Call for Art, Artists and Artisans for the AVON Walk Washington, DC

The Howard Ave. Arts Incubator is forming a team of artists, artisans, and friends to participate in the April 30th to May 1st Washington, DC AVON Walk for Breast Cancer. The Incubator is a new collaborative arts center in Kensington, MD which nurtures the artistic and professional growth of artists to enhance the greater Maryland community.

The Incubator is partnering with its neighbor Anytime Fitness Kensington to invite and train walkers for the team. The Incubator hopes to help walkers reach their fundraising goals with proceeds raised during a “Walking Wearables” show on Sat. April 23rd in the Incubator gallery featuring sales and auctions of donated and member artwork. Breast cancer-related themed and wearable works are being accepted at the Incubator now.

Anytime Fitness Kensington created a special Arts Extreme Walker 67% savings value package to get our team members moving: a 2-month temporary membership and 3 personal training sessions for $99. Package members can hit the treadmills at any hour just a few doors down from the Incubator, and increase their overall health and walking-related synergies with the safety and motivational expertise of Kensington’s finest personal trainers. The partners will also organize historic walks along Howard Ave. and other points of interest in Kensington.

For more information, please contact Joy Parisi, Assistant Director of the Howard Ave. Arts Incubator, at 301/897-4152 or joyartincubator@gmail.com. Please also visit the AVON website at www.avonwalk.org/washington-dc, or the Anytime Fitness site at www.kensingtonfitness.com.

State of the Crafts Industry

The “State of the Crafts Industry” was the topic of the Howard Avenue Arts Incubator first panel discussion on January 25th, 2011. Gary Rosenthal, mixed media sculptor and founder of the Arts Incubator, led a panel discussion with Tony Glander, owner of Fitzpatrick Glass, and Deborah Simon, owner of the Waygoose Gallery in Rockville and Waygoose Redux in Bethesda.

Twenty-five guests toured the studio of the Gary Rosenthal Collection on the second floor at 4218 Howard Ave., then gathered in the Incubator Gallery on the third floor to socialize, network, and interact with the panelists. Attendees could not miss the address, as the building was dramatically lit with gobo lighting effects!

The gallery was also decked out with a variety of paintings, mixed media collages, pastels, photographs, and sculptures by founding members of the Incubator and local guest artists.

Gary started off the panel discussion by asking the panelists to describe their backgrounds in the craft industry, and then discuss what changes they have noticed with the unstable economy. The panelists gave many insightful observations, such as:

1) A change in the number and scale of custom orders;
2) Less traffic at the standard industry shows (New York gift show, Philadelphia, etc.), with many smaller shops going out of business;
3) Fewer artists going into production crafting, and instead coming out of art school and only pursuing gallery sales;
4) A drop in customers buying for themselves, which has only recently begun to return; and
5) Customers buying either at a low price-point below $20, or a higher gift purchase point of $100 and above, but not much in-between.

Overall, the panelists agreed that business is beginning to pick back up. They advised attendees to be strategic about approaching store owners, for example: keeping in touch monthly with the shop owners who carry their work to make sure they have enough in stock; emailing the owner to ask about representation rather than going into the shop; and offering work in a range of price points.

The Howard Avenue Arts Incubator thanks Gary, Tony, and Deb for contributing their time and wisdom to this event. For more information on the panelists, please visit their websites at collectgaryrosenthal.com, thewaygoose.com, and fitzpatrickglass.com.
Our next event will be Wednesday, March 23rd – Dinner with An Expert: Fran Abrams:
Fran Abrams is a polymer clay artist whose work has been widely exhibited in the DC metro area. She served for 41 years in government and non-profit agencies and recently retired from her position as Grants Director at the Arts and Humanities Council of Montgomery County (AHCMC). Fran has an undergraduate degree in art and architecture and a graduate degree in urban planning. She is a member of the Foundry Gallery in Washington, DC. As a contractor for AHCMC, she manages the county's public art program and the new Betty Mae Kramer Gallery and Music Room in the Silver Spring Civic Building at Veterans' Plaza in downtown Silver Spring, MD.

A New Addition to the Gallery

We had to opportunity to acquire a baby grand piano for the gallery.  Here it is, just waiting for you to come play on!

HAAI's Pre-Opening Party

Last Sunday, December 12, the Howard Avenue Art Incubator held it's invitation-only pre-opening party to show off the newly finished (and gorgeous!) 1200sf gallery space, complete with work from local artists. Both the main gallery and the hallway gallery were lined with works ranging from paintings to photographs to sculpture. It was also a great opportunity for us to snap some great photos of our space.

View from the window side of the gallery

Some of the wonderful sculpture pieces

Gary, founder of HAAI with some gallery patrons

The hallway gallery

To get a better sense of the space of the gallery, check out this short video we took:

Overall, the party was a huge success! We're excited about the space and can't wait to host some public events.

First Artist Potluck!

Progress is definitely being made here at HAAI. The gallery has paint on the walls and is wired for lighting, and membership is gaining momentum! Check out these photos from our November 17th Artist Potluck, the first official activity of the Howard Ave. Arts Incubator!

The outside of the building looked fantastic with Gobo lighting. Soon we'll have one especially made for HAAI!

HAAI is under construction!

I'd like to take a moment to introduce you to a new undertaking of Gary's that may be of interest to any of you who are local.  Gary is leading an effort to create an arts community here in Kensington, MD.  By creating the Howard Avenue Arts Incubator, he hopes to foster creative works and community, using art as a catalyst for even more.  There are a lot of interesting prospects with this project and I invite you to take a look at the website and add your name to the email list there.  The plan is to have a kick-off festival December 12th, 2010.

In preparation, there has been a lot of renovation going on at the studio as the downstairs gets a makeover and the newly acquired area upstairs is being rebuilt into a gallery.

This wall is soon to be history.

The wall is gone, as is a good portion of the old floor.

You can't really see them in this picture, but in addition to the new purple tiled floor, we built a couple of great walk-in closets that will really help to declutter!

The newly redone kitchen area is sure to get a lot of use!

Headed up stairs.  Once it's refinished, this wall above the landing will be a great place to display artwork!

Welcome to the third floor.

It's still very much under construction, but you can see that this can become a really great gallery space.  A few of Gary's larger pieces were set up as examples for a meeting this past weekend and we had a local artist in to symbolically hang the first artwork on the wall.

If you're interested in getting involved in classes or gallery exhibitions, or to learn more about all the cool ideas Gary has for this project, give us a call at 301.493.5577!

A New Arts Community in Kensington

The Howard Ave. Arts Incubator is committed to creating a community of visual artists and craftspeople who are dedicated to making art a more vital part of the fabric of Montgomery County and the surrounding region while also working on their own personal development within the arts. The HAAI Center will combine many aspects of the arts—from production to marketing, with a focus on the more professional artist seeking information and training beyond their aesthetic specialities. We will help artists who want to become more successful and help them improve the skill in presenting and selling their work. We will encourage artists to mentor emerging artists and work in schools, and we will meet regularly as a community to support one another. The Center will have a co-op gallery, a working mixed media crafts studio that will be available for studio rentals and classes ( including welding shops, fused glass operation, silk screen facilities, laser etching capabilities and a 2,000 square foot machine shop). There will be classroom space and meeting areas suitable for wet classes or fundraisers for non-profit organizations as needed. The goal of the Center is to create synergy based on the collaboration of those interested in the arts. We will help each other learn more about our crafts and we will also help others who are interested in the arts and the community beyond our own members.