I'm passing along an announcement from the Heliport Gallery:

This promises to be an interesting opening to a great exhibit. February's "Spirit Voices" and March's "SING" exhibits were thoughtful and inspiring:

THE GATEWAY HELIPORT GALLERY is proud to invite you to our new show: From Addis to Here

On the 12th of April at 6pm, featuring three Ethiopian artists: Matewos Legesse, Solomon Asfaw and Abera Mehari.

Mr. Mehari will be coming from Ethiopia especially for the event. The artists will be part of the 'Collaborative Artists Program' and will work in the gallery for two weeks before the event

Please join us for the opening reception Saturday April 12, 2008 from 6:00 p.m. until 8:00 p.m.

Food will be catered by Addis Ababa Restaurant of Silver Spring and The Nile Restaurant of Washington, D.C. The coffee ceremony will be catered by Cafe Crescent of Silver Spring..

Neil Joffe
Arts Manager
Gateway Heliport Gallery
gate...@aol.com

John Landis
Small Business Manager
Gateway Georgia-Avenue
gate...@aol.com

A sample of artwork by Matewos Legasse, an artist exhibited in the "From Addis To Here" exhibit at the Heliport Gallery.

On Display: March 17 – June 1, 2008
Reception: Saturday April 26, 3-5 pm

Space88, a new exhibit space in Silver Spring, is proud to present this examination of Tom Block's ongoing public art project, Cousins. Permanently installed just a few blocks away at the entrance to the Kennett Street Parking Garage (along the Eastern Ave. access), Block has also installed Cousins in bus shelters in Tempe, AZ (2005-2006) and taught workshops to college students about his process at American University (DC) and Hanover College (IN).

Cousins public art project uses art and text elements to echo the highest aspects of our American community, combining an
Eastern-inspired visual language with sayings from wisdom masters from a variety of ethnicities, religions, geographic regions and time periods. Fusing words representing the highest aspirations of humankind (taken from Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., Nelson Mandela, Lao Tzu, Simone Weil, the Buddha, etc.) with specially created paintings, Cousins transforms public venues into wisdom galleries, available to local citizens everyday. This project uses our country's diversity as an asset, by emphasizing not only the different cultures that make up our society, but also how they positively interrelate. This public art piece honors that aspect of our country that offers a uniquely livable and respectful community, mirroring the best that humanity can achieve.

The pieces featured in this exhibit come from two series, representing those on view in bus shelters in Tempe, Arizona, in 2005-2006, as well as outtakes from the series that has been permanently installed along the Kennett Street Art Wall, in Silver Spring, Maryland. He has included originals from both series, in addition to some of the actual prints that were installed in Tempe, AZ. He has proposed installing further panels, created from new images with different sayings, at the University of Oregon, Salem, OR; University of Northern Iowa, Cedar Falls, IA; University of Maine, Orono, ME and in the City of Takoma Park, MD.

Tom Block's Cousins public art project (described in detail below) has been installed in the driveway leading from Eastern Avenue into the Kennett Street Garage. The project was funded by the Department of Housing and Community Affairs, The Arts and Humanities Council, The Silver Spring Regional Center and Lance Bailey Architects (owner's of the adjacent Arts Building).

"Cousins" public art project is conceived to echo the highest aspects of the American community, combining an elegant, Eastern-inspired visual language with the sayings of wisdom masters from a variety of ethnicities, religions, geographic regions and time periods. Fusing words representing the highest aspirations of humankind (taken from great humanists such as Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., Nelson Mandela, the Buddha, the Sufis etc.) with specially created paintings, Cousins places art and text panels in public spaces, transforming them into wisdom galleries, available to local citizens everyday. The panels provide quiet, surprising moments to be discovered by people from all cultures while going through the motions of their normal day. This project uses our country's diversity as an asset, by emphasizing not only the different cultures in our community, but also how they positively interrelate.

This public art project co-opts the presentation of advertising, with the panels often appearing first as typical advertisements found splayed across the American public square. "Cousins" subverts this media to present timeless sayings from the world's greatest traditions, "selling" wisdom instead of toothpaste or a newfangled kind of undergarment.

By showing how the most sublime thinkers from all cultures and geographic areas, including Muslims, Jews, Christians, Greek Stoics, Taoists, Buddhists, Hindus and others, express virtually the same message of peace and acceptance, coming though they might be from a very specific cultural point of view, Cousins introduces local communities to another way of seeing, one that reaches beyond the "us" and "them" of the current political climate into the enduring similarities that define a Truth beyond hatred and division.

Twelve works from the project were installed in bus shelters in Tempe, AZ in 2005-2006 and a permanent installation of 15 large prints on metal signage was mounted in Silver Spring, MD in 2007. Proposals to other locales will hopefully bring the project to more communities around the country.