Apr
4
Thu
The Arts, Identity and Societal Inclusivity” Pop-up exhibit @ Fridge Arts Gallery
Apr 4 @ 5:30 PM – 8:00 PM

“The Arts, Identity and Societal Inclusivity” Pop-up exhibit and conversations organized by the Arts for Global Development, Inc aims at facilitating an open, safe and creative environment to talk about identity, diversity as well as those issues that communities tackle on a day to-day basis especially in the context of voluntary and involuntary mobility of millions of people who are scattered across the globe.

The arts provoke thoughts and encourage people to embark upon issues that are sometimes hard to come to terms with. Contemporary artists often examine their identities by using themselves or aspects of themselves as a starting point to tell a story or address a larger issue like “acceptance or belonging”. During this event, one such contemporary designer and a multidisciplinary researcher Neba will showcase her fashion-art pieces that introduce unique and spiritual methods and folk pieces from her ancestry and upbringing.

Along with Neba’s one day/pop up exhibition called “Feast”, the Sandy Spring Museum Director, Allison Weiss and Cameron Okeke from Urban Institute will be sharing their experiences of how they’ve used the arts, from communicating the stories of displaced people to building creative and safe places in broken communities around the US.

We certainly live in interesting times where social tension is rising in this ongoing “us and them” discourse. With this event we aim tobring our community together and use creativity as a means to broaden our perspectives. We do hope the works and discussions will inspire and encourage everyone in taking actions that support inclusion, ” said Nil Navaie,  the founder and president of Arts for Global Development, Inc.

“The Arts, Identity and Societal Inclusivity” Pop-up exhibit and conversations event will be held at the Fridge Arts Gallery (516 8th Street SE, Washington DC) on April 4th from 5:30 – 8 pm.

The event is free, however RSVPs are recommended via http://www.art4development.net/.

Apr
13
Sat
‘Guess I’m a Ghost’ at WebFest @ Make Offices Glover Park
Apr 13 @ 6:00 PM – 8:00 PM

WHAT: The world premiere of the new series ‘Guess I’m a Ghost’ at DC Webfest as part of their American Web Series Watch Party block.

Guess I’m a Ghost is a comedy web series in eight episodes that explores coming to terms with your past mistakes, making amends, and how we both perform ourselves and find out about death through social media. Tonally, the series is a mix between High Maintenance and The Good Place. Using both naturalistic and absurd comedy, the show looks to see how we grieve over imperfect people we think we knew, but maybe didn’t at all. Diane…wasn’t the best friend. She liked to bend the truth and look out for number one. After embarrassing herself at a party, she’s killed in a ride-share accident when climbing into the front seat to charge her phone. Then, because of a mistake in the afterlife, she’s sent back to earth and forced to haunt those she could’ve treated a little better, and might owe her an apology themselves. The series features an original score by Leslie Hong of Haybaby, and will be released in full online on April 29th, following a screening in Los Angeles on April 27th.

WHEN: Saturday, April 13th at 6:00pm

WHERE: MakeOffices Glover Park – 2201 Wisconsin Ave. Suite #200 Washington DC 20007

HOW: Festival programming passes start at $45

Apr
15
Mon
OFERTÓRIO CAETANO VELOSO @ Music Center at Strathmore
Apr 15 @ 8:00 PM – 11:00 PM

OFERTÓRIO

CAETANO VELOSO

With Moreno, Zeca & Tom Veloso

 

For over 35 years, GRAMMY Award-winner Caetano Veloso has been a major musical, social, and cultural force in Brazil. The New York Times calls him “one of the greatest songwriters of the century.” Veloso’s latest project is a collaboration with his sons: Moreno, Zeca, and Tom. This legendary lineage performs an intimate, acoustic concert full of their favorite songs like “Um Canto de Afoxé Para o Bloco do Ilê,” and your favorite songs of Veloso’s like “Cucurrucucu Paloma,” “Sozinho,” and more. Veloso first became known for his participation in the Brazilian musical movement Tropicalismo, which encompassed theatre, poetry, and music in the 1960s, paving the way for pursuits in rock, pop, folk, and Bossa Nova.

Apr
27
Sat
Walters Art Museum Presents Second-Annual Community Youth Arts Celebration @ Walters Art Museum
Apr 27 @ 11:00 AM – 4:00 PM

Learn how the next generation of Baltimore’s artists and leaders are harnessing the power of creativity to tell their stories. As part of the day’s activities, attendees can create their own museum memes, buttons, and custom banners, learn how to screen print with Jubilee Arts: Youth in Business, and make a personalized zine with Baltimore Youth Arts. Special guests include the Enoch Pratt Free Library, Baltimore Ceasefire, and Open Works. Performances include screenings with Wide Angle Youth Media, musical ensembles with two Arts Every Day schools, and the Lethal Ladies of Baltimore Leadership School for Young Women step team.

The day’s festivities include Behind the Façade, a program of original monologues by Baltimore School for the Arts theater students. Performed in 1 West Mount Vernon Place, this performance brings to life the range of people, enslaved and free, who made Mount Vernon their home in the years before and after the Civil War.

Presented in collaboration with Arts Every Day. Special thanks to MECU of Baltimore and the Baltimore Office of Promotion & The Arts.

WHERE:

Walters Art Museum

600 North Charles Street

Baltimore, MD 21201

WHEN:

Saturday, April 27, 2019

11 a.m.–4 p.m.

 

Apr
29
Mon
The Changing Role of Museums in the Middle East @ Middle East Institute
Apr 29 @ 12:30 PM – 1:45 PM
The Changing Role of Museums in the Middle East
When
Monday, April 29, 2019
12:30pm – 1:45pm
A light lunch will be served at 12:00pm
Where
Middle East Institute
1319 18th Street NW
Washington, DC 20036
Details:
The Middle East Institute (MEI) and The Beirut Museum of Art (BeMA) are pleased to invite you to a panel conversation on the changing social and cultural significance of museums in Lebanon, and more broadly in the Middle East, as they seek to move beyond their traditional role as authorities in the arts to become more relevant to the cultural and socio-economic concerns of communities at a local, regional, and international level.
Please join Glenn Lowry, director of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), Taline Boladian, member of APEAL,The Association for the Promotion and Exhibition of the Arts in Lebanon (founding entity of BeMA), and Peggy Loar, president of International Museum Planning Consultants, for a discussion about the future of museums in the Middle East. NPR Art Desk Reporter Neda Ulaby will moderate the conversation.
May
2
Thu
LECTURE: Around the World in 80 Trees @ Conservatory Garden Court, US Botanic Garden
May 2 @ 6:30 PM – 8:00 PM

Jonathan Drori, author and environmentalist

From India’s sacred banyan to the fragrant cedar of Lebanon, trees offer us sanctuary, inspiration and companionship – not to mention sustenance and raw materials – and forests have surprising parallels with human communities. In this fascinating and beautifully illustrated talk, Jonathan Drori, author and trustee of The Eden Project in Cornwall, and former BBC documentary film-maker and board member of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, uses plant science to illuminate how trees play a role in every part of our lives, from the romantic to the regrettable, and how they are capable of the most bizarre antics. An unmissable event for tree and nature lovers. Please note: Doors open at 6:30 p.m. Program begins at 7 p.m.

DATE: Thursday, May 2

TIME: 6:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.

LOCATION: Conservatory Garden Court

FREE: Pre-registration required, visit www.USBG.gov/Learn

This program sponsored by the Friends of the U.S. Botanic Garden.

May
4
Sat
Collector’s Night – Washington Project for the Arts
May 4 @ 6:00 PM – 10:00 PM

Proceeds from Collector’s Night Art Sales are split 50/50 between the artists and WPA, whose share goes to supporting its artist driven programs through artist honoraria, travel, artwork production, and other direct program costs.

May
10
Fri
EU Open House @ Various Embassies
May 10 @ 10:00 AM – 4:00 PM
EU Open House • May 11, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. • Passport DC 2019: EU Open House • 
The European Union Delegation at 2175 K will be open as part of the EU Open House on May 11. Visitors will get a sneak peek into what the EU does, sample food from Europe, play a spin-the-wheel game for prizes, try out a virtual reality experience and get artistic with a coloring wall. This event is free and open to the public, and families are welcome. For the full list of all 28 embassies participating and what activities they will be doing, visit the EU Open House website.
This event is also the highlight of the European Month of Culture taking place May 1-31 when all EU countries bring performances, exhibits and much more to DC. The full lineup of events can be found online.
May
13
Mon
MICHAEL KAHN AND FRIENDS: OFF THE RECORD @ Harman Hall
May 13 @ 8:00 PM – 10:00 PM

May 15, 2019
Sidney Harman Hall
8 p.m.
General Admission Tickets: $20
Student Tickets: $10

Shakespeare Theatre Company’s Artistic Director Michael Kahn invites theatre-lovers to the second event of a series of intimate conversations about his career in D.C. as he prepares to retire. Open, unrehearsed and off the record, invited speakers will swap anecdotes and share memories about Michael Kahn’s 33 years directing at the Shakespeare Theatre Company. The discussions focus on three distinct eras in STC’s history and chronicle D.C.’s changing theatre scene. This second Michael Kahn and Friends: Off the Record will focus primarily on the formation of the Shakespeare Theatre Company in its second location: the Lansburgh Theatre (1992-2006).

On May 15, audiences are invited to join Michael and STC Affiliated Artists Philip Goodwin and Floyd King, actor Wallace Acton and former Managing Director Jessica Andrews as they discuss their favorite performances onstage, backstage antics and offstage tales. After six years in residency in the Folger Library’s Elizabethan theatre, in March 1992, STC moved midseason to a new performance space: the 451-seat Lansburgh Theatre, which provided more flexibility and space for STC’s growing audience. At the time the Penn Quarter neighborhood was not considered desirable by many; since then, STC has helped drive its revitalization.

During the Lansburgh years, Michael Kahn continued his tradition of color conscious casting with the famous “photo negative” production of Othello featuring Sir Patrick Stewart in the titular role. He founded the Academy for Classical Acting at The George Washington University to prepare the next generation of classically trained actors in a one-year intensive MFA program. Michael Kahn’s electric and condensed version of Sophocles’ The Oedipus Plays earned international acclaim and was later remounted in Athens. During this juncture, STC’s reputation was growing so much that the Clintons attended Twelfth Night, becoming the first First Family to attend a regional theatre company production.

ABOUT THE INVITED SPEAKERS

WALLACE ACTON played the titles roles in STC productions of Richard III, Hamlet, Richard II, and Peer Gynt, garnering Helen Hayes Award nominations for the first two performances. Other notable STC performances include Ariel in The Tempest, Silvius in As You Like It, Octavius in Antony and Cleopatra, Porter/Doctor in Macbeth, Feste in Twelfth Night, Mosca in Volpone (Helen Hayes nomination), and a Helen Hayes winning performance as Richard/Peter in Henry VI.

JESSICA ANDREWS served as the Managing Director of Shakespeare Theatre Company from 1990-1994; her previous positions in Washington, D.C. included several years of experience working as director of the theatre program at the National Endowment for the Arts. After leaving Shakespeare Theatre Company, she joined the Arizona Theatre Company, and worked there for many years as a Managing Director, Executive Director, Director of Major Gifts, and returning twice as an Interim Executive Director. She retains the honorific Emerita Executive Director.

STC Affiliated Artist PHILIP GOODWIN is a star of stage and screen, in movies such as The Pink PantherThe Pink Panther 2 and Diary of a Country Priest. At STC, he turned in Helen Hayes award-winning performances as Brutus in Coriolanus, Questenberg/Gordon in Wallenstein, Malvolio in Twelfth Night, Mayor Stockmann in An Enemy of the People, and the lead role in Timon of Athens. He has appeared in Broadway productions of The Diary of Anne Frank, Tartuffe and The School for Scandal. Off-Broadway performances included the Fool to Kevin Kline’s King Lear in King Lear, and the Drama Desk-nominated Henry VI in Henry VI.

A longtime fixture on the Washington, D.C. theatre scene, STC Affiliated Artist FLOYD KING most recently appeared on the Sidney Harman Hall stage in the Helen Hayes-nominated Camelot as King Pellinore. Other notable STC roles include Postmaster in The Government Inspector, Verges in Much Ado About Nothing (mainstage and Free For All), Geronte in The Heir Apparent, Phipps in An Ideal Husband, Feste in Twelfth Night, Parolles in All’s Well That Ends Well, Pandarus in Troilus and Cressida, Malvolio in Twelfth Night, Ford in The Merry Wives of Windsor, Bottom in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and Fool in King Lear. He has appeared on stages throughout Washington, D.C., and is currently an instructor at Academy for Classical Acting.

May
18
Sat
Washington National Opera Gala @ Kennedy Center
May 18 @ 4:30 PM – 11:30 PM

Tony Award®-Winning Actress

Christine Ebersole to Host

Washington National Opera Gala

Saturday, May 18, 2019, at 6 p.m.

in the Kennedy Center Opera House

 

Washington National Opera (WNO) announces the addition of Tony Award®-winning actress Christine Ebersole as host and special guest artist for its 2019 Gala on Saturday, May 18, in the Kennedy Center Opera House.

Ebersole, an iconic artist of the stage and screen—who appeared in Francesca Zambello’s 2018 production of Candide at LA Opera—joins the WNO gala cast, along with previously announced headliner Christine Goerke, another iconic American voice who is currently starring as Brunnhilde in the Ring Cycle at the Met. This year’s WNO gala concert program explores the beauty and vitality of the human voice through music ranging from Wagner to Gershwin to Irving Berlin.

Christine Ebersole is known for her wide artistic range and versatility, perhaps most notably for her work on Broadway, where she won the Tony Award® twice for her work in Grey Gardens and 42nd Street. She has a distinguished list of television and film credits to her name, including The Wolf of Wall Street, Amadeus, Tootsie, andRichie Rich on the big screen, as well as Sullivan and Son, Royal Pains, Madame Secretary, and Blue Bloods. Her concert and stage credits have taken her to renowned venues across the country, and she has made numerous recordings.

Also added to the roster of talent for the gala evening are soprano Latonia Moore, who appears in the title role in two performances of WNO’s upcoming run of Tosca.Moore joins Ebersole, Goerke, and Washingtonian bass Soloman Howard.

The Gala is WNO’s largest fundraising event and one of Washington’s most anticipated events of the year. Proceeds from the Gala play a crucial role in advancing WNO’s artistic, educational, and community engagement programs. The 2019 WNO Gala honors local entrepreneur John J. Pohanka for his outstanding contributions to the organization, features Evan Rogister leading the WNO Orchestrain his inaugural performance as WNO’s Principal Conductor.

The Co-Chairs of the WNO Gala are Jacqueline Badger Mars and Camille Biros.

Tickets for the Gala concert only, starting at $45, are on sale now.

Special packages to attend all Gala festivities are available. The Gala evening will begin with a cocktail reception on the Kennedy Center’s River Terrace at 4:30 p.m., followed by the 6 p.m. Gala concert performance. The event concludes with elegant black-tie dinners hosted by Ambassadors and foreign dignitaries at embassies and residences throughout Washington, a longtime tradition of the Opera’s season-ending social gathering.

Gala Ticket Information

Tickets to the WNO Gala concert, which start at $45, are available online, in person at the Kennedy Center Box Office, and by calling (202) 467-4600 or (800) 444-1324. For all other ticket-related customer service inquiries, call the Advance Sales Box Office at (202) 416-8540.

Gala ticket packages start at $500 and include the VIP cocktail party and priority seating for the Gala concert. Packages that also include seating at the private embassy dinners following the performance start at $1,000. Information is available online or by contacting the Special Events office at (202) 416-8496 or operagala@kennedy-center.org.