STABLE Artspace, a new studio founded by American University professor Tim Doud, Caitlin Teal Price and Linn Meyers, celebrated its opening on Oct. 18.
Located in the industrial and eccentric neighbourhood of NoMa, STABLE Artspace has found its home as a contemporary studio complex and exhibition space for emerging D.C. artists. According to STABLE’s website, STABLE was created with a mission of strengthening the contemporary visual arts community in D.C. by providing dedicated artists with studio space, resources and professional connections within the art world.
Artists can apply to earn studio spaces. According to Doud, artists are selected through a process in which they are assessed for, among other things, their passion for visual art and their ability to work within a community.
Doud said that the artists who create at STABLE must be able to work with each other and be willing to share insights and struggles.
“It’s not so much of a character assessment as it is a community assessment,'' Doud said when discussing the selection process.
The current group of 21 artists that work in the studio spaces were chosen from a pool of 1,500 applicants. The artists that were chosen all stem from different backgrounds and approach art in a different way. In addition to the 21 individuals selected for studio space, there is an open studio space that is shared between 12 artists.
Doud said that while working as an artist and a supervisor at STABLE, it is sometimes difficult to have other artists enter his space while he is focused on his own artwork. He stressed, however, that this sort of open-door policy is a part of the community that is central to the goals of STABLE.
“The whole project is collaborative,” Doud said. “It’s about engaging the community within these walls and the broader community outside.”
Along with being a co-founder of STABLE, Doud also creates his art within one of the studios and teaches the Complex Problems course “Constructions of Self and Other.”
Doud is currently working on a commission that he received from the Embassy of Niger, combining a mixture of notable textiles and prints that are prevalent in the country and putting them in the form of geographic structures that can be found in Niger.
STABLE currently has an exhibit open to the public, “Dialogues,” which features various forms of visual art spanning from an assortment of colorful, plush safety cones to a captivating homage to the D.C. staple of go-go music. The exhibit is open Thursdays through Saturdays from 1 to 6 p.m. and is expected to run until March. According to Doud, this exhibit is the first and final of its kind, as it will be the only exhibit to feature the art of the 21 inaugural artists.
STABLE will also be holding an open studio event on Nov. 16 from 12 to 6 p.m. This event will give people the chance to walk around the space and see the studios in which the artists work and get to meet the artists themselves, says Doud. This event is free and open to the public.
