Exhibitions, Performances & Conversations
The Corcoran School of the Arts and Design provides a year-round forum for the exhibition of work by students and visiting artists. In addition, graduating seniors and graduate students have the opportunity to exhibit the culmination of their Corcoran School studies in a thesis exhibition titled NEXT at the end of the academic school year. Most of these events and exhibits are open to the public.
Stay in touch! Sign up for email announcements a few times a year so you are first in line for our openings. If you are a GW student, you can sign up for our twice a month emails to get invited to all events and openings.
CURRENT AND UPCOMING EVENTS
SUMMER 2019
In Fashion: Selections from the GW Collection
Aug. 8 – Oct. 27, 2019,
Tuesday – Sunday
1 – 5 p.m.
Organized as a companion to the exhibit, Fast Fashion/Slow Art, this exhibition features works of drawing, sculpture and numerous photographs from the GW Collection. A number of the photographs on view are portraits of well-known designers, models or individuals in fashion. A number of the photographs on view are portraits of well-known designers, models or other people in fashion. They counter the glamorous side of the fashion industry. Works by May Wilson and Jody Mussoff give the impression of constriction and anxiety, while photographs by Steven Livick draw attention to the slim line between models and their inanimate foil: mannequins.
Also on view will be three works from the Estate of Dr. Luther W. Brady, Jr.
Flagg Building
500 17th Street
The Galleries off of the Atrium (Gallery Six)
Washington, DC 20006
Yacine Fall
Exhibition open to the public from Aug. 12 to Sept. 6, 2019
Monday – Friday
9 a.m. – 5 p.m.
(Except for special events, programs, lectures, or performances.)
Gallery 102 presents Yacine Fall. Fresh off her acclaimed performance at NEXT 2019, Fall further investigates the limits of labor, the human body, and its relationship to history. Combining installation and durational performance, the work addresses the significance of black bodies in our social subconscious and the histories activated through the continuous labor of the black body.
Gallery 102
Smith Hall of Art
801 21st Street
Washington, DC 20052
6.13.89: The Cancelling of the Mapplethorpe Exhibition
Exhibition open to the public from June 13 to Oct. 6, 2019,
Tuesday – Friday
10 a.m. – 6 p.m.
Weekends
1 – 6 p.m.
Opening night party, June 13, 2019
6 – 8 p.m. in the Flagg Atrium
6.13.89: The Cancelling of the Mapplethorpe Exhibition will explore the highly politicized and publicized cancellation of the 1989 exhibition Robert Mapplethorpe: The Perfect Moment. On June 13, 1989, the Corcoran Gallery of Art bowed to significant political pressure and canceled the retrospective less than three weeks before it was scheduled to open to the public.
Photo credit: Protest of the cancellation of Robert Mapplethorpe: The Perfect Moment, June 30, 1989, Washington, DC. © Frank Herrera
Flagg Building
500 17th Street
Atrium Galleries
Washington, DC 20006
A TIME FOR ACTION: Washington Artists circa 1989
Exhibition open to the public from June 13 to Oct. 5, 2019
Tuesday – Saturday
1 – 5 p.m.
This companion exhibition to the Corcoran exhibition 6.13.89 will exhibit paintings, drawings, and prints from the GW Collection by artists who registered their protest of the volatile cancellation of the exhibition of photographs by Robert Mapplethorpe. Also included are selected reminiscences of artists who were in Washington, D.C. at the time experiencing the upheaval as it occurred. Artists include Clark V. Fox, Andrew Hudson, Eric Rudd, Ann Purcell, and William Newman.
Flagg Building
500 17th Street
Luther W. Brady Art Gallery
Washington, DC 20006
Kelli Rae Adams: work / study
Exhibition open to the public from June 13 to Oct. 6, 2019
Tuesday – Friday
10 a.m. – 6 p.m.
Weekends
1 – 6 p.m.
With this mixed-media installation, Kelli Rae Adams calls attention to the magnitude and urgency of the student debt crisis in the U.S. Utilizing several hundred handmade ceramic bowls, a quantity of steadily accumulating coins and a wall-hanging triptych composed of dollar bills, Adams renders legible the physical volume of this collective burden while also shining light on the insidious practical and psychological implications of educational debt.
Image info: Forever in Your Debt, 2019 (photo credit: Kelli Rae Adams)
Flagg Building
500 17th Street
Rotunda
Washington, DC 20006
Fast Fashion/
Slow Art
Thu, August 8, 2019 to Sun, December 15, 2019
Exhibition open to the public Tuesday – Sunday 1 – 5 p.m.
Curator Tours:
Friday, August 23, 2019, noon
Friday, Sept. 20, 2019, noon
Free, but reservations are required and can be made at museum.gwu.edu/programs
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.
Photo: Wang Bing, 15 Hours, 2017, 16:9 film, colour, sound - in two parts (7 hours, 55 minutes each), Edition of 6 + 2 AP. Courtesy of the artist and Galerie Chantal Crousel, Paris
Flagg Building
500 17th Street
The Galleries off of the Atrium
Washington, DC 20006
FALL 2019
FROM THE MARGINS
Monday, Sept. 16 – Friday, Nov. 15, 2019
Gallery Hours:
Monday – Friday
9 a.m. – 5 p.m.
Friday, Sept. 20, 6 – 8 p.m. – Join us for the opening night reception. Light refreshments will be served. The gallery is ADA accessible; the event is free and open to the public; all are welcome to attend. To RSVP click here.
2019 marks thirty years since the cancellation of The Perfect Moment: Photographs of Robert Mapplethorpe at the Corcoran Gallery of Art. And in this new perfect moment, this appealing anniversary wrapped neatly in black and white, it is easy to draw a line directly from the present back to one point in the past. However, when time is compressed as such, what happens to the in-between? From the Margins aims to examine the foreclosure presented by Mapplethorpe’s legacy by pivoting towards Glenn Ligon’s response to Mapplethorpe. In this way, Ligon’s Notes On the Margins of the Black Book serves as a guide to generating critique.
In addition to the sixteen artists on view, From the Margins includes a resource library and a fully illustrated catalog with over ten contributors.
Smith Hall of Art
Gallery 102
801 21st Street
Washington, DC 20052
COLONIALS WEEKEND 2019
Friday, Sept. 20 – Sunday, Sept. 22, 2019
For alumni and friends, Colonials Weekend is about reconnecting with the people and places that made GW unforgettable, and making new memories. For families, Colonials Weekend will provide an insiders GW experience, allowing them to connect with the university through the eyes of their students.
Our transformed Colonials Weekend 2019 will deliver a top-notch experience throughout the weekend by providing dynamic and engaging experiences for our visitors from the moment they step foot on campus. Colonials Weekend is an upbeat, informative, and immersive experience that allows alumni and families to have a one GW experience and share their GW pride!
For more about alumni programs, contact the Office of Alumni Relations at 202.994.6435 or [email protected].
To learn more about the special opportunities for families, contact [email protected].
WORKSHOP: Motifs, Migrations and Misappropriations
Sept. 26, 2019
3 – 6 p.m.
Frau Fiber, Fast Fashion artist
The International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union (ILGWU) campaigns to make transparent the cultural appropriation of motifs by migrants fleeing violence in their home countries. The Sewing Rebellion, under the leadership of Frau Fiber, will provide instruction for knocking off and adapting a Syrian tunic from The George Washington University Museum and The Textile Museum in Washington, D.C. The knock off will be made using t-shirts as a natural resource representing consumer culture of late western capitalism.
The George Washington University Museum & The Textile Museum
701 21st St. NW
Washington, DC 20052
UNVEILING FASHION: Textiles and the New Circular Economy (Conference)
Saturday, Sept. 28, 2019
9 a.m. – 5 p.m.
Fee: $55/museum members, $75/public, $5/GW students
A collaboration with the D.C. Sustainable Fashion Collective and the GW Office of Sustainability. Find out more at museum.gwu.edu/programs.
Flagg Building
500 17th Street
Hammer Auditorium
Washington, DC 20006
“Spectacular holes in clouds, spotted”: Visiting Artist and Scholars Committee Lecture by Lisa Blas
Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2019
6:30 p.m.
The Visiting Artists and Scholars Committee (VASC) will be hosting its first lecture by Lisa Blas, an American visual artist of Guamanian-Italian origin based in New York. Working in painting, photography and installation, she creates constellations that speak to recurrent environmental catastrophe and civil unrest — where the afterlife of images occupies the space of everyday life. Blas constructs her palette with transparent and reflective colors grounded in the light of Southern California, the region of her childhood and formation as an artist.
Smith Hall of Art
Room 114
801 21st Street
Washington, DC 20052
Mapplethorpe Panel Discussion
Sunday, Oct. 6, 2019
3 – 5 p.m.
On June 13, 1989, the Corcoran Gallery of Art bowed to significant political pressure and canceled Robert Mapplethorpe's retrospective less than three weeks before it was scheduled to open to the public. Now, thirty years later, this discussion with arts and cultural leaders will explore arts and censorship in the United States. Join us to reflect on the effects of this show’s closing on the museum community, the Corcoran and federal funding of the arts.
Part of 6.13.89: The Cancelling of the Mapplethorpe Exhibition. Speakers to be announced.
Flagg Building
500 17th Street
Hammer Auditorium
Washington, DC 20006
Exhibition Design Fall 2019 Lecture: EXHIBITIONS AT HOME
Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2019
6:30 – 8 p.m.
The history of exhibiting art has a long-standing relationship with domestic space from upscale salons to the apartment gallery, where one was accustomed to discerning between art and everyday objects, moldings and reliefs, and in rooms of various sizes, lighting conditions and decorative styles. This relationship commingled the informal with the formal, the personal with the public, the intimate with the spectacular — creating an interwoven relationship between audience and home, art and the private interior.
Flagg Building
500 17th Street
Hammer Auditorium
Washington, DC 20006
STOP KISS
By Diana Son
Directed by
Matthew R. Wilson
Oct. 17, 18, 19
at 7:30 p.m.;
Oct. 20 at 2 p.m.
West Village. 1998. Sara and Callie form a rapid, unexpected bond. But, when their first awkward kiss is met with a violent attack, they and those around them are united in ways they could never imagine and can never undo. A modern tale of cosmopolitan ambiguity, of belonging and erasure, and of love how you least expect it, Diane Son's Stop Kiss is an unabashed look at struggles of queer identity and longings for connection.
Stop Kiss shines a light on themes of assault and homophobia.
Students/Seniors $10
General Admission $20
Dorothy Betts Marvin Theatre
800 21st St. NW
Washington, DC 20052
CORCORAN COSTUME BALL
Oct. 19, 2019
8 p.m. – 11 p.m.
Current students, faculty and alumni of the Corcoran College and GW are invited to our biggest event of the fall: a costume ball in the Atrium of the Flagg Building! The event will feature a DJ, student performances, photo booth, and a dessert bar. The event is free. Admission by costume only. Costumes can be fancy dress or Halloween-style—you pick!
Flagg Building
500 17th Street
Atrium Galleries
Washington, DC 20006
15th Annual Transformer Silent Auction & Benefit Party
Oct. 26, 2019
8 p.m. – Midnight
This year, the Corcoran School of the Arts & Design will host the 15th Annual Transformer Silent Auction & Benefit Party, an event that showcases some of D.C.’s best contemporary visual art (including more than a few exhibits from Corcoran alumni). This “not to be missed” art event provides essential support for Transformer’s comprehensive year-round exhibitions and educational programming.
Image courtesy of Transformer 2018, photos by Nick Klein.
Flagg Building
500 17th Street
Atrium Galleries
Washington, DC 20006
WAKING THE ORACLE: A Project of Firerock
Directed by William Wilson Corcoran Visiting Professor Molly Jane Udaya Sturges
Thursday – Saturday, Oct. 31 – Nov. 2, 2019
7:30 p.m.;
Sunday, Nov. 3, 2019
2 p.m.
Waking the Oracle is a multi–arts rave focusing on arts, spirituality & climate justice. A family–friendly music–dance–story immersive event.
Building XX
2nd Floor (Black Box Theatre)
814 20th Street NW
Washington, DC 20052
Facilitating Choreographic Process with Guest Artist/Scholar Dr. Larry Lavender
Thursday, Oct. 31, 2019
9:30 a.m. – 10:50 a.m.
Dr. Lavender will conduct a movement session in dance composition and choreography practices sponsored by DANCE ICONS, Inc. Washington, DC.
Larry Lavender is an American dancer and dance scholar. He is the author of the book Dancers Talking Dance: Critical Evaluation in the Choreography Class. His research focuses on dance criticism, performance art, dance theory and choreography.
Building J Dance Studio
2131 G Street NW (rear)
Washington, DC 20052
VOTE on NEXT 2020 logos
Friday, Nov. 1, 2019
2 – 4 p.m.
The NEXT DesignLab students (a group of graphic design students, led by Professor Matt Guastaferro) will present their final designs for NEXT 2020 in the Hammer Auditorium. All Corcoran students, faculty and staff are invited –graduating students are especially encouraged to attend!
After the presentation and questions, attendees will vote on the final design.
Don't miss this event to weigh-in on the NEXT 2020 brand!
Flagg Building
500 17th Street NW
Hammer Auditorium
Washington, DC 20006
12th ANNUAL INTERIOR ARCHITECTURE LECTURE Featuring Renowned South African Born, Los Angeles Based Architect + Designer Clive Wilkinson
Thursday, Nov. 7, 2019
6:30 – 7:30 p.m. (doors open at 6 p.m.)
GW’s Interior Architecture Program presents the 12th Annual Designer Lecture, with distinguished Los Angeles based architect and interior designer Clive Wilkinson.
Clive Wilkinson is an acknowledged pioneer in workplace design. His award winning practice has spearheaded the workplace revolution and has created trail blazing spaces for companies including Google, Microsoft and the Disney Store. He is a recipient of the Smithsonian’s Cooper-Hewitt Design award and an inductee into Interior Design Magazine’s Hall of Fame.
A reception and signing of his new book, The Theatre of Work, will follow the lecture.
Flagg Building
500 17th Street
Hammer Auditorium
Washington, DC 20006
EQUITY–CENTERED DESIGN WORKSHOP
Tuesday, Nov. 12, 2019
1 – 5 p.m.
The Interaction Design program at the Corcoran School of the Arts and Design is proud to present this workshop in partnership with Creative Reaction Lab. Applications are required and due by Oct. 1, 2019.
For more information, contact [email protected]. To apply, visit https://forms.gle/ZFx6539s5bmJqK468
*Attendees will be emailed the room number closer to the event.
What are the roles of equity, history and power in design? How might we design more equitable communities and systems through the lens of personal and organizational humility-building? In this interactive introductory workshop, participants will learn about and apply award-winning Equity-Centered Community Design strategies to examine how their own identities shape design and decision-making in collaborative processes.
Flagg Building
500 17th Street
Washington, DC 20006
INTER | SECTIONALITY: Diaspora in the Creole City
Nov. 14, 2019 – March 20, 2020
Tuesday – Friday
10 a.m. – 6 p.m.
Weekends 1 – 6 p.m.
Inter | Sectionality: Diaspora Art in the Creole City will be 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.
Flagg Building
500 17th Street
Atrium Galleries
Washington, DC 20006
DANCE CONCERT FALL 2019
Artistic Director
Maida Withers
Guest Artist
Ann Carlson
Faculty Choreographer Dana Tai Soon Burgess
Student Choreographers
Quinn Gagos, Berkley Lane, Arielle Ostry, Claire Siwulec, Jamille Wallick
Nov. 14, 15, 16, 2019
at 7:30 p.m.
Student Dancers from the Program of Theatre & Dance take the stage in this audience favorite! Guest Artist, Ann Carlson, is an internationally acclaimed dancer, choreographer and performance artist whose work explores contemporary social issues. Faculty Choreographer Dana Tai Soon Burgess was named the Smithsonian's first-ever choreographer in residence at the National Portrait Gallery.
Dorothy Betts Marvin Theatre
800 21st St. NW
Washington, DC 20052
CORCORAN MUSIC FESTIVAL
Thursday – Saturday, Nov. 14 – 23, 2019
Master Class with counter)induction
Thursday, Nov. 14, 2019
Phillips Hall
801 22nd St., NW
Washington, DC 20052
Updates and location
counter)induction: Futures Past
counter)induction contemplates the simultaneity of the historical and the contemporary in a concert of music emphatically modern yet profoundly connected to the past.
Friday, Nov. 15, 2019
Flagg Building
500 17th St., NW
Hammer Auditorium
Washington, DC 20006
Updates and location
GW BANDS: New Beginnings
Sunday, Nov. 17, 2019
1:30 – 3:30 p.m.
Join the GW Bands for their fall concert, featuring the debut of GW’s new band director, Michael Schmitz. The repertoire for this concert draws from the traditional English rhyme “Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue,” which details what a bride should wear on the day of her wedding, a new beginning in life. Inspired by the rhyme, the concert will include traditional wind band music, contemporary works, transcriptions of works originally written for other ensembles and blues-inspired works.
Lisner Auditorium
730 21st St., NW
Washington, DC 20052
Ticket link tba
GW Orchestra and University Singers FALL CONCERT
Sunday, Nov. 17, 2019
6 – 8 p.m.
Join the GW Orchestra and the GW University Singers for a joint concert. Additional information will be posted at corcoran.gwu.edu/mainstage closer to the event date.
Lisner Auditorium
730 21st St., NW
Washington, DC 20052
Ticket link tba
SPRING 2020
Six Characters in Search of an Author
By Luigi Pirandello
Directed by Jodi Kanter
Feb. 13, 14, 15
at 7:30 p.m.;
Feb. 16 at 2 p.m.
During a theatrical rehearsal, six characters arrive on stage in a quest for immortal life- all they need is an author. As the company observes the characters, their story becomes more real than any actors could ever make it. Nobel Prize winner Luigi Pirandello’s examination of pretense and theatre is under the direction of Jodi Kanter.
Be advised: this play includes mature subjects such as incest and suicide.
Dorothy Betts Marvin Theatre
800 21st St. NW
Washington, DC 20052
Ticket link tba
Exhibition Design Spring 2020 Lecture: PROBABLE CAUSE
Thursday, March 26, 2020
6:30 – 8 p.m.
Lately, SPORTS Collaborative has been preoccupied with the elasticity of the built environment. How can the world of objects and spaces alternate between the functional and ordinary on one hand and the playful and poetic on the other? In this talk, SPORTS will discuss their ambition to flexibly flicker between these states in their work and in doing so, embrace ideas of ambiguity, novelty and discovery.
SPORTS Collaborative s the award-winning multidisciplinary architecture and design collaborative of Molly Hunker and Greg Corso, based in Syracuse, New York.
Flagg Building
500 17th Street
Hammer Auditorium
Washington, DC 20006
HEATHERS The Musical
Music, Book & Lyrics by Laurence O'Keefe & Kevin Murphy
Director TBA
April 2, 3, 4
at 7:30 p.m.;
April 5 at 2 p.m.
There are three of them, and the three Heathers rule Westerburg! Veronica is torn—to be popular or to, well, do what? Luckily, J.D. arrives with answers; but this Prince Charming has a deep, dark side. Based on the cult-hit movie, this Off-Broadway Musical is a co-production with the Program of Music. High School-- it’s not for kids anymore! Be advised: as Heathers is set in a high school, it has strong language, bullying, body image, school violence, suicidal ideation, and Slurpee’s.
Dorothy Betts Marvin Theatre
800 21st St. NW
Washington, DC 20052
Ticket link tba
NEXT DANCE CONCERT SPRING 2020
Artistic Director Maida Withers
Guest Artist TBA
April 16, 17, 18
at 7:30 p.m.
Featuring internationally acclaimed guest artists and faculty as well as student choreographers.
Dorothy Betts Marvin Theatre
800 21st St. NW
Washington, DC 20052
Ticket link tba
NEXT Exhibition and Opening Night
Opening night party Thursday, April 23, 2020
6 – 8 p.m.
Open April 24 – May 18, 2020, Tuesday – Friday 10 a.m. – 6 p.m.
Weekends 1 – 6 p.m.
Held every spring, NEXT is a dynamic, interactive and innovative end-of-year show that gives D.C.'s visual and performing arts communities the opportunity to see the latest in contemporary art from fresh perspectives.
Flagg Building
500 17th Street
Atrium Galleries
Washington, DC 20006
CORCORAN Graduation Party (2020)
Friday, May 15, 2020
5 – 7 p.m.
Graduating students will take the first step of their lifelong journey as GW Corcoran alumni by celebrating with their friends, family, professors and fellow students. Come raise a glass to the class of 2020!
The event will have light appetizers and refreshments.
Flagg Building
500 17th Street
Atrium
Washington, DC 20006
HOLIDAY SCHEDULE 2019-20
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Thursday, July 4, 2019 - Independence Day |
