Collectors' Night 2019

About

In 1980, Washington Project for the Arts (WPA) held its first Auction Gala, starting what would become a DC tradition. Since then, this always creative event, now COLLECTORS' NIGHT, has raised millions of dollars for artists and for WPA.

We invite you to join us this year. The event will include a silent auction of 195 artworks vetted by a national art committee.

To learn more about the art and artists, scroll down.

SPONSORS & host committee

Show your support for the arts by becoming a corporate sponsor or a member of the host committee. In return you’ll receive special benefits, including early access to the event. 

If you have any questions, please email Ashley McDonald, Relationship Manager, at amcdonald@wpadc.org, or call 202.234.7103 x0.

TICKETS

Regular tickets: $325 ($250 is tax-deductible)
> 7:00 pm entry
> Champagne, delicious food, and dessert
> Open bar and specialty cocktails
> 2 hours to view and bid on artwork before sections start closing
> Dance party featuring DJ Trillnatured

Party tickets: $150 ($79 is tax-deductible)
> 8:30 pm entry
> Dessert only
> Open bar
> 30 minutes to view and bid on artwork before sections start closing
> Dance party featuring DJ Trillnatured

If you have questions, email Ashley McDonald, Relationship Manager, at amcdonald@wpadc.org, or call 202.234.7103 x0.

ART & artISTS

This year’s art was selected by both open call and invitation. 400 artists submitted more than 1,600 works of art to the open call, and of these, about 20% were selected. The submissions were reviewed by a committee of art professionals who made recommendations to the WPA staff. The majority of artists participating were identified through this process. An additional dozen or so were invited by WPA’s staff.

Ebtisam Abdulaziz, Kristin Adair, Farnoosh Ahmadi Shirazi, Sondra N. Arkin, Eames Armstrong, Mary Anne Arntzen, Selin Balci, David Barr, Kyle J. Bauer, Mary Baum, Erick Antonio Benitez, Julia Bloom, Chris Bohner, Lori Anne Boocks, Michael A. Booker, Anthony J. Bowers, Nakeya Brown, Gerardo Camargo, Florencio Lennox Campello, David Carlson, Hsin-Hsi Chen, Larry Cook, Kyrae Dawaun Cowan, Markele Cullins, Frank Hallam Day, John Deardourff, Monique Muse Dodd, Alexis Duque, Alex Ebstein, Pam Eichner, Edgar Endress, Nico Fertakis, Amy Finkelstein, Lloyd Foster, Stephen Hendee, Jessica Hopkins, Timothy J. Horjus, Michael Horsley, Erik Hougen, James Huckenpahler, Sarah Hull, Nate Larson, Magnolia Laurie, Khanh H. Le, Andrea Limauro, Kim Llerena, Timothy Makepeace, Tsedaye Makonnen, Jon Malis, Katherine Tzu-Lan Mann, Antonio McAfee, Nat Meade, Veronica Melendez, Linn Meyers, Maggie Michael, Greg Minah, Tyra Mitchell, Goitseone Bothale Moerane, Jonathan Monaghan, Ali Newhard, Lee Nowell-Wilson, Christos J. Palios, PLAKOOKEE, Rodrigo Pradel, Amber Robles-Gordon, Kate Sable, Nicole Marie Salimbene, Kim Sandara, Josh Sender, Joseph Shetler, Alexandra Silverthorne, Dafna Steinberg, Dan Steinhilber, Mark Stockton, Cindy Stockton Moore, Monica Stroik, Martin Swift, Rob Tarbell, Trish Tillman, Richard Tuttle, Julie Wills, Jordann Wine, Ellen Xu, and Helen Zughaib

If you have any questions about the art or artists, please email Jordan Martin, Production Collaborator, at jmartin@wpadc.org.

2019 art committee

Michelle Grabner is an artist, writer, and curator and the Crown Family Professor of Art at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where she has taught for twenty years. Grabner co-curated the 2014 Whitney Biennial and the 2016 Portland Biennial, and is the Artistic Director for the FRONT International - Cleveland Triennial for Contemporary Art. Her exhibition reviews are regularly published in X-tra and Artforum.

Rosario Güiraldes is the Assistant Curator at The Drawing Center in New York City. She has organized exhibitions and public programs at the Barcelona Museum of Contemporary Art (MACBA); University Museum of Contemporary Art (MUAC), Mexico City; The Drawing Center; Hessel Museum; Judd Foundation, all New York; and elsewhere. She holds a B.Arch from the Universidad de Buenos Aires and an MA in Curatorial Studies from the Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College.

Schwanda Rountree is an attorney, collector, and independent art consultant. She has been an Advisory Board Member of the Spelman College Museum of Fine Art, Atlanta; Executive Board Member of the Porter Colloquium on African American Art, Washington, DC; and Board Member of the Rush Arts Philanthropic Foundation, New York. She has also served as Contributing Writer for the International Review on African American Art. 

Amy Sadao is the Daniel W. Dietrich II Director at the ICA Philadelphia. She was appointed to the position in 2012, and has since dramatically increased ICA's budget and staffing, and directed an ambitious contemporary program extending equity to overlooked and underrepresented artists, ideas, and publics. Previously, she was the Executive Director of Visual AIDS in New York. She holds a BFA from The Cooper Union and a MA in Comparative Ethnic Studies from UC Berkeley and began her career as an intern at the Whitney Museum at Philip Morris.

Shinique Smith is a Los Angeles and New York-based painter and sculptor. She has exhibited in the Istanbul and Busan biennials as well as at The Brooklyn Museum of Art; Denver Art Museum; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; New Museum; the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery; and elsewhere. She earned her BFA and MFA from Maryland Institute College of Art, where she served on the Board of Trustees from 2013 to 2016.

Questions

If you have any questions or need additional information, please contact Ashley McDonald, Relationship Manager, at (202) 234-7103, or amcdonald@wpadc.org.