How the Art Community Thrives

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The role of an art museum is more than what meets the eye. When we talk about art, it can also expand to the performing art form and beyond. Yes, it is good to feel a limitless quality of what art can do and who it can reach. One of the art museums in the Washington D.C. area that has that expansive quality is The Kreeger Museum. Nestled in the northwest area of D.C., where the winding roads and carefully landscaped gardens meet, the Kreeger gravitates to locals and tourists who seek a serene space for various art forms within the city.

Photo by Frank Hallam Day.

While supporting the contemporary art scene through art shows, talks, and events constitute the norm of an art museum’s role, it is refreshing for the visitors to also experience a variety of programming that enhances its visual arts component. Helen Chason, the director of the Kreeger, graciously shared insights into the museum's profound engagement with the local community, highlighting how these endeavors contribute to the enrichment of visual and performing arts within the Washington D.C. region.


Creative Selectivity

Photo by Nicholas Moreland Photography.

The craft of selecting artists is a process that takes time and research. Art curation is a way of carefully presenting new and returning visitors with a vision of what the art museum represents and what it stands for. It's a process that goes beyond showcasing popular talent. Contemporary emerging talent is always present but it takes a keen eye to select it based on the season, your audience, your messaging/themes, and the other type of programming you may have going on. 

At the Kreeger, it is important to immerse the visitor in art but also through music and workshops. These creative endeavors stimulate the artistic senses of sound, movement, and visuals. 

Helen Chason touches on the importance of supporting local talent:

To shine a light on the amazing visual and performing artists practicing in our city and provide them with gallery space for showing their work, we developed The Collaborative in 2021. The Collaborative is an exhibition program that supports DC-based artists and strengthens our relationships with other non-profit arts organizations in DC. We are honored to champion the work of these artists and provide many of them the opportunity to present their work in a museum for the first time.

It’s important to highlight local talent within museums, especially since Washington D.C. can be considered such a transient city, where people come to work for a few years and then move on to other places. Nurturing the talent that is already working within the Metro Area can only foster more of an inclusive cultural experience and create room for more talent to emerge, flourish, and maintain itself in creative careers in this area within the visual and performing arts fields.

Chason states:

Jazz at The Kreeger, also developed in 2021, is a monthly concert series at the Museum that features DC-based performing artists. Working in collaboration with Elijah Jamal Balbed, we are honored to present this jazz series to support and spotlight the wealth of musical talent in our metropolitan area.

Aside from art, the jazz community has been an intrinsic part of the Kreeger’s programming. Jazz expands how people can enjoy the art experience through music by honoring diverse talent through another art form. This opportunity creates an atmosphere of cultural history and community as it all blends in together to honor the talent of this area. 

Community Goals

Photo by Anna Savino.

The Kreeger Museum uses the art space as a place the community can visit to enjoy and learn more about Washington D.C.’s overall cultural scene. It immerses the visitor in the art experience by asking them to be part of it and engage with local musicians, artists, and overall local talent.

It is commendable for an art space to know its audience and what they want to obtain from visiting a space. It could be to have a nice time, mingle, or learn more about local art and music. It is all valid, but it is also a matter of picking their brain based on how they respond to the activities you are presenting and what they might be interested in as a parallel activity in their daily lives. Say someone is interested in art, could they also be interested in learning to make art or listening to music while viewing it? This is a reflection of what we can see in the Kreeger’s programming. 

Chason expands on this thought:

We have a wonderful and simple mission – to share art, architecture, and music. Working with partners and artists across the city we strive to develop workshops, exhibitions, performances, and talks that appeal to all audiences. Our grounds provide a fabulous space for outdoor installations and performances. With new art spaces opening up across the city, there is more opportunity for all to experience work in new venues. The more we work together to promote our artists, the richer our community will be. We are headed in the right direction.

Presenting art as a lifestyle is an exciting pursuit, especially making art more approachable, where people feel there’s a space for them no matter their background. There is room for all to feel welcome, especially if they feel their other interests similar to art are welcomed too, like workshops, music, and even yoga.


Final Musings

Photo by Vivian Marie Doering.

The important part of maintaining a contemporary art space is to be open to multiple possibilities. We live in a world where art has become more accessible to people and it is a good feeling to feel included in this beautiful and in-depth world that is art.

Spaces like the Kreeger are taking this mission one step further by learning more about the people who visit and those who live nearby when offering programming that engages their interest and keeps them coming back to learn more about art history and local talent while immersing as part of a visual and performing art community.

Of Collective Consciousness

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When we think about humanity, we are bound to encounter a sense of polarity. On one end, there is isolation and a sense of belonging on the other. Colombian artist Mario Arroyave is the observer of these vast stream-of-consciousness thoughts, and his artwork tells you why it all matters. From how we dissect our conscious thoughts, to how we choose to live our daily lives, these aspects add to the human collective we see in Arroyave’s work and around us.

Style

Arroyave’s pieces have an ongoing range. They are constantly evolving with every project he works on. He can show you so many humans or no humans at all. It matters how they are being shown to you, and this is where perspective comes into play. Where he wants you to see them from, through perspectives and angles, whether it’s people or abstractions. If they are elevated, or you see them head-on, or if you don’t see anything at all just ethereal colors, those perspectives say something important about how we view people, time, and space.

It is all about that interaction with perspective, where your attention goes, and what you decide it’s saying to you. If it’s far, it shows a collective sentiment where your understanding needs to be broad, and if it’s closer it’s a more intimate, focused approach to the subject matter.

Arroyave explains his thought process:

My creative process is closely linked to the person I am at the moment of creating…My first projects were characterized by the absence of humans in the spaces I portrayed, at that time it was very difficult for me to interact with others and this was reflected in my work.

People appeared as part of a personal process of being more social and this was mixed with some physics books that I was reading at that time where I was beginning to understand that linear time is human fiction and that in the end there are only interactions, so I decided to work on that approach and create timeless spaces where all events occur in the same singularity, and thus I began to weave the timeline series.



Deeper Meaning

There is an individual outlook on Arroyave’s approach that allows him to morph into his environment and what he wants to portray at any given moment. Even though his individualistic view is represented in the piece by showing, say, a tunnel-like vision in Dissections of the infinite, he also portrays collective consciousness, where he shows how everything can affect everything else through connection like in Timeline – Stand Paddle. These pieces fill the space and they have an element of a continuum. Life goes on, waves in the ocean keep moving, and people move on and go on, as well as time, regardless. 

He explains:

As beings we are in continuous mutation, personally, I like to think of myself as a snake that sheds its skin from time to time and this has allowed me to live multiple lives in this life, so art appears as a manifestation of each one of them, which in its uniqueness understand a different language.


Concluding Musings

Arroyave leads us into a world that exists as a particle in the grand universe. One that is constantly changing its reality in order to evolve and survive. Humans need connection with humans and other living beings, and many times that gets lost in modern times. But humans also need a connection to themselves as beings within the grand scheme of life and universal power. That’s a strong message that allows us to have a broader perspective and understanding of what it is to be part of collective existence while still holding on to our individuality.

He states:

The human is an organism, we are all human. Unfortunately, not all of us understand ourselves as such, everyone gravitates to their ego, answering for themselves, for their family, their friends, and their homeland…. but all within a relatively small ring. We do not perceive ourselves as the collective entity that we really are, there are a number of fictions that separate us from each other, preventing us from flowing like human tissue. As controversial as the very concept of family sounds, it is one of the pillars of this dissociation, from there the first barrier that divides us as a society is gestated. At some point I read in Plato's Timaeus a vision of society in Atlantis and how they articulated it in a system where the family nucleus as we know it did not exist, the children did not generate a bond with their parents, in fact, they did not even know them and so everyone they were a big family. This vision of society as a unit still exists in some indigenous tribes around the planet.

But if the recent years have something to show, it is that the need for collective connection is an emotion we all crave to an extent. Arroyave shows us what happens when we do certain things and how that affects us now and later. When we choose to isolate, connect, or ignore. The results are reflections of human needs at the time, and it shows us that reality is always changing and we are the ones who are making it happen whether we realize it or not. 


For more about this artist, please visit his website. The interview was translated from Spanish.

Today’s poem reflects Mario’s understanding of time and space:

Black Space

BY ISHION HUTCHINSON

For Erna Brodber

Be ye my fictions; But her story.
— Richard Crashaw

I can bring a halo

into the night cave, quiet

with music (do not ask the music),

to her shaded there

in the moon; her fine spectacles

steam their pond rings;

her animal eyes fix

on the lintel of the door

as the wax owl glances back at me. I am her little cotton

tree the breeze combs

white into a final note,

her diminuendo poco a poco ...    

Moon-afro, myself

outpaces me

in wonder of her.

She goes off and I seep

under the black sprout

of her house, to rise

a salmon bell on the hill

dissolving mild cloud fractals,

without grief or malice.

The Human Experience

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Contemporary existence immerses humans in a fast-moving world and almost forces us to adapt. Unlike prior times, when life seemed to move at a slower pace. At least that’s the feeling that older photographs always give. When it comes to modern photography, capturing everyday life can also seem like a fleeting light of our individual existence, something that stems from the overwhelming amount of media we consume on a daily basis.

Richmond-based photographer, Riley Goodman, is making sure that his photographs don’t follow that fast-life cultural trend, and that we appreciate each moment instead. He has an affinity for capturing human existence with such rich stillness, and that technique shows us that getting comfortable in the now is actually a refreshing idea.


Goodman’s artistic journey began with his desire to pursue drawing and creative endeavors at an early age. Then, an admiration for photography and a shift in perspective led him to pursue a career in the field.


He explains:

“During my foundation freshman year at VCUarts I quickly discovered the storytelling abilities that photography could provide to my own practice. While I still enjoy other mediums like painting and drawing, I became fascinated with a way of communicating those mediums' evocations through the use of a camera. From there I turned a hobby into my main artistic practice. My first photobook, From Yonder Wooded Hill, was published this year, which was a great moment in feeling like I made the right decision in pursuing the medium.”

Style

Riley Goodman, Sundown at Poplar Vale.

Goodman’s photographs capture people, animals, places, and things that are in the right place at the right time. Even though the pieces have a sense of heightened thoughtfulness, each also portrays everything in its own natural light and habitat. Because the photographs are presented in this manner, they show us the authenticity of what we’re seeing.

That authenticity creates freedom for things to be accepted as they are and as they come. The softness of colors that highlight the lighter aspects of Goodman’s photographic technique is sometimes met with more masculine elements that bring out a ruggedness; thereby a connected approach within the photograph and toward the viewer. Take, for instance, Cruel Summer and Remembrances on a Parlor Wall, where the softness is hardened by other elements. With his work, he aims to broaden the spectator’s viewpoint of what the art experience can represent.

He explains:

“I would say my work is becoming sharper and has begun to push the boundaries of how photography can be presented in a gallery context. We are so used to images existing solely in a digital sphere at this point that I constantly challenge myself to present something other than just a photograph in a gallery context. How can we alter the presentation that makes that viewing experience go beyond something someone could just view on their phone. Recently I presented a work for a group show where I brought in a large tree stump with a photograph displayed behind this sculptural object along with another on the flat top of the stump itself. In this way, I am not only storytelling in my subject matter, but also in the story that develops through the viewer's experience with the work in a gallery context. Additionally, I find myself working on a larger scale in my image-making. More complex still lifes and portrait set-ups allow for greater narrative arcs.”


A Deeper Insight

Riley Goodman, The Angel of Hollywood.

The photographs Goodman takes show us the complexities that come with existence. There’s beauty, nature, experience, and vulnerability. But these aspects are only partially exposed in each piece, in a revealing manner. It causes us to wonder about what they’re telling us about the person, the time of day, or how the setting makes us feel. It is up to the viewer to uncover the mystery of things or to leave things be through acceptance. The works reveal a sense of truth in a naked sense, but still, leave some things to be uncovered. Such is the case in his photographs, Sundown at Poplar Vale and Forever At The Windows, where you want to know more about the place and time and what happened next. Many of the works touch on contemporary existence and how it is related to where we came from, another time, other ways of living, and history in general. They are gentle reminders of ourselves and our ancestors.

Goodman touches on his range of subject matter:

“Beyond being a photographer I have a background as a historian so much of my work begins as research and the exploration of our collective pasts. I am largely fascinated by folklore and the uncanny— so subject matter could range from a ghost story I read about and desire to visually communicate to a methodology of amateur photography used a hundred years ago that I work to employ contemporarily.”

 

Concluding Musings

Riley Goodman, Forever At The Windows.

Goodman has a clear understanding of what it means to portray the contemporary world and its connection to the past. There is a sense of remembrance of other times in his style. But what it shows is that photographs don’t have to be fleeting moments, but present ones, where everything exists just as it is without the need to fast-forward or change. Maybe if we look at our existence in the same way, we can appreciate where we are now in life in a bigger way.


He explains:

“There are so many great photographers working today. Lately, I've found myself drawn to the work of Paul Guilmoth, and Ian Bates, along with the photographic duo, Antone Dolezal & Laura Shipley. I always return to artists like Edward Hopper who've been providing inspiration since I was a child. Beyond specific artists, I've been very inspired lately by a wild combination of antique shooting galleries, Victorian mourning practices, Southern folk belief, the American Civil War, and East Coastal culture.”

His work provides an understanding of how places, people, and things have shaped and continue to shape who we are today, individually. There’s a history that is asking to be acknowledged and that allows for that stillness and curiosity we see in the work.


He shares more about his creative process:

“I find myself drawn to still lifes, draping fabric, and notions of life even when a human or animal is not present. I often illustrate the precursor or aftermath of an event but never the event itself, and try to take the common or mundane and turn the dial slightly to create a subtle unease that makes the viewer do a double take.”


It is fascinating to see glimpses of the connected influence of things through a photograph of flowers or the way the sunlight illuminates the side of a silhouette. It is through those characteristics that we learn so much about what is being revealed and how much we’re willing to learn about the living experience, by opening our minds to it and including ourselves in it during our own personal explorations. The photos make you appreciate life and daily moments even more.

For more on this artist’s work, please visit his website.

Today’s poem goes hand-in-hand with Riley’s understanding of the human experience and its relation to history:


America

BY WALT WHITMAN

Centre of equal daughters, equal sons,

All, all alike endear’d, grown, ungrown, young or old,

Strong, ample, fair, enduring, capable, rich,

Perennial with the Earth, with Freedom, Law and Love,

A grand, sane, towering, seated Mother,

Chair’d in the adamant of Time.