Annual Report for 2017
The Touchstone Foundation for the Arts (TFA) is a nonprofit tax-exempt 501(c)(3) organization created by the artists of Touchstone Gallery in Washington, DC. The mission of TFA is to expand the reach of Touchstone Gallery and its artists into our community.
TFA is engaged in three main projects: 1. the Touchstone Foundation for Emerging Artists; 2. the Touchstone@Artspace workshops; and 3. the Handpicked exhibit.
TFA’s flagship project is the Touchstone Foundation Fellowship for Emerging Artists. The fellowship is open to Washington area artists who have not been professionally represented. It is designed to help these artists develop and grow through a two-year full membership in the Touchstone Gallery. The fellowship includes the opportunity to exhibit in monthly gallery member shows, representation on the gallery website and related marketing materials, and mentoring by established artists. The fellowship culminates with a month-long solo show.
Two Touchstone Fellows, selected in June 2015, held their solo shows in June 2017. Jo Ann Block’s show, ‘Jane Doesn’t Need Dick: Origin of Love’, used mixed media to extol the complexities of sexual and gender identity. Lionel Daniels paints with his hands. His show, ‘Veiled Consciousness’, explored the double consciousness as well as the veil worn by African Americans in the past and present.
One fellow was selected in 2017, but unfortunately left after only 4 months.
Since 2014, TFA has continued a collaboration with New Community ArtSpaceDC in a project entitled Touchstone@Artspace, serving the Shaw community with art programs, workshops, seminars and exhibitions. Workshops for all ages were taught by Touchstone artists featuring various media. In July 2017 we presented a month-long exhibition called ‘I Belong Here’ of the works produced by those participating in these workshops.
In the fall of 2017, for the ‘Handpicked’ exhibit, TFA partnered with ArtWatch, a local collective of artists promoting democratic values, to construct an installation at Touchstone Gallery called ‘The One House Project’. The installation consisted of a crude building covered with 12”x12” plaques representing the stories of 220 artists and/or their relatives as they came to this country. The overriding principle is a vision for a country where we are united as one people, irrespective of our backgrounds of race, gender, class, religion, etc.
In 2018, TFA plans to continue supporting the development of emerging artists; the melding of artists from Touchstone Gallery with Shaw community organizations; and offering exhibition opportunities in Touchstone Gallery for the non-traditional artists that they serve.
Board of Directors
Anita Miller, President, Developmental Psychologist
Ellyn Weiss, Member at Large, Visual Artist and Independent Curator
Rachel Dickerson, Member at Large, Director, ArtSpaceDC at the New Community Church
Gabrielle Tillenburg, Filmmaker/artist, Visual Arts Coordinator at Strathmore, and Freelance Photographer
Michael Lang, Liaison to Touchstone Gallery