Adventures at ARTventures

Okay, I have a confession to make. Thursday’s “ARTventures On H” art walk sponsored by CHAMPS, the Capitol Hill Chamber of Commerce, is a bit of a blur to me. For those of you who didn’t attend the walk (or also have fuzzy memories), 12 galleries and art spaces invited the public in from 5-7:30pm to display works by local, national, and international artists. As you visited each location, you got your passport punched, increasing the discount at eight participating H St. bars and restaurants by 2% (up to a max of 10% off).

Anyway, back to my confession. My blurred memory is in large part because we managed to get to the 10% discount level and then took to heart the encouragement we received from Annie Gawlak at G Fine Art Gallery who, after giving our passport its crucial fifth punch, pointed out that now it was cheap to get drunk. It’s also because, by the time we were able to make the arduous two-block trek from our house, it was already 7pm and we only had 30 minutes to make it to as many galleries as possible. Intrepid blogger that I am, though, I persevered and proudly stand (ok, sit) before you with a seven-times-punched passport. I know what you’re thinking, “Seven galleries in 30 minutes?! How could you possibly have actually stopped to look at anything?” The answer is surprisingly simple: I’m just that good.

As I said, we made it to seven venues on the east side of the corridor including G Fine Art, Evolve Urban Arts Project, Industry Gallery, Conner Contemporary Art, the H Street Playhouse, the Bryant K. Adams installation, and a display in the now-closed R.L. Christian Library (though now it doesn’t look like that was actually an officially recognized stop. The balloons out front threw me…). All were interesting in their own way, but for my part I was most struck by an intriguing video art collection at Conner and a display of works by young artists with physical and/or mental disabilities at H Street Playhouse.

To be honest, the Conner display (the one we saw was a video/photography work by Janet Briggs of an “expedition in the high Arctic…aboard an ice-class, 2-masted schooner, built in 1910”) didn’t quite grab me at first–for at least a full minute an anonymous sailor turned his head meaningfully left and right while sad music played–but a day later it had grown on me greatly. At H Street Playhouse, the art was complemented by the stories of the young artists–most under 25 and some as young as their mid-teens–for whom the art seemed to not be about coping with their difficulties as much as it was about transcending them.

As we made our way from stop to stop and eventually to The Liberty Tree for dinner, I was glad to see that turn-out for this event seemed to be strong with lines outside some of the venues on H Street itself. Hats off to the organizers at CHAMPS for putting this together (and I’m not just saying that because THIH’s own Nichole was one of them…well, maybe a little…) The walk really highlighted the corridor as the up-and-coming area for arts in the city, and we can’t wait for next year (and I promise to be on time).

Click here for a full listing of participating galleries, art spaces, bars, and restaurants.