Last night, Laura Barry attended the launch of the “District of Change” program series at Martin Luther King, Jr. Library. Their first theme was “Making D.C. Better for the Arts.” It included a panel discussion with performance artist and director Holly Bass, D.C. musician, composer and Film Director Brendan Canty, and Victoria Reis, Executive and Artistic Director of Transformer. The panel was moderated by Matthew Yglesias, Executive Editor of Vox Media.
The evening provided insight as to how the Society could assist local artists research their history and use this towards future projects in D.C. The Society is already thinking about outreach opportunities in D.C.’s art community, such as Documenting D.C. Through the Arts, which you can view under our programming initiatives.
District of Change is a partnership between the District of Columbia Public Library Foundation, Slate editor David Plotz, and author Hanna Rosin. The series will examine the transformation of D.C. in the recent past. Future panels will cover education, transportation and gentrification issues within the Federal City.