Local Museums to Participate in 4th Annual Art Museum Day on Saturday

Corcoran, Phillips and others to offer free admission or special deals.

A number of local art museums will offer free admission in honor of Art Museum Day (Saturday, May 18), according to The Washington Post. In the District, the Corcoran Gallery of Art, the National Museum of African Art, the National Museum of Women in the Arts and the Phillips Collection will offer free admission this Saturday, while the Hillwood Estate, Museum and Gardens will honor the day on Saturday, June 8, when “Living Artfully” opens. In Maryland, the Baltimore Museum of Art will allow visitors free admission to view its 90,000 works of art on Saturday. Art Museum Day was developed by the Association of Art Museum Directors (AAMD) in 2009 to dovetail with the International Museum Day, created by the International Council of Museums …

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Got Great Gatsby Fever?

Celebrate the summer movie release with some of these local tie-ins.

The Great Gatsby is showing in theaters, and it's inspiring people to delve deeper into the story’s history, culture, music, food and drink. Starting with F. Scott Fitzgerald’s grave at St. Mary’s Church in Rockville, there are a number of local places to help you get your Gatsby on, according to The Washington Post. If you venture to Fitzgerald’s gravesite, take note of the epitaph, which reads, “So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.” This quote is the final line in The Great Gatsby. View costumes, set designs, paintings and films from the Gatsby era at the National Gallery of Art’s “Diaghilev and the Ballets Russes” exhibit, which opens May 12. Check out some Art Deco architecture in Silver …

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Artist Spotlight: Julia Fernandez-Pol's Paintings Inspired by Science, Beauty and the Grotesque

Bethesda's "Fair Focus" Art Exhibition artist discusses the inspirations behind her work and what her life would be like without paint.

As part of Bethesda’s Art Walk festivities, the “Fair Focus” Art Exhibition was an event for the community to enjoy unique masterpieces by reputable artists from all over the world, including Julia Fernandez-Pol. The Argentinian-American artist grew up looking either under a microscope or through a telescope. Over time, Fernandez-Pol used those same observation techniques to create her paintings. After moving across the country to Los Angeles, Fernandez-Pol is establishing herself on a new coast and her work is just getting started. Bethesda-Chevy Chase Patch: Who is Julia Fernandez-Pol? Julia Fernandez-Pol: I think Julia the artist is allowing my eccentricity to be my important feature. One of the things for me is that I love the …

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The 'Wizard of Wood' Visits the Woods of Potomac

A huge stump near Potomac Elementary School takes up space. Cut it down? Possibly. But that’s not what Potomac Elementary School parent Donna Petrocella has in mind. Instead of a stump, she sees art.

'Starry Night'—A Bethesda Original

New York City may have Vincent van Gogh's "Starry Night," but Bethesda's got the David van Go-berg one.

New York City's Museum of Modern Art may have Vincent van Gogh's Starry Night, but Bethesda's got the David van Go-berg original. And, van Go-berg's Starry Night is a lot bigger, and may be seen from the street, free-of-charge. The 146-inch-by-96-inch mural is affixed to the side of Union Hardware (7800 Wisconsin Ave., Bethesda)—see it around the corner on Norfolk Avenue. Union Hardware co-owner David Goldberg—aka van Go-berg—created the mural out of left-over hardware stock (more than 1,250 door knobs, levers and backplates from Germany, Italy and the U.S.), according to the description at the side of the mural. Goldberg describes his creation as "Post-Door Hardwareism," in homage to van Gogh's Post-Impressionism. Read more about Goldberg…

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Roaring Maryland: 5 Places to Go 'Gatsby' Nearby

Author F. Scott Fitzgerald had deep ties in Maryland, some of which you can see for yourself.

Don't expect a glittering movie opening of the The Great Gatsby, and its mega stars Leonardio DiCaprio, Tobey Maguire and Carey Mulligan, anywhere near The Free State. F. Scott Fitzgerald, author of the novel (published in 1925) that provided the inspiration for the three-dimensional film, however, was deeply entrenched in the region during his lifetime, with landmarks to his family and his literary works sprinkled from Rockville to Towson.  Even if you're not lining up for the premiere Friday, find a little of Gatbsy's Roaring '20s vibe nearby: 1. The Fitzgerald family—F. Scott, his wife Zelda and their daughter Scottie—spent more time in Baltimore than any other place, according to University of Maryland professor emeritus Jackson Bryer…

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Gallery B to Showcase Local Artists in May Exhibit

Bethesda’s Gallery B’s May exhibition features work by local artists, as well as a collaborative piece to be sold for charity.

Gallery B’s May exhibition includes pieces from seven local artists who, in addition to their individual works, will contribute to a group piece to be auctioned off during the month. The exhibition, called “Seven Variations and a Conversation,” features seven artists from Dupont Circle’s Foundry Gallery: Fran Abrams, Nancy Donnelly, Naomi Taitz Duffy, Judy Gilbert Levey, Donna K. McGee, Robert Wiener and Patricia Zannie. Several of the contributors are from the area; Levey is an oil painter from Bethesda, Abrams works on polymer clay out of Rockville and Wiener is a Washington, DC, native who owns a private art glass studio. As part of the exhibition at Gallery B (7700 Wisconsin Ave., Suite E, Bethesda), the artists collaborated on a group…

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Metro DC Sheds Staid Image to Put Young Designers on Fashion Runway

Washington's stiff fashion image is being erased by a confluence of forces that are putting DC on the fashion map.

By Anamika Roy, Capital News Service The nation’s capital has long been known as a place full of stuffy gray suits and neatly pressed ties, but these days, designers are loosening the top button. “There has been a stigma with DC fashion,” said Michelle Gibson, a fashion designer and Howard University senior. “It’s gray, tacky and uninspiring.” That stiff image is being erased by a confluence of forces that are putting DC on the fashion map: Up-and-coming, home-grown designers, showcase venues in DC Fashion Week and the DC Fashion Incubator, plus a young, hungry, well-heeled consumer market. In Chevy Chase, a strip of high-end stores that include Christian Dior, Cartier and Ralph Lauren was dubbed "Rodeo Drive of the East" by developers.  …