded Yuri Gargarin into space, but let a dog report that. You and your best friends should go to the Countdown to Yuri's Night party on Saturday, April 9 at Artisphere.  Sorry, no dogs allowed.

UrbanArias contemporary opera festival at Artisphere

UrbanArias will open Artisphere's first festival of contemporary opera with a performance of Orpheus and Euridice on Thursday, March 31 at 8pm.  The festival runs through April 10.  In addition to performances of Orpheus and Euridice, the festival also includes performances of Green Sneakers and Glory Denied.  

Orpheus and Euridice presents a musician's attempt to rescue his wife from the place of the dead.  Betty, the under-appreciated office worker in UrbanArias' opera Betty Box Office, longed to sing in Orpheus and Euridice.  The UrbanArias' production of Ricky Gordon's work features Elizabeth Futral and Todd Palmer. They presented the work's world premiere in 2005 at Lincoln Center, NY.  In 2008, Long Beach Opera staged the work with Futral and Palmer in a swimming pool.  The beautiful, time-lapse video below gives you some sense of that performance.   

UrbanArias's performances at Artisphere's 10-10-10 debut and its program of short operas on Jan. 14 both attracted a packed house.  The over-arching theme of the upcoming opera festival seems to be going back and looking back.  That theme spans emotions from horror (look at where I was) to nostalgia (perhaps it wasn't so bad) to joy (look at who is coming away with me).   Don't look back is a difficult imperative for humans to follow.  If you attend UrbanArias' upcoming opera festival, at least you are unlikely to look back with regret.

Tsam mask making fun

In conjunction with the Hamtdaa:Together exhibition at Artisphere, master Mongolian mask-making artist Natsag Gankhuyag will be leading Tsam mask-making classes at Artisphere.  Natsag Gankhuyag created the Tsam masks and costumes shown in the Hamtdaa:Together exhibition.  The mask-making classes will take place on Saturday and Sunday, Apr. 2 & 3, 2-5pm (for persons ages 15 and older) and on Sat., Apr. 9, 2-5pm (for persons ages 6 to 14).  The cost of the class is $25 person.  Register here.

Artisphere's WIP gallery currently features materials and documentation on making Tsam masks and costumes. This Sunday at 2pm the gallery will feature the building of a ger, a portable dwelling structure that Mongolian nomads traditionally used.  Next time you go camping, impress your friends by erecting a ger!

Rosslyn close to Mongolia

Hamtdaa: Together, an exhibition of art and culture of the Mongolian people of Arlington, opened Thursday night at Artisphere.  Drawing on his extensive experience in mask making, costume design, and performing arts, Arlington-Mongolian artist Gankhuyag Natsag has created colorful, vibrant masks and costumes for characters from Mongolian popular and religious culture.  This hugely impressive exhibit features lavish, life-sized works that preserve a cultural heritage nearly lost during the Soviet period of Mongolian history.  The exhibition also includes some of Gankhuyag's contemporary, conceptual paintings.

 

The exhibition opening itself was a major event.  Beautifully costumed Mongolians greeted attendees and mixed with the large crowd.  Defying the Terrace Gallery's concrete floor, Mongolian dancers whirled and jumped through evocative dance performances. D. Odbayasakh added an amazing performance of contortionism. She began training at age 7 and continues to perform even after having had a child.   Exhibition organizer Mary Briggs, who worked for two years to secure funding from the National Endowment for the Arts and to organize the exhibit, spoke of her enjoyment in working with the Mongolian community.  She also noted that a cultural documentation project is associated with the exhibit.  A top official from the Mongolian embassy addressed the attendees and declared the Mongolian government's support for cultural exchanges.  Arlington County Board member Barbara Favola added words of support and thanks.

Mongolians have a major presence in Rosslyn and Arlington.  Mongolian is the third-most common language, behind only English and Spanish, among Arlington County public schoolchildren.  Rosslyn is home to the Mongolian School of the National Capital Area.  In 2009, a Mongolian received a Rosslyn Neighborhood Hero of the Week award.  Thus Rosslyn in Arlington is a particularly appropriate place to have this international-caliber exhibit of Mongolian art and cultural heritage.

A variety of Mongolian cultural activities for adults and children will be at Artisphere this month in conjunction with the exhibition.  Check out the related activities schedule here.  Hamtdaa: Together will be in Artisphere's Terrace Gallery through May 1, 2011.  Don't miss this exhibition!

Related:

• Mongolian Blue Sky fundraiser
• Mongolian fashion at Crystal Couture 

[video included in post above]

celebrating Rosslyn's renaissance

A new exhibit celebrating Rosslyn's past and future opened this week at Artisphere.  Rosslyn has a distinguished past: Orville Wright's pioneering flight, Buffalo soldiers at Fort Myer, and the roots of Arlington's black history, to mention just some of it.  But well-balanced reporting should also mention Rosslyn's historical difficulties.  As this exhibit forthrightly notes:

In years past, Rosslyn has been the place people love to hate.  In the late 1800's, farmers crossing Aqueduct Bridge from Georgetown into Virginia had to hire armed guards to protect them against marauders and thieves lurking in the Rosslyn darkness below.  Early in the 20'th century, an Arlington County supervisor, Crandall Mackey, led a righteous band of Rosslyn-haters to burn down the saloons and bawdy-houses besmirching our fair county's reputation.  In the 1940's and '50's, it was an industrial site, replete with unsightly pawnshops, oil tanks and lumber yards.

With the help of Rosslyn Renaissance and other local civic organizations, Rosslyn has become a center of office work, art, fashion, and clean living.  Rosslyn residents have deep appreciation for their location.  Among those surveyed, 100% believe that Rosslyn's best days are still yet to come.

Artiphere's exhibit, Rosslyn: A Work in Progess, will be on display in the WIP Gallery through March 13.

new restaurant coming to Artisphere

On April 1 (no fooling), a new restaurant and bar will open in Artisphere.  Its menu will offer "comfort food with Latin flavors made from locally-sourced and fresh ingredients."  The proprietors of Rosslyn's Guajillo Grill will be running the new Artisphere restaurant.  

Artisphere is running a contest to name its new restaurant.  The grand prize is a private dinner party for eight in Artisphere’s Terrace Gallery.  Everyone who enters will receive a discount coupon code for select Artisphere events in March and April.  The contest closes this Friday, February 18, so get your entry in soon.

Here at the Ode Street Tribune, we don't just report the news; we participate in it.  After a thorough investigation, our reporters have come up with "Cocina de Fiesta".   These difficult times in the news industry have produced many hungry reporters.  The Tribune's reporters relish the thought of winning a good meal.

BLU's MOTO at Artisphere

MOTO, a street-art animation by BLU, is showing continuously on Artisphere's town hall video wall through Feb. 20.  In MOTO, an extrardinary animated figure moves across outdoor walls in Buenos Aires while passers-by take no notice.  Indoors in Baden, Germany, the animation's spatial isolation is more visually barren.  Local office workers shouldn't miss the animated figure eating a paper sheet loosely pasted to a wall.

You could watch MOTO on this screen from wherever you are.  See the video above.  But Artisphere's video wall enhances MOTO.  The surrounding Artisphere architecture gives even more depth and poignancy to the animation's striving to reach out, dig down, uncover, break out, and grow.

UrbanArias mini-operas at Artisphere this Friday

The Black Box Theater at Artisphere on Friday night, January 14, will present UrbanArias, a new, Arlington-based opera company that produces short, contemporary, accessible operas.  UrbanArias attracted standing-room-only crowds for both of its performances at Artisphere's 10-10-10 opening extravaganza.  This Friday's night performance will be an hour-long program of seven mini-operas.  The program features national-level singers, composers, and directors in mini-operas that encompass drama rather different from what you might have heard from your grandfather's beloved opera records.  Come to Artisphere for fun, fun, fun opera this Friday night.

The program is extraordinary.  The first mini-opera will be "Betty Box Office", an opera about an office employee of an arts organization.  She has "artistic aspirations."  The Ode Street Tribune's staff declares unanimously that such aspirations should be sung shamelessly and joyfully.  Reaching more vigorously for reality, the next mini-opera explores how I Love Lucy characters deal with domestic abuse.  The composer of this mini-opera is Jake Heggie, who composed the widely performed and critically acclaimed opera, Dead Man Walking.  The program also includes three mini-operas from Seymour Barab's new cycle of mini-operas, In Questionable Taste.  Robert Wood, UrbanArias Executive and Artistic Director, noted about these pieces:

They’re all jokes, expanded, staged, and set to music.  They’re very funny (although some of them are a little coarse for us; after all, we do hope to get NEA funding some day!) ... I have chosen three of the cleaner ones, although I won’t spoil them for you here; you’ll have to come on the 14th.  I will tell you, though, that the cast burst out laughing as they read through each of them.

The program also features mini-operas about a knife-throwing duo and a couple struggling to connect to each other through video phones, webcams, and Skype.  Needless to say, these mini-operas display a new world of opera.

UrbanArias is a great example of burgeoning art, fashion, and culture in Arlington.  UrbanArias' Executive and Artistic Director Robert Wood lives in Arlington's Courthouse neighborhood and walks back and forth to Artisphere in Rosslyn.  UrbanArias intends to commission short, new operas from composers across the U.S. and bring them to the stage right here in an Artisphere festival.  UrbanArias first festival of opera will be in April of this year.  Keep your ears open for information about that festival.  Artisphere in Rosslyn is going to be at the center of where the opera world's singing.

Event details: UrbanArias performances on Friday, Jan. 14, at Artisphere, starting at 7pm and 9pm.  Tickets are $15 general admission; $12 senior, military, and students, plus $2.60 online ticket ordering fee.  Purchase online tickets for 7pm performance or tickets for 9pm performance. 

Photo above courtesy of UrbanArias.

arty mashers at Artisphere

Party Crashers: Comic Book Culture Invades the Art World opening this past Saturday night at Artisphere.  A lively crowd enjoyed each other and the variety of art hanging on the walls.  The being in Nekisha Durrett's digital print, The Kudzu Forest, forlornly looked out on the scene.  Liberate the ghosts of art!

Artisphere unquestionably is at the vanguard of the art liberation movement.  Party Crashers included space and materials for visitors to make their own comic collages.  Using those resources, Sara Hammond and Alexander Smith put together a collage that displays well comic book culture.  Similarly, in Artisphere's WIP Gallery, the exhibit Folding/Unfolding: Collider invites visitors to build crystal forms out of 2D templates.

Party Crashers will be at the Artisphere through Feb. 13, 2011.  See creative, be creative!

Afrodisiac dominates party

Party Crashers: Comic Book Culture Invades the Art World opened last night at the Arlington Arts Center.  The second half of this exhibit will open at Artisphere in Rosslyn on December 11.  Everybody knows that serious, sophisticated persons don't look at comic books.  They read graphic novels.  But both the learned and the innocent will enjoy sneaking into Party Crashers.  It's a wonderful exhibit that spans great creative comic space.  You can follow these comics up close, in detail, as if you were sitting down with the wall in your lap, and you can enjoy them from an art-gallery distance.  This exhibition also includes several video animations.

Don't miss Dash Shaw's video animation, Unclothed Man in the 35'th Century AD.  It's beautifully drawn and lyrical, and addresses fundamental technological trends and anxieties.  Deb Sokolow's webs of signs are more elaborate than the handwritten, newspaper-delivery conspiracy notes that used to appear occasionally about local newspaper boxes.  No exhibit of contemporary art is truly complete without a Powerpoint presentation.  This exhibit includes two Powerpoint presentations by Andrei Molotiu.  They are among the most informative and interesting Powerpoint presentations that I have ever seen.

The center of the party, however, unquestionably is Afrodisiac.  Jim Rugg and his partner Brian Maruca have created an astonishingly transgressive challenge to heterosexist and racist stereotypes.  They unsettle taboo zones of normative discourse about black masculinity and parody the hegemonic cultural construction of an Afro-centric identity.  This work should be required study for cultural reconstruction.  It's really funny.

Party Crashers: Comic Book Culture Invades the Art World is at the Arlington Arts Center through Jan. 16, 2011.  The exhibit component at Artisphere will be open through Feb. 13, 2011.

swinging Wednesdays at Artisphere

Wednesday nights through December 8, Artisphere's ballroom is shaking with live swing music.  The above photo is from last Wednesday's dance, which featured the Red Stick Ramblers.   Playing this Wednesday with be King Teddy from Baltimore with rockabilly and jump-blues infused swing.   If you're busy Wednesday night, or your tastes are more Latin, Tuesday night is salsa night at Artisphere

salsa Tuesday nights at the Artisphere

Top-notch Salsa bands are playing at the Artisphere on Tuesday nights from 8:30 to 11pm through November 30.  From 7:30 to 8:30, legendary DC-area salsa instructor Eileen Torres provides introductory salsa lessons.  The cost for admission is $15 ($12 for students).  

These friendly, casual salsa nights provide a good opportunity for getting closer to someone special without being crushed in a crowd.  They're also good for polishing flashy dance moves with space to experiment, or for just learning the basic salsa step.  You set the temperature at salsa Tuesday nights at the Artisphere.

Tunde Jegede Ensemble at Artisphere

The Tunde Jegede Ensemble played beautiful, meditative classical African music at Artisphere's free open house today.  The Tunde Jegede Ensemble will perform again today at 7pm, as well as Monday at 8:30pm.  Don't miss Tunde Jegede and many other fine events at Artisphere's opening celebration.

Artisphere is wonderful

Unlike other spheres, Rosslyn's Artisphere has many different curves and spaces. You enter through a diagonal walkway and stairs.  In a half-oval space just inside the entrance, the Artisan Center of Virginia will be selling fine handcrafts. Up the escalator is the the Town Square. It is not at all square.  The Town Square is pear-shaped, with a curving stairway ascending to an arc-shaped lounge.  The Dance Theatre on the far side of the Town Square is rectangular.  The Black Box Theatre is boxy.  The Terrace Gallery has a roughly triangular shape.  The Dome Theatre displays a large section of a sphere  All these curves and spaces will be accessible for your enjoyment at Artisphere's festive, free open house this Sunday and Monday.

Artisphere will officially open on Sunday, 10/10/10, at 10:10am.  At 11am, look for Sans Façon's "Limelight Saturday Night" video installation on the huge video wall spanning two floors of the Town Square.  The press/volunteer packet states:

In eight cities around the world, Scottish art collaborative Sans Façon has replaced a conventional streetlight with outdoor theatre spotlights, creating an open invitation to transform the street into a stage!  This simple intervention creates a witty forum for interaction, somewhere between spectacle and surveillance, whilst questioning our relationships with our built environment.

The Ode Street Tribune has received information suggesting that Sans Façon will be setting up this kind of stage on a street in Clarendon this Saturday.  Look for it on Saturday, and your neighbors on Artisphere's video wall on Sunday.

Some subsequent Artisphere events this Sunday:

1. At 2:30pm in Artisphere's Ballroom, Joe Falero and the DC Latin Jazz All-Stars will playing greats of Latin jazz and hot salsa.
2. At 4:00pm in Artisphere's Black Box Theatre, UrbanArias will present two mini operas, include Camera Obscura, "an amusing look at how a time lag wreaks havoc on a young couple's attempt to connect in the Internet age."
3. From 9pm to 11pm, Chopteeth will be leading a dance party in the Ballroom.  Chopteeth is a "14-piece Afrofunk orchestra exploring the common groove beween the funkiest, most hip-shakin' West African and American popular music." 

Many other events will occur all day long.  Artisphere's Open House will extend through Monday evening.  Here's a schedule of performances for both days.  Complimenting the performances are art exhibits in three galleries.

Be sure to enjoy the lovely curves of Richard Vosseller's large, sensuous sculpture in the Terrace Gallery.  Earlier this week, expert skateboarders rode it.  A video of the action will available for viewing.  If you look carefully at the sculpture, you can see marks that the skateboards made on it.  Think of these marks as beauty marks.  This isn't a pedestal sculpture.  It's sculpture that gets down and participates in life's action.  Just like the irregular, inclusive, wonderful Artisphere.

art is here with Artisphere

Excitement continues to grow about the 10/10/10 opening of Artisphere in Rosslyn.  Antoinette Essex was helpfully providing information about Artisphere at the Arlington County Fair on Friday.  Some details on what's inside Artisphere:

• 1st floor: a fine crafts store called Artisans Center of Virginia
• 2nd floor: wi-fi enabled third place/Town Square; two-story video wall; cafe and bar; ballroom; 125-seat Black Box Theatre; 220-seat Dome Theatre
• 3rd floor: large art gallery
• next door: 387-seat Spectrum Theatre

The Artisphere website explains:

A departure from the traditional "arts temple" one visits sporadically to see a big star, Artisphere is a true "third space" -- a place between office and home where the cultural experience is a multi-optioned conduit for patrons to connect with and create community. The Artisphere presents a broader diversity of offerings than most traditional cultural centers.

That's a great concept.  Artisphere will be a wonderful addition to Rosslyn.

proposals for Artisphere Mezz Gallery due June 15

Anyone who lives, works, studies, or maintains a studio in Arlington is eligible to apply to have an exhibition in the first year of the Artisphere here in Rosslyn.  The deadline is June 15, and the application is quite serious.  Rosslyn has high artistic standards. 

Rosslyn cultural center named ARTISPHERE

Election results are in.  By popular choice, the new Rosslyn cultural center has been named ARTISPHERE.  The Ode Street Tribune favors democracy, even when it produces the wrong outcome.   We thus fully support this name.