Feb
13
Fri
50 Shades of Seduction @ Ritz Carlton Georgetown
Feb 13 @ 8:00 PM – Feb 14 @ 1:00 AM

50 SHADES OF SEDUCTION AT ART SOIREE FINE ART SERIES

As the movie hits theaters, Art Soiree, local art curators, present a one of a kind pre-valentine’s day installation at the Ritz-Carlton, Georgetown.

Blurring the lines between fantasy and reality, seduction and power, love and sex, the unique photo-installation by an award-winning photographer Dominique Fierro will be up for one night and one night only at the Ballroom of the Ritz-Carlton, Georgetown at 3100 South Street NW, Washington DC. Open and FREE to public the event will take place this Friday, February 13th from 8pm – 1am.

Dominique Fierro’s photography is raw, open, and full of emotion. Her latest collection presents portraits of astonishing women whose personalities can scarcely be contained by photographs. A lifelong artist and former stylist, Dominique makes it her goal to capture the heart and soul of every one of her subjects. www.dominiquefierro.com

Guests are invited to:

  • Explore photo installation by Dominique Fierro
  • Enjoy sensual & soulful dance beats by DJ Fotifo throughout the night
  • Mix and mingle with DC’s most seductive citizens
  • Take advantage of a special discount offer from Le Bustiere Boutique to shop their holiday collection

Friday, February 13 | 8pm

The Ritz-Carlton, Georgetown 3100 South Street NW, Washington DC

FREE – http://artsoiree.com/events/50-shades-of-grey-fine-art-series-exhibition-for-dominique-fierro/

The exhibit is part of Art Soiree’s Winter Fine Art Series, a 10 week long showcase presenting works of established and up-and-coming artists from throughout the DC area. Fine Art Series is more than an art exhibit, it’s an inspiring & interactive experience of art. www.artsoiree.com

Feb
15
Sun
Art Soiree’s Mardi Gras Masquerade @ Sofitel Hotel
Feb 15 @ 8:00 PM – 11:00 PM
Don your most elegant masks and festive attire for one of the greatest French traditions and immerse into the colorful world of carnival!!!
You’re invited to
MARDI GRAS MASQUERADE 2015

WHEN: Sunday, February 15 | 8pm
WHERE:
Sofitel Hotel, 806 15th Street NW, Washington DC

TICKETS*: $15 before Feb 9th online only: https://mardigrasmasquerade2015.eventbrite.com
Tickets go up in price to $20 on 2/9/15

ENTER THE WORLD OF MASQUERADE
Dance the night away to the best of New Orleans inspired live music and get transported to the French Quarter in a heartbeat with festive decorations and costumed models.

The glamorous night of dancing and live entertainment will take place at the luxurious Sofitel Washington DC Lafayette Square right in the heart of DC. Entertainment includes a live New Orleans-style jazz band, DJ, festive decorations, costumed models, and more.

Laissez Les Bon Temps Rouler! Let the good times roll!

Doors open 8:00pm & the band starts playing 9:30pm. Since it’s a holiday weekend, there is no need to worry about staying out late!
Tickets: $15 before 2.9.15; $20 after –  online only; Event is 21+
Attire: Costume or evening attire

(For those coming without a mask, complimentary basic masks will be provided upon entry.)

Enjoy jazz, dancing, performances, & cash bar.

Feb
21
Sat
Laser Cat at the Yards @ The Yards Park
Feb 21 @ 8:00 PM – 11:00 PM

Washington Project for the Arts & Forest City Present

LASER CAT at The Yards

with support from The JBG Companies 

 

DATES: Friday & Saturday, February 20 & 21, 8-11pm

Saturday, February 21, 12-4pm

PRESS PREVIEW: Friday, February 20, 5:30-6:30

LOCATION: 200 Tingey Street SE, Washington DC 20003

 

 

 

January 14, 2014  (Washington, DC) – Washington Project for the Arts (WPA) and Forest City present an event unlike anything seen in Washington! The Yards welcomes Laser Cat, a 20-foot tall inflatable cat head that projects lasers and art from its eyes.

 

Friday evening will feature live DJ’s fueling the Laser Cat party, led by Thievery Corporation’s Eric Hilton. Saturday evening’s party will project images produced by local artists, accompanied by beats from Laser Cat. On Saturday afternoon, Laser Cat will be open from 12 – 4pm for families to experience a mellower side of the inflatable feline. A heated tent with a beer garden and other program components will be adjacent to the historic industrial building in which Laser Cat will be staged.

 
ABOUT LASER CAT & HUNGRY CASTLE
______________________________________________________________

 

Commissioned by ADC and conceived by Hungry Castle, this interactive installation debuted at the ADC Festival of Art + Craft in Advertising and Design held in Miami Beach. As its name suggests, Laser Cat is a giant cat with lasers for eyes that uses high-powered projectors to beam people’s personal art onto public buildings. Laser Cat curates the art submitted, but it’s the public that fires it into public space. The viewer controls the content by pressing a giant button to change the art, lasers, and music. So far, Laser Cat has received over 15,000 personal art submissions.

 

Based in Barcelona, Hungry Castle is the creative studio featuring Dave Glass and Killian Cooper that specialize in creating public art and fashion, which they call Cool Shit. Working collectively since 2011 their goal has always been to make big, playful things of cultural impact and use design thinking in a way that truly engages people. Influenced by Shepard Fairey’s prolific use of public space with the “Obey Giant” campaign, the artists combine unique, 3-dimensional pieces with large-scale production a la Jeff Koons, but with an added interactive ingredient to create a fully immersive experience between audience and art.

 

Feb
22
Sun
Red Carpet Party to Watch the Awards @ Malmaison
Feb 22 @ 7:00 PM – 11:00 PM

SCHEDULE:
7:00pm
Doors Open / Red Carpet Report

8:30pm
Awards Broadcast Begins
We’re rolling out the RED CARPET, so please join us for a Party at the elegant Malmaison in Georgetown to watch the Awards live on Sunday February 22, 2015! Glam it up, and join us as we rally behind our favorite movies of 2014!

REGISTER NOW:

We will sell out.

http://dcfilminstitute.org/red-carpet-party-2015

Laser Cat at the Yards @ The Yards Park
Feb 22 @ 8:00 PM – 11:00 PM

Washington Project for the Arts & Forest City Present

LASER CAT at The Yards

with support from The JBG Companies 

 

DATES: Friday & Saturday, February 20 & 21, 8-11pm

Saturday, February 21, 12-4pm

PRESS PREVIEW: Friday, February 20, 5:30-6:30

LOCATION: 200 Tingey Street SE, Washington DC 20003

 

 

 

January 14, 2014  (Washington, DC) – Washington Project for the Arts (WPA) and Forest City present an event unlike anything seen in Washington! The Yards welcomes Laser Cat, a 20-foot tall inflatable cat head that projects lasers and art from its eyes.

 

Friday evening will feature live DJ’s fueling the Laser Cat party, led by Thievery Corporation’s Eric Hilton. Saturday evening’s party will project images produced by local artists, accompanied by beats from Laser Cat. On Saturday afternoon, Laser Cat will be open from 12 – 4pm for families to experience a mellower side of the inflatable feline. A heated tent with a beer garden and other program components will be adjacent to the historic industrial building in which Laser Cat will be staged.

 
ABOUT LASER CAT & HUNGRY CASTLE
______________________________________________________________

 

Commissioned by ADC and conceived by Hungry Castle, this interactive installation debuted at the ADC Festival of Art + Craft in Advertising and Design held in Miami Beach. As its name suggests, Laser Cat is a giant cat with lasers for eyes that uses high-powered projectors to beam people’s personal art onto public buildings. Laser Cat curates the art submitted, but it’s the public that fires it into public space. The viewer controls the content by pressing a giant button to change the art, lasers, and music. So far, Laser Cat has received over 15,000 personal art submissions.

 

Based in Barcelona, Hungry Castle is the creative studio featuring Dave Glass and Killian Cooper that specialize in creating public art and fashion, which they call Cool Shit. Working collectively since 2011 their goal has always been to make big, playful things of cultural impact and use design thinking in a way that truly engages people. Influenced by Shepard Fairey’s prolific use of public space with the “Obey Giant” campaign, the artists combine unique, 3-dimensional pieces with large-scale production a la Jeff Koons, but with an added interactive ingredient to create a fully immersive experience between audience and art.

 

Mar
3
Tue
Synetic Theatre’s 1950’s Style Gala @ Synetic Theatre
Mar 3 @ 6:00 PM – 11:00 PM

On Tuesday, March 3, 2015, Synetic Theater will host a 1950’s Las Vegas stylized benefit in Crystal City.  Centering on a special performance of Much Ado About Nothing, the event will kick off with pre-show savories and sips and close with a post-show champagne and dessert reception with the artists at the Crystal City Marriott.

Funds raised will help support Synetic Theater’s mission to redefine theatre, invest in artists’ growth and continue to create unforgettable visceral experiences in all of their productions. Winning 25 Helen Hayes Awards with 94 nominations since 2002, Synetic Theater was recently named one of the top 13 innovative physical theatre companies in the world by Backstage.com.

The event is co-chaired by longtime Synetic supporters and Board Members Angela Fox (Chair) and Allison Foster. Additional committee members include Tricia Paoletta, Becky Dobbins, Tacy Telego, Christy Pino, Julianna Mahley, Marcus Brown, Alan Savada, Sue and Amnon Golan, Karina and Keith Mosser, John and Meg Hauge, Patrick Brown, Timothy Carlton, Keith and Karina Mosser, and Cal Shintani.

Tickets for the benefit are $250 and will go on sale on January 1, 2015.

 

Mar
7
Sat
Nowruz: A Persian New Year Celebration @ Freer/Sackler Galleries
Mar 7 @ 11:00 AM – 5:00 PM

The Smithsonian’s Freer Gallery of Art and the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery will present its seventh annual “Nowruz: A Persian New Year Celebration” free family festival Saturday, March 7, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Throughout the day, visitors of all ages can learn, play and feast at a celebration encompassing both museums to mark Nowruz, the beginning of the new year of 1394 in Iran, Afghanistan and many other countries, coinciding with the first day of spring.

At 1 p.m. and 4 p.m., visitors can relive the Iranian music scene of the 1960s and 1970s with updated versions of classic songs made famous by the likes of Googoosh, Hayedeh, Pari Zangeneh and Parva, along with mesmerizing bandari-beat tunes by Zia Atabi. The band Mitra Sumara, based in New York, features Iranian American vocalist Yvette Perez (pictured below), and re-energizes Persian pop with influences ranging from salsa and disco to Nigeria’s Fela Kuti and Middle Eastern rhythms.Visitors will be able to hear storyteller Xanthe Gresham weave tales from Persian literary classics, learn about the Freer and Sackler’s rich collection of 19th-century Persian photographs, discover the meaning of colorful “Haft Sin” table displays and then make their own, watch a master calligrapher at work and dress up in traditional costumes for photos recreating a Persian painting. Other activities include “fire” jumping for good luck in the new year, backgammon and chess matches, face painting and a hands-on workshop in the ImaginAsiaclassroom for families to make crowns and shields inspired by the Shahnama (Book of kings). Docents will elaborate on important works in the exhibitions “Nasta’liq: The Genius of Persian Calligraphy” and “Feast Your Eyes: A Taste for Luxury in Ancient Iran” to offer glimpses of Iran’s rich artistic traditions.

Persian literature enthusiasts can enjoy book-signing sessions at the Sackler store for Two Parrots–a children’s book adapted from the poet Rumi’s celebrated work–signed by illustrator Rashin from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m., and Food of Life: Ancient Persian and Modern Iranian Cooking and Ceremonies, signed by author Najmieh Batmanglij from 12 p.m. to 2 p.m. Persian cuisine by Moby Dick and thematic greeting cards will be available for purchase.

The annual event, celebrated in advance of the true holiday March 21, regularly draws crowds of 10,000 visitors, and is made possible by a gift from Jahangir and Eleanor Amuzegar.

On March 19, the new year celebration will continue with a free concert by Grammy-nominated artists Kayhan Kalhor and Shujaat Khan. In “Ghazal: Indian and Persian Improvisations,” the musicians will reunite for the first time in more than 10 years to perform their unique blend of Indian and Persian classical music.

The annual Nowruz lecture will take place March 29, co-sponsored with the Foundation for Iranian Studies. This year’s distinguished speaker will be Azar Nafisi, the best-selling author of Reading Lolita in Tehran and Things I’ve Been Silent About. In the lecture, Nafisi will discuss her latest work, The Republic of Imagination: America in Three Books.

FEATURED COLLECTIONS

On view at the Sackler until May 3, “Nasta’liq: The Genius of Persian Calligraphy” is the first exhibition to focus on one of the most aesthetically refined forms of Persian culture developed during the 14th-16th centuries: nasta’liq, a type of calligraphy so beautiful that for the first time the expressive form of the words eclipsed their meaning. Also on view will be “Feast Your Eyes: A Taste for Luxury in Ancient Iran” featuring one of the largest collections of luxury metalwork from ancient Iran. In the Freer Gallery, visitors can enjoy one of the finest holdings of Islamic art in the United States, with particular strengths in ceramics and illustrated manuscripts.

Iranian photographs from the Freer and Sackler Archives’ collection of more than 1,100 original 19th-century prints and glass-plate negatives by Antonin Sevruguin and other Persian photographers will screen for visitors throughout the day. The collection–the largest public holdings of Sevruguin’s photographs outside Iran–was recently digitized and cataloged in its entirety.

DUET ROULETTE: An Interactive Improv Event @ ReCreative Spaces
Mar 7 @ 7:30 PM – 9:30 PM
DUET ROULETTE is an open call and performance opportunity for performing and visual artists of the DC community to engage in an evening of inspiration, creation, and improvisation on March 7, 2015 at 7:30 PM at ReCreative Spaces in Washington, D.C.. DUET ROULETTE seeks artists of all kinds – dancers, painters, musicians, beatboxers, photographers, puppeteers, acrobats, poets, etc. – to participate. On the night of the event, an audience will pair up two participating artists at random to create toether. The series of pairs will instantly collaborate, showing a series of short ‘duets’ on the spot that evening before fellow artists and an audience. There’s no time for rehearsal, just spontaneous, participatory art between unlikely pairs of artistic talent.
This event is open to the public and not limited to performers – all are welcome to join as an observer or a participating performer. The evening will close with an opportunity to meet and network with the performers and discuss further opportunities of collaboration in the DC area. Food, drinks from ReCreative Spaces’ partners, including  Zeke’s Coffee + Grassroots Gourmet, will be available for purchase throughout the evening. This event is co-hosted by ReCreative Spaces and local artist Alison Waldman.
The first 20 artists to sign up at the door will be guaranteed a spot. Artists should be prepared to supply any materials or props, or contact ReCreative Spaces to discuss available equipment.
Registration ($5), contact, and event information can be found at duetroulettemarch2015.eventbrite.com/
Mar
12
Thu
WhiskeyWhino @ Canal Square
Mar 12 @ 6:00 PM – 9:00 PM
WHISKEY WHINO – Thursday, March 12 – 6PM – Canal Square (1054 31st St NW, WDC)
Whiskey Whino is an unpretentious, modern take on a tasting event. Join us for an evening of fine whiskies and wines from around the world, featuring live performances by one of the region’s top jazz bands & burlesque troupe. Mixologists from Jim Beam, Gypsy Soul, Rogue 24, Jack Rose Dining Saloon & the Root Cellar at The W compete for your vote! The $45 ticket includes unlimited tastings of participating whiskies, wine and cocktails, as well as light bites.
Mar
23
Mon
Secret Monkey Social Club @ Dolcezza Gelato Factory
Mar 23 @ 7:30 PM – 10:30 PM

What: Secret Monkey Social Club, the brainchild of Lukas B. Smith (currently of Dram & Grain and Jack Rose Dining Saloon, formerly beverage director of Daikaya) and Shayna Blass (actress, singer and dancer, appearing in Passion Play currently at Forum Theater), aims to pay homage to the cabarets of decades past with a lounge environment full of drinks and jazz.

When: Monday, March 23, 2015

7:30 p.m.
Where: Dolcezza Gelato Factory & Coffee Lab, 550 Penn St. NE, Washington DC 20002

Details: Guests will enjoy six new punches prepared by Smith at $9 per pour, and cabaret performances lead by Blass throughout the night. Local talent Navid “Navi” Azeez will provide an opening performance as well. This event is 21+, and there is no door charge.

The Drinks: Smith will be joined behind the bar by Dan Searing, co-owner of Room 11 and author of “The Punch Bowl.” Searing will prepare a punch and help host the festivities.

The following is a portion of Smith’s menu thus far:

Soirée Not Sorry

Boyd & Blair

Dolin Blanc

Suze

Turmeric

Toasted Mustard Seed

Lemon

Punch a la Romaine (adapted from Tom Bullock’s “The Ideal Bartender”)

Mt. Gay Rum

Champagne

Oleo d’Orange

Myrrh-infused Nitro Meringue

The Jekyll and Lindbergh

Avocado-washed Aviation Gin

Scorched Lime Oleo

Génépi Espuma

Kampot Pepper

A Song of Experience

Angel’s Envy Bourbon

Cynar

Alvear Montilla

Smoked Pistachio Orgeat

Darjeeling

Lime