Artomatic is a multi-week, multimedia arts event held in the Washington, D.C. area. It has been held since 1999 up to the present at intervals from one to three years, depending upon the availability of a site. The non-juried event provides a forum for artists of all types (visual, performance, and literary) and abilities (from novice to professional). There are also arts education and professional development workshops and discussions.
Video Artomatic
Structure
A steering committee comprising local artists, arts administrators, and community activists develops outreach procedures and participation guidelines to ensure the broadest possible artistic representation from the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area. Each participant pays a fee and commits to volunteering for 15 hours. Most participants, however, give much more of their time; volunteers execute every task, from hauling trash and building exhibit structures to maintaining the website. As a result, the show draws artists and visitors of different races, cultural backgrounds, ages and experience levels.
Artomatic provides a mechanism for emerging and established artists to have the chance to work with and learn from one another. The diversity of artwork and performances attract a broad range of people, providing a forum to build institutional connections; linking public and private schools, universities, community development organizations, human service organizations, corporations, foundations, and cultural organizations.
Maps Artomatic
History
The first Art-O-Matic, as it was spelled then, ran from May 21 to June 19, 1999. It started as a fairly spontaneous event in the Manhattan Laundry buildings on Florida Avenue in Northwest Washington. The location, in an old laundromat, accounts for the name.
The second Art-O-Matic was held from September 29 to October 28, 2000. This time, it was held in the Tenleytown neighborhood of Northwest Washington, in a then-vacant building that had at various times been a Sears and a Hechinger.
October 31 to November 30, 2002 saw the third Art-O-Matic, in a former EPA building at 401 M Street, Southwest Washington, adjacent to Waterside Mall (the EPA building and the mall were both later demolished). At this Art-O-Matic, for the first time, the Figure Models Guild of the Washington, D.C., area sponsored open life drawing events. There would be live, often nude, models posing, and artists drawing.
The fourth Artomatic, as it was now spelled and has been spelled since, was held from November 12 through December 5, 2004 at the old Capital Children's Museum in Northeast Washington. The Washington Post art critic, Blake Gopnik, wrote a review of the show labeling the majority of the work mediocre or worse, and decrying the waste of money and effort that could have gone to worthwhile, professional arts activities in DC.
The fifth Artomatic was held from April 13 to May 20, 2007. This was the first time Artomatic was held outside the District of Columbia. It occupied two floors of a vacated office building in Crystal City in Arlington, Virginia. The space had previously been occupied by the Patent and Trademark Office.
Artomatic returned to the District of Columbia with the sixth, held from May 9 through June 15, 2008. This time, they occupied 10 floors of Capitol Plaza I, a new - not yet completed - office building in the NoMa neighborhood.
In February 2009, Artomatic collaborated with the Pink Line Project for "Luck of the Draw: An Art and Music Experience". This event attracted over 1,500 people and was held at the Capitol Riverfront Neighborhood.
The seventh Artomatic was also the tenth anniversary event. It ran from May 29 to July 5, 2009 in Southeast Washington. It occupied a brand new building, 55 M Street SE, in a development near the new Washington Nationals ballpark located right over an entrance of the Navy Yard Metro Station. Over 76,000 visitors attended.
The eighth Artomatic was held from May 18 to June 23, 2012, in Crystal City, Virginia. It was held in a 320,000-square-foot (30,000 m2) vacant office building, the event's largest space ever.
The ninth Artomatic was held in New Carrollton, Maryland, from October 30 to December 12, 2015.
The tenth Artomatic was held at the Montgomery County, Maryland Potomac Park development in November, 2016.
The eleventh Artomatic returned to Crystal City, Virginia running from March 24 to May 6, 2017.
Licensed events and partnerships
The Artomatic concept has been licensed out to other places, including Frederick, Maryland, in October and November 2011, and Toledo, Ohio, in April 2015.
Smaller events and partnerships have also happened over the years, including a small display in the oldest wing of National Airport in 2011 and select Artomatic artists were featured with poetry by BRASH at Studio Gallery on R St NW in 2010.
In 2007, a group of art galleries in Bethesda, Maryland, put on a coordinated show of artists who might have taken part in Artomatic. The galleries mounted the art for their monthly Bethesda Art Walk of January 12, 2007. Whereas every other Artomatic has been open basically to any artist who has art to hang or mount and the $60 fee, this is the only time an Artomatic event was in any way curated.
Artomatic has also partnered with art groups from other cities and countries, specifically glass studios in England for the 2009 iteration, in order to bring work from elsewhere into the DC art scene.
Notable artists
- Frank Warren's PostSecret project began at Artomatic 2004.
- A mysterious poet named BRASH has left poems for the exhibiting artists and many choose to display the poems with their artwork.
- In the 2007 Artomatic, Tim Tate's artwork "The Rapture" disappeared under dramatic circumstances, and later a ransom demand (for Monopoly money) was sent to The Washington Post. The demands were met and parts of the artwork were returned by the thief, named "The Collector," along with his manifesto about society failing to value its art.
References
External links
- Artomatic home page
- Artomatic Discussion on ArtDC.org
- Artomatic@Frederick - Frederick, MD
- Artomatic419 - Ohio
- Fraser Gallery Artomatic Top 10 Show *"Artomatic Thinks Small in Bethesda", Washington Post, January 11, 2007; Page C13.
- "'Artomatic (2007)': Treasures Hiding in Plain Sight", Michael O'Sullivan, Washington Post, May 4, 2007; Page WE53
- "'Art in focus: Artomatic @ Frederick (2011)'", Michael O'Sullivan, Washington Post, October 20, 2011
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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