FALL ARTS PREVIEW · 11

The Bell Tower, Shantou University, Guangdong, China Artist: Unidentified Artist Photograph Shantou University, courtesy Maya Lin Studio

Portrait of a Visionary: Maya Lin

BY ARI POST

There aren’t many artists in the last 50 years who will have more impact on the world than Maya Lin. I’m not talking about the “art world” — that ill-defined stratosphere increasingly controlled by jacked up billionaires and their dealers — but the real, lived-in world of regular people. People who go on hikes, who visit crowded cultural landmarks on vacation, who have children, who have lost loved ones, who are concerned about the future and who carry hope with them anyway.

That may seem hyperbolic, but I’m willing to bet time will bear me out.

Opening on Sept. 30 at the National Portrait Gallery, “One Life: Maya Lin” is an intimate exhibition tracing Lin’s life from childhood to the present. In consultation with the artist herself, this latest edition of the museum’s “One Life” series will bring together an assortment of Lin’s sculptures, sketchbooks and creative material, as well as family photographs and personal ephemera, to offer insight into Lin’s artistic process and remarkable career.

“This is not a retrospective,” says exhibition curator Dorothy Moss. “It doesn’t represent the breadth of her work. But we hope that audiences will walk away with an understanding of how this influential artist, architect and environmental activist approaches her work, what shaped her vision as a young person and how she’s been able to hold onto that vision throughout her career.”

Lin was hurled into the public eye in 1981 when her design for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial was selected through a nationwide competition and became a subject of national controversy. The design was an unadorned wall of black stone, sunken below ground level in a V-shaped trench. There were no pictures, no sculptures, nothing physically representative of the war itself. Just the names, etched in the stone, of the 58,318 servicemen and women who lost their lives during the war.

Objectors called it “a black gash of shame and sorrow,” “a nihilistic slab of stone.” At one point the project’s building permit was delayed due to the political opposition. Issues were ultimately worked out — in part by the addition of a bronze sculpture by Frederick Hart featuring three young soldiers (which, as far as these things go, is not bad) — and Lin’s design was left more or less intact.

At the time this was all happening, Lin was a 20-year-old undergraduate studying

GLEN ECHO PARK VISUAL ARTS STUDIOS & GALLERIES

Open Every Weekend!

BLOWN GLASS, CERAMICS, DRAWING & PAINTING, JEWELRY, KILNFORMED GLASS, MIXED MEDIA, PHOTOGRAPHY, SILVER, SCULPTURE

Artists at Work | Art & Jewelry Sales Support Local Arts & Fine Crafts architecture at Yale. She is also of Asian descent, which drew obscene amounts of attention to the issue, even if it was rarely referenced directly. (Lin is Chinese, not Vietnamese, but as Korean American choreographer Dana Tai Soon Burgess says, “People don’t often understand the diversity and complexity of our Asian American community — especially back then.”)

Today, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial wall is the most visited war memorial in Washington — and in many ways the most beloved. While some of that is the straightforward stuff of how many people touched by that war are still around today to visit the memorial (and to drag their families along with them), a lot of it also has to do with the quiet power and starkly overwhelming beauty of the memorial experience in itself.

As Lin’s career progressed, so did the alarm around climate change and the need for environmental activism. Last year, she created one of the most powerful art installations ever to address climate change. “Ghost Forest” was a towering stand of 49 dead cedar trees in Manhattan’s Madison Square Park, erected to raise awareness of ecosystem die-off.

“One Life: Maya Lin” will surely offer audiences a new way of understanding the artist herself.

VISIT GEORGETOWNER.COM FOR THE FULL ARTICLE

Maya Lin working on ‘Pin River - Hudson’ Artist: Chester Higgins Jr. Photograph: Chester Higgins Jr./The New York Times/Redux

INS & OUTS

BY ROBERT DEVANEY

IN: GALLERY ARTICLE 15

Gallery Article 15 — a unique gallery specializing in Congolese contemporary art — is opening at 1624 Wisconsin Ave. NW soon. Founded by Elizabeth Jaffee, a Georgetown resident, the Book Hill gallery is the first and only commercial art gallery in the U.S. focused exclusively on contemporary Congolese art. It works to support young Congolese artists through the Gallery Article 15 Young Artists Collective. Jaffee began collecting contemporary Congolese art in 2008, while serving at the U.S. Embassy in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo.

IN: CLUBHOUSE, INSTEAD OF CHURCH

Church, the former beer hall at 1070 Wisconsin Ave. NW, has transitioned to a 23-and-up bar during the evening and operates a cafe, opening at 8 a.m. Still owned by hospitality group Tin Shop, the 9,000-squarefoot Clubhouse looks to be for real grownups after being tagged as a college hang-out. “We’ve had problems with ABRA [Alcoholic Beverage Regulation Administration], and fake IDs are crazy good these days,” Tin Shop co-founder Geoff Dawson told DC Eater. “We’re not fighting students. We want them to be of age and a little more grown up than ‘this is my first night out drinking.’ ” The more sophisticated menu will include wine, cocktails and fancy pizzas and burgers, along with parmesan truffle fries, burrata and caprese salads and oysters. As it is called Clubhouse, operator Tin Shop is offering a new Social Club for regular patrons to get free drinks or food.

NEW OWNERS FOR GEORGETOWN WINE & SPIRITS

Georgetown Wine & Spirits at 2701 P St. NW — opened in 1934 as a neighborhood market and has been run as a liquor store since the 1950s — has a new owner. Nate Smith, a consultant whose family has been in the hospitality industries, purchased the business for about $400,000 from the Kapoor family. The property is owned by Bob Enzel, native Washingtonian and Georgetowner, who lives nearby, and also owns the former 7-Eleven building. Smith lives near the Navy Yard, while his wife, Sana Bokil, will continue to work as a cancer specialist at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York. Store manager Pascal Valadier will remain.

ALO YOGA TO TAKE OVER BANANA REPUBLIC SPACE

As first reported by UrbanTurf, “Yoga clothing and accessory company Alo Yoga appears to be taking over the prime Georgetown retail space currently occupied by Banana Republic at the corner of Wisconsin Avenue and M Street NW. Plans filed with D.C.’s Historic Preservation Review Board outline a series of changes to the exterior of 3200 M Street NW to make way for the new tenant.” It is uncertain when Banana Republic will close.

New hotel: At the Sept. 12 launch of Salamander Washington DC, formerly the Mandarin Oriental, with Washington Commanders President Jason Wright, Sheila Johnson of Salamander and Mayor Muriel Bowser. Photo by Robert Devaney.

SOON: HOBO BAGS

Hobo Bags, founded in 1991 by motherdaughter duo Toni and Koren Ray, will be setting up shop at 1265 Wisconsin Ave. NW in the former John Fluevog space in October. “Crafted for a long-term relationship and made better by use and wear,” as the company says, Hobo’s purses and wallets have achieved iconic status in the industry — and with millions of women.

COMING: NAADAM OUT: DISTRICT DOUGHNUT IN CADY’S ALLEY

District Doughnut closed at 3327 Cady’s Alley NW and is looking for new digs in Georgetown. The company announced: “Relocating! Our Georgetown shop will be closed from 8/28/2022 until further notice as we relocate to a new retail space in Georgetown. Follow us on our social pages to stay up to date on the latest info.… Stay happy! #HappinessFound.”

MOVED: PACERS RUNNING, SOULIER, SAME DAY HEALTH, TUGOOH TOYS

Pacers Running moved from 3273 M St. NW to 1079 Wisconsin Ave. NW, the former space of Lily Pulitzer and Sarah Flint.

Soulier shoes moved to 1434 Wisconsin Ave. NW. last month.

Same Day Health is moving from 3227 M St. NW to the former Frye Boots location at 1066 Wisconsin Ave. NW.

Tugooh Toys relocated a few doors north to 1440 Wisconsin Ave. NW., the former location of Wisey’s.

Naadam will be arriving at 3003 M St. NW, in the former i-Thai restaurant space. The cashmere company was founded in 2013 by Matthew Scanlan and Diederik Rijsemus, who met local herders in Mongolia, and cut out the middlemen.

COMING: WOLFORD, AUSTRIAN SKINWEAR

Founded more than 70 years ago, Wolford, the Austrian Apparel and Skinwear brand, will open its first Washington, D.C., boutique in Georgetown this fall. The brand signed a ten-year lease with EastBanc for nearly 1,000 square-feet within the redevelopment of 1238 Wisconsin Avenue NW, bringing sophisticated readyto-wear, athleisure, knits, legwear, lingerie, accessories and more to the neighborhood. It will be Wolford’s 23rd store in the U.S.

SOON: BOURBON CONCIERGE

The Bourbon Concierge is setting up at 2816 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, in the former spot of Cafe Tu-O-Tu. The family-owned business was founded in 1995 and specializes in highend, collectible spirits. While not related, the shop is steps from Bourbon Steak, the restaurant at the Four Seasons Hotel.

COMING: ALKOVA

Coming soon to 1510 Wisconsin Ave. NW, the former spot of Luigi Parasmo Salon and Spa, will be Alkova yoga and co-working. “We’ve created a place where you can peacefully work, practice yoga, or both,” Alkova tells us. “This space, like an alcove in a city, is a respite from the disconnection present in the outside world….”

Celebrating Georgetown And Washington Centennials

BY THE GEORGETOWNER STAFF

If a specific place, school, business or group can hit the centennial mark, it’s an achievement in our all-too-quick and human world. Still, Georgetown boasts quite a few. It’s worth noting that W.T. Weaver & Sons, one of the country’s oldest decorative bath and hardware firms, has gone far beyond that mark. Owned by Bryce Weaver and Michael Weaver, it’s a fourth-generation, familyowned business that’s been serving the needs of its Georgetown and Washington clients since 1889.

Herewith, a selection of others who mark a centennial in 2022 (or come close):

LINCOLN MEMORIAL, 1922

Inspired by the Parthenon, the memorial centers on a statue of the seated 16th president of the United States, Abraham Lincoln. Inscriptions on the interior walls feature his Gettysburg Address and Second Inaugural Address. Nearby murals depict the reunification of the United States after the Civil War as well as the emancipation of more than 4,000,000 enslaved persons. The sculpture is by Daniel Chester French; the building by Henry Bacon. The National Mall would be impossible without this symbolically powerful structure: Think of Marian Anderson in 1939, Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., in 1963, protestors against the Vietnam War, and so many other demonstrations since.

SCHOOL OF FOREIGN SERVICE, GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY, 1919

The Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service graduated its first students in 1921 and is the oldest continuously operating school for international affairs in the United States. The school was first headed by Father Walsh, a staunch anti-communist, who was involved in Russian famine relief in 1922 as well as church relations in Mexico and the Nurenberg Trials. Its notable alumni include Bill Clinton, King Abdullah of Jordan, King Felipe VI of Spain, George Tenet, Denis McDonough, Mick Mulvaney, Steven Bannon and Carl Reiner. Its famous professors include Jan Karski, Carroll Quigley and Madeleine Albright.

GEORGETOWN HAIRSTYLING, 1913

When Vanussa Mendes purchased Georgetown Hairstyling, the beyond centuryold barber shop business on 35th Street, in 2015, she knew she was also buying into local history. “It will be operated in the same way as before for our clients,” Mendes said of the men’s haircut spot. A favorite of Georgetown residents and students for decades — with the names of past barbers Rigo Landa and Ed Lara in their stories — the place is a classic. Today, most of the staffers are women, including Veronica Corado, who cuts men’s hair only.

MORGAN’S PHARMACY, 1912

This spring, Morgan Care Pharmacy, the 110-year-old business at the corner of 30th and P Streets NW, got a new owner — 33-year-old Sahar Kassem, who earned her doctorate of pharmacology at Howard University. Customers recall pharmacists Barry Deutschman and Dr. Mike Kim. “We treat people like family at Morgan’s,” Kassem said. “That’s what people love about this place. It feels familiar to them.” She told The Georgetowner that the details that make Morgan’s the “gem” that it is — such as Maurice Brown, attentive staffer at the register, who has been greeting customers with a smile for more than a decade — are not going anywhere.

WOMAN’S NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC CLUB, 1922

The large staircase lobby of the historic mansion on the corner of New Hampshire Ave. and Q St. NW is filled with ten immense framed collages. Created by WNDC members, each portrays a decade in the life of the club, founded in 1922 after the passage of the 19th Amendment that gave women the right to vote. For 100 years the WNDC has held biweekly meetings on current events, supported women candidates and hosted almost every Democratic president. Eleanor Roosevelt was an active member; her granddaughter was just recently president. At their Diamond Jubilee, Nancy Pelosi proclaimed “The WNDC is the heart of the Democratic Party.” The Lincoln Memorial.

ROSE PARK, 1922

Rose Park in Georgetown between P St. and M St. NW bordering the Rock Creek parkway was acquired by the District in the summer of 1922 from the Ancient Order of the Sons and Daughters of Moses that had developed it to serve African American children, The segregation rules of the time, however, were ignored by racially integrated Georgetown residents. The park hosts baseball teams (the Rose Park Warriors were famous), summer camps, family picnics, two playgrounds, holiday events, a farmers market (every Wednesday), concerts and tennis tournaments on courts named in 2015 by the Friends of Rose Park to honor national tennis champions Margaret and Roumania Peters who had lived across the street in the 1930s, and returned in the 50s to teach tennis there. A 100th birthday party and a gala will be held Sept. 21 and 22.

DUMBARTON OAKS MUSEUM AND GARDENS, 1921

In 1921, American diplomat Robert Bliss and his wife Mildred bought the Dumbarton Oaks mansion and acreage. For the next 15 years, Mildred and landscape architect Beatrix Ferrand – the niece of Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Edith Wharton with whom the Blisses had become close during the war years in Paris – developed multiple garden rooms with custom gates, benches, filials and sculptures on the various terraces of the estate. The gardens made Ferrand famous. “While she didn’t use the words ‘climate change,’ the garden plans left much flexibility for new species evolving because of changing conditions,” garden superintendent Jonathan Kavalier noted. The gardens and mansion museum filled with the Bliss’s special collections of Colombian art, was given to Harvard University in 1941 while the wooded wilderness was given to the U.S. National Parks service to develop a public park. In 1944, a series of important diplomatic meetings --The Dumbarton Oaks Conversations – also led to the establishment of the United Nations in 1945.