Thursday, May 19, 2005

Options 2005 latest


(UPDATED at bottom)

Couple of new comments posted here today from artists who had studio visits scheduled for this weekend with Libby Lumpkin. She's sick and has cancelled. They're not happy. Are the visits cancelled altogether or just postponed?

I'd like to know how many local artists applied and how many of them made it to the studio visit round. Does anybody know of a non-VCU grad that had a visit or had one scheduled?

(L.L. - get well soon)

Relatedly, somebody named marye has left an interesting question/comment on the last Whitney Biennial 2006 post. She(?) doesn't like the idea of submissions at all and thinks that they cloud the curator's job - "to seek out and gather under one roof art of note". What does that mean? It seems to me like so many of them only look at what an institution is paying them to look at.

Case in point: I'm a fan of Ingrid Schaffner's work at the Philadelphia ICA and contacted her last fall when I heard she would be speaking at VCU in October. I invited her to visit my studio while she was in town and she wrote back (nicely) that she wanted to focus her time on the work at VCU. Fair enough, but when I later find out that almost half of the VMFA Professional Fellowship winners are students who had studio visits with Ms. Schaffner (the juror) I want to puke.

Hilarious insider aside: A grad who passed on his visit with Schaffner gave his slot to an undergrad friend. That's the undergrad who won one of the professional fellowships! As far as I can tell, the two grads that didn't have studio visits with Schaffner are the two that didn't win fellowships.

UPDATE 5/20/05: an article on Corcoran problems in today's Washington Post. I don't know if this is related to Ms. Lumpkin's cancelling the visits or not, but it seems commenter former MICA grad was right about the money problems.

RELATED?: Speaking of curators and money and the need for transparency - a Getty Museum senior curator has been indicted in Italy.

5 comments:

  1. Dear Martin,

    High ranking contacts of mine at the FAA tell me that her sickness was directly related to the pilot of her Corcoran chartered Cessna 150 being bulldoged by 2 F-16 Fighting Falcons for crossing into resticted air space on approach to Dulles International Airport. I'm further informed that she's opted to return to California under FBI escort aboard Amtrak's Cresent to New Orleans for rest and recovery with an eventual connection aboard the Sunset Limited back to the City of Angels. I'll provide updates on her health as they are cleared by my Newsweek realiable sources!

    Sincerely,

    James

    ReplyDelete
  2. Lies
    SEPTEMBER !!TH
    SEPTEMBER !!TH

    ReplyDelete
  3. Dear Kai,

    Lies indeed. Well, I think that today's Washington Post explains it all, including Libby's sudden mystery illness. The illness maybe that her contract will be terminated, as well as David Levy's.

    I've posted an open letter about the Corcoran on J.T.'s site and DCist.

    Martin is to be commended for keeping the light on this matter.

    Sincerely,

    James W. Bailey

    ReplyDelete
  4. what is kai talking about?

    ReplyDelete
  5. Not sure how much I can help you out on this one but I announced a while ago that I was selected for a studio visit by LL. It works out for me because I'm out of town this weekend and would have missed it. Now it is rescheduled for the first weekend in June.

    I know of 3 other artists who got studio visits. None of the 4 of us graduated from VCU. And I don't know how many others there are.

    We'll see how it goes. I'll post about it after it happens.

    ReplyDelete