“Photo-Op” is an hour-long opera that tells the story of a presidential candidate and his wife who “approach a political campaign with naiveté and ambition and come to realize that the campaign is a crucible from which they emerge fundamentally changed; their relationship is no longer a love match but a political alliance.”
The end result is a performance that’s about “the absurdity of modern presidential politics.” From a media release:
Man Saves Life of Granddaughter — A grandfather saved the life of his granddaughter on Sunday, after the little girl started choking on fruit inside her family’s Arlington home. The grandfather, Rick Corbett, used his CPR training from the Boy Scouts in order to help save her life. [WUSA 9]
County Still Trying to Buy Courthouse Building — Arlington County is in negotiations to purchase the 1960s-era office building at 2020 14th Street N. The potential purchase sparked controversy among neighbors, largely due to the plan to place a year-round homeless shelter on the building’s lower floors. [Sun Gazette]
Josh Stoltzfus, 39, has been named Artisphere’s new Director of Programming. He faces the daunting task of attracting programming that will bring more people to Artisphere, which has been suffering from a lack of consistent attendance and continued financial losses that have necessitated increased taxpayer support.
Stoltzfus’ music-centric resume includes roles as the tour manager for The Holmes Brothers, production coordinator at Wolf Trap and, most recently, programming manager for the Columbia Festival of the Arts. He has a bachelor’s degree from the Berklee College of Music and a graduate degree in Arts Management from American University, according to his LinkedIn page.
The D.C. area belly dance studio Sahara Dance is putting on a show at Artisphere on Saturday, Aug. 18 from 6:00 to 10:00 p.m. Entitled “Carnival,” the show is billed as “Mardi Gras meets Middle Eastern moulid,” and will feature dance performances; variety talents; live music; games, prizes and raffles; beer, wine and festival food; henna tattoos; and tarot card and palm readings.
More than 100 bellydancers from around the D.C. area will participate in the performances. The event will also feature a special performance by Mohamed El Sayed, a noted Egyptian dancer and musician.
The Rosslyn Business Improvement District teamed up with students the Art Institute of Washington to set up temporary decorative planters in the temporary CentralSpace park along Wilson Boulevard. The planters feature artistic wrappers showcasing various Rosslyn-centric images.
The beautification project also included orange “orbs” painted on the sidewalk, which form a “bread crumb trail” from the Rosslyn Metro to Artisphere.
The show will features eight bands from high schools around the D.C. region, including two from Arlington: New Metro (Yorktown H.S.) and Challenger Deep (Washington-Lee H.S.). Each of the bands in the show writes and performs their own music.
The audience will decide who wins the Battle of the Bands showcase. The winner will receive 32 hours of professional recording time at 4Mile Studios in Arlington.
Obama Speaks of Peace in Arlington Speech— In his Memorial Day speech at Arlington National Cemetery, President Obama spoke of a “milestone” reached in the past year with the end of the Iraq war. “After a decade under a dark cloud of war, we can see the light of a new day on the horizon.” Mr. Obama also spoke of protecting veterans’ benefits. [Los Angeles Times, Associated Press]
Arlington Church Hosts Rolling Thunder Riders — The Arlington Assembly of God church, located just off Route 50 in the Arlington Forest neighborhood, hosted 300-400 Rolling Thunder riders over the weekend. The motorcyclists made camp outside the church or slept in the church itself. [Arlington Mercury]
Yorktown student Ryan Carroll was announced the winner of Rep. Jim Moran’s Eighth District Congressional Art Competition during a ceremony at Artisphere in Rosslyn last night. The annual nationwide Congressional Art Competition was started in 1982 to “provide an opportunity for members of Congress to encourage and recognize the artistic talents of their young constituents.”
Carroll will soon have his work, entitled “Lady of Rain,” displayed inside the Capitol building for the next year, along with the winners from other states across the country. The second place winner, Washington-Lee High School student Erin Daniell, will receive $100 to go toward art supplies.
New Long-Haul Service at DCA — JetBlue, Southwest, Virgin America and Alaska Airlines are adding new long haul service from Reagan National Airport to four cities, respectively: San Juan, Puerto Rico; Austin, Texas; San Francisco; and Porland, Ore. [CBS News]
Meeting Tonight About Ballston Park — Planners from the county parks department will be meeting with residents tonight to discuss options for the small triangular piece of land next to the Ballston public parking garage at the corner of N. Glebe Road and N. Randolph Street. At one point a mini golf course was proposed for the tiny park. [Arlington Mercury]
The Frida Kahlo exhibit, held from Feb. 23 to March 25, drew 13,119 visitors to Artisphere, according to a recently-released quarterly report. That’s well over three times the audience of Artisphere’s next most popular exhibit to date, a collection of Mongolian clothing, artifacts and art that drew 3,831 visitors over the course of a month and a half in the spring of 2011.
Though the Kahlo exhibit helped bring in visitors, Artisphere failed to capitalize in terms of catering and concession revenue. Artisphere has yet to find a “resident caterer” to pick up the slack left by the closing of the venue’s in-house bar/restaurant last year. As a result catering and concession income for the first three quarters of the financial year was only $24,170, compared to the prorated business plan goal of $63,188.
The “Battle of the Dance Crews” show ends a week of events in the D.C. area for a transatlantic hip-hop festival. The Urban Corps Festival will feature dancers from the United States, France and Senegal, who are trained in a variety of techniques such as contemporary dance, Brazilian capoeira, karate and gymnastics.
Performances will highlight the dancers’ interpretations of hip-hop culture through urban dance. The festival website says this type of artistic event “serves as proof that urban issues are not only local, but mutually influenced on both sides of the Atlantic and across the globe.”
The event was cancelled just weeks before it was supposed to kick off at Clarendon Ballroom last fall. Now there’s word that Artisphere is holding an event tomorrow in anticipation of NOVA Fashion Week returning this October.
“Behind the Scenes of NOVA Fashion Week” will let the audience see the preparations that go into pulling off a fashion show. There will be live hair and makeup stylings, as well as a demonstration of how a runway is created.
