Notable Past Exhibitions and Events
CORCORAN ANNUAL EVENTS
The Corcoran produces several annual events that celebrate the talents of its students, faculty and visiting artists each year.
NEXT
Corcoran School of the Arts and Design
500 17th Street NW
Held every spring as an end-of-year thesis and capstone show, NEXT showcases the work of Corcoran students in celebration of contemporary art and scholarship. Explore NEXT virtually. viewbook
NEXT VIRTUAL TOUR
CORCORAN MUSIC FESTIVAL
The Corcoran Music Festival celebrates music through performances by nationally and internationally acclaimed artists, faculty and students. Past festivals have taken place over the last four years.
SELECTED PAST CORCORAN EXHIBITIONS AND EVENTS
ENCOUNTERING THE WORLD ACROSS DIFFERENCE: OPACITY, SOLIDARITY, AND ART
Talk by William Wilson Corcoran Visiting Professor Lecture with Aruna D’Souza
Thursday, December 1, 2022, 5:30-6:30 pm
500 17th Street NW
Hammer Auditorium
Encountering the World Across Difference is a talk by Professor Aruna D’Souza that explores questions about how one makes and writes about art in ways that respect the autonomy and sovereignty of others, with a particular attention to the writings of Édouard Glissant and Saidiya Hartman, and the work of Simone Leigh and Jennifer Packer. This theme is at the heart of the exhibition opening in the Corcoran vestibule, “Encounters at 500 17th St NW,” on December 1, and works from that show will also be featured.
Aruna D'Souza, this year’s William Wilson Corcoran Visiting Professor of Social Engagement at GW’s Corcoran School of the Arts and Design, writes about modern and contemporary art; intersectional feminisms and other forms of politics; and how museums shape our views of each other and the world. Her work appears regularly in 4Columns.org and The New York Times. Her book, Whitewalling: Art, Race, and Protest in 3 Acts (Badlands Unlimited), was named one of the best art books of 2018 by The New York Times. She is editor of Lorraine O’Grady’s Writing in Space 1973-2018 (Duke University Press, 2020), and is co-curator of the retrospective of O’Grady’s work, Both/And, which opened in March 2021. She received the 2021 Rabkin Prize for art journalism and a 2019 Andy Warhol Foundation Art Writers Grant.
TRANSFORMER20
500 17th Street NW
Nov 11 – Dec 10, 2022
Viewing hours: Wed–Sat 1–5 p.m.
Benefit Gala: Nov 10, 2022
Transformer20, shown in this tour, was a retrospective exhibition celebrating Transformer’s 20th anniversary as a leader in the contemporary visual arts. It featured the work of over 100 DC artists including many Corcoran alumni and professors.
LEGACY: 50 YEARS OF DANCE ON THE EDGE
500 17th Street NW
Sept 23 – Dec 10, 2022, on view Wed.-Sat 1 – 5 p.m.
Sept 23, 2022, 5:30–8 p.m. Opening Performances & Panel Discussion
Oct 7, 2022, 6–9 p.m. Exhibition Celebration & Guest Performances
Oct 8, 2022, 2 – 5 p.m. Guest Artist’s Discussion & Performances
LEGACY: 50 YEARS OF DANCE ON THE EDGE presents an exhibition of visionary works by Maida Withers, celebrated choreographer and GW professor, via a visual retrospective that premieres an immersive installation with guerilla artist/political projectionist Robin Bell.
LEGACY unfolds throughout the atrium galleries of the Corcoran School of the Arts and Design, drawing viewers into the bold, witty, and sometimes weighty world of Withers’ dance. From September 23 to December 10, LEGACY merges dance films and archival recordings to envelope viewers in five decades of dance on the edge.
Washington City Paper highlighted the visual installation “Legacy: Fifty Years of Dance on the Edge’’ honoring Maida Withers, professor of dance, at the Corcoran School of the Arts and Design in the article “Divino Niño, Celebrating Dance and Tech, and More Best Bets for Sept. 29–Oct. 6,’’ by Sarah Marloff.
FRAMING FATHERHOOD
500 17th Street NW
June 18 – July 31, 2022, from Wednesday – Sunday 1 – 6 p.m.
PHOTO EXHIBIT CELEBRATING POSITIVE IMAGES OF BLACK MEN AND BOYS
DC-based exhibit debuts June 18th and features 14 prominent Black, male photographers exploring Black boyhood, manhood & fatherhood.
Photographers include Devin Allen, Tau Battice, Reese Bland, D. Michael Cheers, Reggie Cunningham, Anthony Geathers, Russell Frederick, Steven John Irby, Erskine Isaac, Khary Mason, Michael A. McCoy, Quinton Pete, Michael Young, Jamel Shabazz
INTER | SECTIONALITY
The Atrium Galleries
500 17th Street NW
Opening Night: Thursday, November 14, 2019,
6 p.m – 9 p.m. On View: November 14, 2019 – March 20, 2020
Tuesday - Friday, 10 a.m. – 6 p.m.
Weekends, 1 p.m. – 6 p.m.
INTER | SECTIONALITY: DIASPORA ART FROM THE CREOLE CITY is a bold, multiregional, multidisciplinary curatorial collaboration and exploration of the emergence of the “Creole City” as a local, regional and global phenomenon.
INTER | SECTIONALITY is presented in our nation’s capital at a time when diaspora artists and voices are challenging social justice, celebrating identities, and reactivating and bridging communities through contemporary art and scholarship. The complexities and diversities represented by this exhibit are emergent and, in many cases, ascendant across the world.
OPEN: AN INSTALLATION BY ROBIN BELL
The Atrium Galleries
500 17th Street NW
The GW Corcoran School of the Arts and Design presents Robin Bell’s ‘Open’ installation of lights and projections
Thursday, February 7 – March 31, 2019
OPEN is a celebration of transparency, belonging and accessibility. Reflecting on the cancellation of the Robert Mapplethorpe exhibition at the Corcoran 30 years ago, Mr. Bell intends for this exhibition to serve a counterpoint to decisions regarding censorship, erasure and closure. Through this exhibition he will debut site-specific works that take into account the physical location of the Corcoran across the street from the White House, the cultural nexus in which the Corcoran exists, and the fundamental rights born in the First Amendment. For Mr. Bell, OPEN is a goal: open borders, open thought and, most importantly, open dialogue.
MAPPLETHORPE (6.13.89)
500 17th Street NW
Open to the public from June 14 to October 6, 2019 Exhibition hours are Tuesday to Friday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., and weekends from 1 to 6 p.m.
Thirty years after the Corcoran Gallery of Art canceled a controversial show by the photographer Robert Mapplethorpe, the Corcoran School of the Arts and Design at the George Washington University will revisit the cancellation, the backlash, and the reverberations of both through the art world in Washington, D.C., and beyond.
FAST FASHION/SLOW ART
500 17th Street NW
Exhibition open to the public from Aug. 8, 2019, to Dec. 15, 2019, Tuesday – Friday 10 a.m. – 6 p.m., Weekends 1 p.m. – 6 p.m.
The Galleries off of the Atrium at the Flagg Building
FAST FASHION/SLOW ART comprises 11 films, videos and video installations by a diverse group of emerging and established contemporary artists and filmmakers that, collectively, encourage scrutiny of today’s garment industry.
MICHAEL HERSCH’S ON THE THRESHOLD OF WINTER
November 3, 2018, 7:30 p.m.
The Atrium Galleries
500 17th Street NW
The Washington premiere of an immersive, confrontational and unsettling monodrama about a man’s struggle with cancer in the last year of his life. This performance at the Corcoran will feature the acclaimed soprano Ah Young Hong, the only singer thus far to perform the work. The New York Times described her in the premiere as “the opera’s blazing, lone star,” The Chicago Tribune a role “portrayed with soul-baring intensity ... absolutely riveting,” The Utah Review hailing her as “the definitive performer for the opera ... a remarkable display ... Her vocal musicianship is a mastery of breath control and phrase articulation,” a “dramatic presence [which] astounds at every turn.”
SPIKED: THE UNPUBLISHED POLITICAL CARTOONS OF ROB ROGERS
July 18 - October 28, 2018, Tues-Fri, 10 a.m. - 6 p.m. & Weekends, 1 - 6 p.m.
The Atrium Galleries
500 17th Street NW
The Corcoran School of the Arts and Design at the George Washington University will open ‘Spiked: The Unpublished Political Cartoons of Rob Rogers’ on July 18. This pop-up exhibition in the Corcoran School’s historic Flagg Building’s atrium gallery features 10 finished cartoons and 8 sketches that went unpublished by Rogers’ employer, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette between March 6 and June 3, 2018.
DUDLEY LECTURES
2019: Nao Bustamante, Multimedia and Performance Artist
2018: Wendy MacNaughton, Illustrator and Graphic Journalist
2017: Tom Joyce, MacArthur Fellow and contemporary American artist 2009: Art Spiegelman, Author and illustrator
2005: James Cuno, Director, Art Institute of Chicago
2000: Elizabeth Catlett, Sculptor, printmaker, educator
1999: Robert Hughes, Author and illustrator
1988: Vincent Scully, Art History Professor, Yale University
THE DUDLEY MEMORIAL LECTURE was established in 1984 at the Corcoran Museum in memory of Argentina Dudley by her husband, Robert Whittier Dudley, and their children to commemorate and perpetuate her life’s work and interests. A talented artist, Argentina devoted her time and energy to the Corcoran for over a quarter of a century. The family’s endowment fund secures the annual lecture in perpetuity. The lecture is not discipline specific. The guidelines are to invite a “a distinguished art historian, critic, humanitarian, or other significant personage in the arts.” I would like to invite someone who can speak to issues that concern all our programs; engage our students; and bring attention to the Corcoran in the GW community and the broader DC community.
The lecturer is typically invited by the Corcoran director, in consultation with faculty members, followed by a reception or dinner with members of the Dudley family, students and faculty. Speakers receive a stipend and accommodations. The event is open to the public.
VISITING PROFESSORS OF COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT EVENTS
The William Wilson Corcoran Visiting Professor role, an annual appointment, builds on the school’s robust community engagement legacy and enables the Corcoran to drive social change at the local level. Funding for the position comes from a grant administered by the Trustees of the Corcoran Gallery of Art. Visiting Professors often create an exhibition or event during their time at Corcoran, and a few of these are listed below.
VISITING PROFESSOR EXHIBITION: PAUL RUCKER
VIRTUAL
May, 2021
Paul Rucker says he remembers sitting on the street, eating ice cream as a child, and watching a Klan parade pass by. He uses these memories and his other experiences to motivate his work honoring the achievements of Black entrepreneurs and visionaries. His incredible website was designed with the help of Corcoran professor Kevin Patton and Corcoran Interaction Design students; Professor Patton and this group of students built an incredible experience for all who visit the website.
The students who did this stupendous work include: Iman Ibrahim, Isabelle Bryson, Jamie Horowitz, Jing Mu, Kaitlin Santiago, Lauren Wedderburn, Yixuan Chen, Youran Wu, Lina Huang, Maren (Pepper) Magyar, Maeve Curran, Deja Nycole, Malin Hillemann, Maggie Walsh, Nora Neely, Alexis Emerson, and Andrew Kastner.
VISITING PROFESSOR EXHIBITION: JOSEPH KUNKEL
BRIDGING BOUNDARIES
Opening Reception on June 14, 2019 from 6 – 8 pm
Exhibition opens June 14 – August 19;
open to the public Tues – Fri, 10 a.m. – 6 p.m. and Weekends, 1 – 6 p.m. The Atrium Galleries
500 17th Street NW
Professor Joseph Kunkel—a Northern Cheyenne tribal member—will draw from his own experience as an architect and community designer, with extensive experience working on building capacity in Native American communities, in this remarkable exhibit.
Kunkel’s show will continue a critical discussion about the physical and non-physical divisions that recognize and reconcile polarized groups. With the intention to demonstrate how architecture and design can create space for unification and negotiation, the exhibit will explore works of art across a spectrum of design tactics.
VISITING PROFESSOR EXHIBITION: MEL CHIN
FUNDRED RESERVE PROJECT
February 23 – March 20, 2017
Rotunda
500 17th Street NW
The show is part of Mr. Chin’s collaborative Fundred Dollar Bill Project, which he created in 2008, after learning that in post-Katrina New Orleans, 30 to 50 percent of the inner-city childhood population had been exposed to lead poisoning before the storm. There was no funding to address the problem.
FEATURED STUDENT EXHIBITIONS
FILIPINABILIA: ORIGINS, RITUALS, ARTIFACTS
Tina Villadolid (Social Practice MFA '23)
November 30 - December 10, 2022
500 17th Street NW
South Bridge
A REMARKABLE SERIES OF PHENOMENA THAT CANNOT POSSIBLY BE EVALUATED AND IS WORTHY OF REMEMBRANCE.
Reclamation and reconciliation for untold, incomplete, and propagandized narratives of Filipina/o/x people are at the center of Tina Villadolid’s practice. Through ritual, intervention, and non-traditional materiality, she regenerates legacies of her ancestral past to question imperialist regimes of value that persist today.
next NEXT_
MC Daubendiek (Fine Arts BA/Art History BA ‘23)
August 23 - October 1, 2023
Student Lounge
next Next_ is an experimental activation of the Flagg building's student lounge and adjoining spaces using an array of student work. The show features artists Andrew McCabe, Ava Martin, Benjamin Cunningham, Chris Koppi, Gigi Pilla, Jared Semisch, and Ryan Geoghegan. The exhibition is curated by current Studio Arts major, MC Daubendiek.
Acornucopia!
Shawn Shafner (Social Practice MFA '23)
November 14 - December 1, 2023
Gallery 102 at Smith Hall of Art, (801 22nd St NW)
Social Practice graduate student Shawn Shafner presents an exhibition and series of public programs highlighting the multipurpose food source, the acorn! The exhibition offers a sensory wonderland of acorn experiences, interactive instructions for turning this ubiquitous nut into nutritious food, and invites audiences to aid in reforestation efforts by donating native acorns through our partner at Tomorrow's Trees. Click here to learn about the upcoming Acournucopia! events and how to get involved.