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G. Wayne’s World: G. Wayne Clough testifies on Capitol Hill this week about the $861.5 million the President’s budget allocates for the Smithsonian, and The New York Times has a profile of the institution’s secretary which doubles as a pretty lengthy account of last fall’s “Hide/Seek” debacle. According to the article, Clough met with Smithsonian museum directors in January to clear the air and conceded he had acted rashly. Clough didn’t comment for the Times piece, but he’s said as much publicly; he’s also said he made the right decision in pulling a video work from the exhibit. Which means he still hasn’t learned the affair’s biggest lesson.
Art Attack: A woman attacked a painting at the National Gallery of Art—-“Two Tahitian Women” from the Gauguin retrospective—-last week, screaming “This is evil” as she tried to pull the work from the wall and banged on its clear plastic covering. The painting doesn’t seem to have been harmed, says the museum, although it’ll be examined more comprehensively today. The Post article suggests that the woman might have been set off by the painting’s nudity. But! What if what really irked her was Gauguin’s under-accounted-for imperialist worldview? J/K, J/K.
Resident Advisory: Artisphere’s revenue and attendance have fallen short of projections, DCist notes, to which we say: Told you so. But it’s actually quite a shame, since Rosslyn’s resident arts center has had a ton of great programming since opening six months ago. Shout out: Washington Shakespeare Company, UrbanArias, anything Cynthia Connolly has curated, anything Ryan Holladay has curated. I hate to say it, but maybe Artisphere needs to put on something more populist to help pay for all the good shit.
Today on Arts Desk: An early look at the Filmfest D.C., The Pragmatist