Dear Arts Patrons, Aficionados and Supporters,
Happy New Year to everyone! Hope your holidays were festive and filled with lots of arts and culture! We are hitting the ground running at Embracing Arlington Arts in 2020 so read on for all the news.
2020 Arlington Arts Groups Performances and Events
January 2020
1/7-1/11 – Frank Sinatra, Cabaret Series, Signature Theatre
1/10 – Opening Reception, Arlington Artists’ Alliance, Gallery Clarendon
1/10-1/19 – Narnia, Encore Stage & Studio, Thomas Jefferson MS
1/9-2/29 – Wildlife, Andrea Uravitch, Fred Schnider Gallery of Art
1/11 – Wildlife, Andrea Uravitch Reception, Fred Schnider Gallery of Art
1/18-3/28 – Action Exhibit, Arlington Arts Center
1/18-3/28 – Jung Min Park Solo Exhibition, Arlington Arts Center
1/25 – Border, Jane Franklin Dance Company, Theatre on the Run
1/25 – Forty+, Jane Franklin Dance, Theatre on the Run
1/28-2/23 – Gun & Powder, Signature Theatre
1/31-2/15 – Bloody, Bloody Andrew Jackson, Dominion Stage, Gunston II
February 2020
2/1 – Action, Opening Reception, Arlington Arts Center
2/1 – Border, Jane Franklin Dance Company, Theatre on the Run
2/1 – Dance Art Theater, Jane Franklin Dance Co., Theatre on the Run
2/1-2/16 – A Daughter’s Daughter, Arlington Players, Thomas Jefferson Community Theatre
2/5-3/1 – Phantom of the Opera, Synetic Theater
2/7 – Reception, Arlington Artists’ Alliance, Gallery Underground
2/8 – NextReflex Dance Collective, Jane Franklin Dance Company, Theatre on the Run
2/8 – Border, Jane Franklin Dance Company, Theatre on the Run
2/9 – Swingin’ Sweethearts Day, National Chamber Ensemble, Gunston Arts Center
2/14 – Opening Reception, Arlington Artists’ Alliance, Gallery Clarendon
2/18-3/29 – Easy Women Smoking Loose Cigarettes, Signature Theatre
2/28-3/8 – The Three Musketeers, Encore Stage & Studio, Thomas Jefferson Comm. Theatre
2/29 – Move Me Festival, Bowen McCauley Dance, Kenmore MS
March 2020
3/6 – Reception, Arlington Artists’ Alliance, Gallery Underground
3/16 – The Story of Walter, SigWorks, Signature Theatre
3/21 – Remarkable Four Seasons of Vivaldi, National Chamber Ensemble, Gunston II
3/24-4/19 – Camille Claudel, Signature Theatre
To view the entire 2019-2020 Calendar of Events, click here.
“Artistic Director STEAM AHEAD” Series Begins to Air:
As we previously reported, we are so excited about our phenomenal series of podcast interviews that began airing this winter with five extremely successful Artistic Directors from the top theaters in the DC region: Molly Smith from Arena Stage, Eric Schaeffer from Signature Theatre, Chil Kong from Adventure Theatre, Ryan Rilette from Round House Theatre, and Maria Manuela Goyanes from Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company. We will be chatting with them about their respective theaters, their views on the importance of arts and culture, their impressive backgrounds, their advice for those interested in theater management, and so much more.
The first podcast with Maria Manuela Goyanes from Woolly Mammoth Theatre aired recently and you can listen to the entire podcast here. Learn her ironic story about getting into the arts management industry, her eye-opening views on diversity in the performing arts arena and much, much more. Also why did she leave The Public Theater in New York to come to DC?
Making this series even more valuable is that after all the episodes have aired, we will be offering the entire set to high schools in the region as a key resource for students interested in pursuing a career in performing arts. We have learned there is a dearth of insightful information for these students as they research these careers, so we aim to fill that gap with these critical interviews. Where else can such a wealth of information be found in one set of interviews?
Art Therapy Gets a Boost:
Spreading the word about the benefits of art therapy just got a major boost. The World Health Organization (WHO) reviewed the results of over 900 art therapy-related studies, and concluded that overall, these findings “lend credibility to the assertion that the overall evidence base shows a robust impact of the arts on both mental and physical health.” The report takes a broad view of how art influences health. “Art” by its definition includes actually doing some kind of art like painting or making music. The definition also includes consuming art, through actions like going to a museum, listening to music or seeing a play. Read the article here.
Corporate Sponsor of the Month:
Our corporate sponsor of the month is Mindcubed. This company is an ABA 8(a) certified information technology software and services company. The staff there excels at delivering creative solutions quickly and cost effectively in the areas of big data analytics, mobile apps development, systems engineering and the ever-important cybersecurity. In addition, Mindcubed’s software enables organizations to understand trends, predict outcomes and make data-driven decisions. Whether you are a large corporation or a small business, Mindcubed could help in your business operations.
“Embracing Arlington Arts Talks “Podcast:
In addition to the Woolly Mammoth podcast, we had other very interesting guests on the podcast throughout December. We got off to an early start celebrating the holidays with our chat with the Artistic Director of the National Chamber Ensemble Leo Sushansky. Leo gave us the details about the ever-popular holiday cheer concert, as well as gave us the scoop on the winners of the Youth Piano Competition. Staying in the music world, we were excited to meet with the extremely talented musician/singer/composer Chris Urquiaga – a frequent Cabaret singer at Signature Theatre. WE had a very interesting chat about how he writes songs, one of his first performances, his upcoming musical and more.
Moving from music to podcasts and play adaptations, we interviewed Patrick Flynn, a filmmaker, author, director, among some of the hats he wears. Learn about his own podcast “The Original Cast,” as well as get details about his adaptation of “The Velveteen Rabbit” in this wide-ranging interview. We rounded out the month chatting with Virginia Humanities Board Member Mark Habeeb and Project Consultant Mary Hynes who gave us the details into the “Changing the Narrative” grant awarded by the Kellogg Foundation to look at the racial history of Arlington and other parts of northern Virginia.
To listen to these interviews, or any others in the past, follow this link.
Media Hits/Contact Amazon:
If you missed the Embracing Arlington Arts annual holiday poem (usually referencing our particular dearth of performing arts venues) in ArlNow, here is a link to this year’s which is sung to the tune of “Auld Lang Syne.” While the poems are light-hearted in nature, we do remain very concerned about the lack of facilities, which has been made even worse with the closing of the Clarendon Ballroom – one of the last remaining live music venues in the County – on New Year’s Eve.
Are you also concerned about the dearth of performing arts venues? Well maybe we can get Amazon to help – with your assistance. The company’s Met Park project, which includes 65,000 square feet of retail space, would be a perfect spot for a flexible quality performing arts venue! Amazon officials are reaching out to Arlingtonians to get their views and ideas for this retail space. Send them an email at arlingtonhq@amazon.com and ask them to partner with Embracing Arlington Arts to build a theater venue. You can simply refer to the letter we sent to them, send them this link to our one pager on the infrastructure initiative or just tell them why you believe Arlington needs more entertainment options so that folks come to Arlington for arts and culture (and therefore dine here in the County). (NOTE: If you send an email, please send us a copy so that we can compile them for our own advocacy purposes.)
Embracing Arlington Arts President Janet Kopenhaver and Board Member Sara Duke served on the Arlington Community Arts Advisory Committee (CAAC) set up in response to the outcry from Arlingtonians about County Manager’s proposed draconian cuts to the arts budget. The recommendations were presented to the County Manager and Embracing Arlington Arts announced its support of this report, with the caveat that work still needs to be done for the Joint Use theater scheduling process with local schools. InsideNova covered the release in this article. ArlNow also included coverage in this article.
Our ArlNow Community Post subscription also highlighted the free concerts being offered this season by the Arlington Concert Band in this column. New columns are posted bi-monthly on Mondays. Many thanks again to our underwriters for this subscription: the Fred Schnider Investment Firm/Fred Schnider Gallery of Art and Embracing Arlington Arts supporter Annie Sweeney. If you are interested in underwriting the subscription for the 2020-2021 season (starting in August), and getting much visibility for your organization or company, please contact us.
Heads Up – 2020 Events:
Because schedules fill up quickly, we wanted to give everyone some heads up for events Embracing Arlington Arts will be hosting in 2020. First in mid-April we will be hosting a debate on the Arts for the Democratic Candidates running for the County Board. We have already secured the participation of the two current candidates running, but the deadline is April 1st for all candidates to register so we will wait until then before sending out the formal flyer with all the details.
Second, because diversity is such an important topic for the arts and culture community, in October we will be organizing a “Diversity Panel – On Stage, In Boardrooms and in the Audience.” We also hope to have some new statistics available on diversity at that forum. Stay tuned for more details.
Finally, we are planning to have a Community Working Session on the future of the arts in Arlington, with the goal of drafting a Master Plan for the Arts in Arlington this year. But we need citizen, stakeholder and leadership input. We hope to host this working session in late February.
Donation:
Please help us achieve our goals by making donation to Embracing Arlington Arts. Every dollar helps us help the arts in so many ways. Thank you in advance!
If you would like to support the work Embracing Arlington Arts by making a donation, here’s how:
* Make tax-deductible contributions online.
* Tax-deductible contributions by check: check made out to Embracing Arlington Arts and sent to Embracing Arlington Arts, 754 North Vermont Street, Arlington, VA 22203
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