Old Masters in a New Age
The contemporary global art scene is a dynamic, fluid international marketplace now, filled with figures as diverse as Swiss prankster Urs Fischer and American silhouette-maker Kara Walker. But audiences and curators are still obsessed with the same old white guys, a fact to which a perfect storm of three recent shows of French drawing in New York and DC attest. Click here for more
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Iconoclash!
November marked the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. The event was commemorated worldwide, but perhaps most memorably at Washington, DC’s Goethe-Institut. The German cultural center filled its walls with defaced GDR (German Democratic Republic) relics. Click here for more
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The Overlooked Epidemic
According to the WHO’s Goodwill Ambassador for Cancer Control, these figures are probably too low. In an interview with the Diplomatic Courier, Ambassador Nancy Goodman Brinker explained that cancer victims in the developing world are frequently never diagnosed.
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Africare Hones in on Malaria
In just four years Africare has increased the number of pregnant women receiving preventative malaria from two percent to 52 percent in the Delta region of Nigeria.
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The 31st Annual Ambassadors Ball
The Ambassadors Ball marked another year of successful fundraising for the Multiple Sclerosis Society and another night of fun and dancing for many of the District’s resident ambassadors, politicians, and professionals.
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| Recycling Gone Ritzy
Crystal goblets were filled with Red Bull mixed drinks. Delicate roast beef appetizers were interspersed among bags of popcorn and Fruitloops-krispy-treats. And of course, the sleek galleria space was offset by the lighthearted sculptures it encased.
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Judging an Embassy by its Façade, A Starry Swiss Night
Swiss Ambassador Urs Ziswiler and his wife, Ronit, welcomed their 750 visitors with music from a Swiss ensemble, charmingly traditional Swiss cuisine, and—of course—an assortment of imported Swiss wines.
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Judging an Embassy by its Façade
A nation’s embassy houses its diplomatic mission abroad. It is a space for international wheeling-and-dealing and the somewhat less exotic bureaucratic red-tape services common with all consulates. Click here for more
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Progress in Pictures
As part of “Extremely Hungary,” a yearlong festival in New York and DC devoted to Hungarian culture and organized by the Hungarian Cultural Center, the National Museum of Women in the Arts is currently hosting the exhibit “Picturing Progress: Hungarian Women Photographers, 1900-1945. Click here for more
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The Prestige Angle
Massachusetts Ave, Embassy Row, Dupont Circle. The addresses that evoke the history and hustle-and-bustle of the heart of America’s international community. And at 15 Dupont Circle, the current home of the Washington Club exemplifies the style and substance of DC diplomacy, yesterday and today. Click here for more
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Zen and the Art of Contemporary PrintmakingCurrently on display at the Japan Information and Culture Center, “The Allure of Contemporary Japanese Prints” explores trends in a very specific field from a very specific country. Click here for more
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Where Translation Gets Lost
So the Kennedy Center’s Millennium Stage won’t be mistaken for a Moroccan village anytime soon. The nomadic tent staging is constructed and forced, totally out of context in the sharp, modern arts complex.
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Out of Africa
I recently paid a visit to the National Museum of African Art, intending to visit the temporary exhibit “Artists in Dialogue: António Ole and Aimé Mpane.” What better opportunity to check out contemporary African art and consider the cultural context and artistic heritage from which it emerged?
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Lost Ruins
A recent event at the Hudson Institute, “Turkish-Occupied Cyprus: The Threat to Religious and Cultural Heritage,” shed light on the issue of looting and destruction of cultural sites in turbulent regions. Click here for more
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12th Century Story, 21st Century Performance
The Capital Fringe Festival is a daunting enterprise, an overwhelming weeks-long program of live performances for every imaginable taste.
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From the valley to the Heights and back againThe countryside of El Salvador brings to mind certain images: those of civil war, of earthquakes, of destruction. But with El Canuto del Rock, a summer show at GALA Hispanic Theatre, we’re reminded that it can also, well, rock. Click here for more
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Kings of Orient, Bearing Gifts and Traveling Far
At the Sackler Gallery through September 13, “The Tsars and the East: Gifts from Turkey and Iran in the Moscow Kremlin” is all about the art of diplomacy. Not just the finesse it takes to dialogue internationally, but the beauty that comes of protocol. Click here for more
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Dancing with the Panamanians
Panama, Latin America’s strategic isthmus, is so much more than a canal. But last Thursday, August 6, local organization Grufolpawa (Grupo Folklórico de Panamá en Washington, DC), performing at the Reynolds Center for American Art and Portraiture’s Kogod Courtyard...
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Lights, Cameras, Action (but keep it short)
Kicking off September 10, the sixth annual DC Shorts Film Festival promises to be a week-long celebration of the art of precision timing (not only must the directors watch their clocks, but ardent attendees have 100 films to fit in their schedule). Click here for more
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