Torpedo Factory Art Center Partners With The National Community Reinvestment Coalition To Kick Off National Campaign – “Keys From The Crisis”

(Thursday) August 26, 2010

The Torpedo Factory Art Center, The Art League, and Multiple Exposures Gallery are partnering with the National Community Reinvestment Coalition (NCRC) to kick off their national campaign “Keys From the Crisis.”  Through a variety of art related activities, the art center will help the NCRC tell the story of the foreclosure crisis to the public in a very visual way. The barrage of statistics, audible and written information about the foreclosure crisis have made it difficult for the average American to digest what is truly happening to families and neighborhoods. This exhibit humanizes an abstraction, presenting a visual explanation for what has become a national crisis. This powerful approach expresses the reality that so many Americans are facing today.

Keys from the Crisis (Courtesy Image)

The NCRC will be collecting keys and the stories of affected families throughout their campaign, and we will assist them throughout the month of September in collecting as many keys as possible. These keys are physical symbols that represent every family that has lost a home to foreclosure due to unfair lending practices.  We will also provide a variety of art related activities throughout the month of September that will continue to tell the stories, and educate the public about what is happening in our country. NCRC is a national coalition of community organizations working to expand fair access to capital and credit; NCRC also provides housing counseling resources to help people affected by the foreclosure crisis.

Calendar of Events:
August 21- September 26: Systems Failure exhibition in the Target Gallery
September 1- September 30:

• David H. Wells’ photo-essay, “Foreclosed Dreams,” that explores the empty homes littering the American landscape in the wake of the housing crisis on exhibit in the Site 3 Gallery at the Torpedo Factory Art Center, and a large scale projection at The Art League Gallery/National Harbor Location
• “House of String”: Large Scale installation located on the main floor of the Torpedo Factory, created by Torpedo Factory Artists serving on the Target Gallery Committee

September 9, 6-9pm : Second Thursday Art Night

• Target Gallery’s Systems Failure “Meet the Artists” Reception – 6-8pm
• National Community Reinvestment Coalition (NCRC), Special Presentation at 7pm by John Taylor, President and CEO of the NCRC
• David H. Wells, artist talk, in the Multiple Exposures Gallery at 8pm

September 11, 12-4: Art Activated

• 1:30pm -Target Gallery hosts SPARK: art from writing, writing from art – a spoken word event, along with a hands-on writing activity for the public. Focus is on the Systems Failure exhibit and the Keys from the Crisis campaign

September 23, 7pm:

• Target Gallery hosts a Curator Discussion with juror Sarah Tanguy for Systems Failure Exhibition. Sarah Tanguy is an independent curator, arts writer, and critic, as well as a curator for the Art in Embassies Program, based in Washington, DC.

About Keys from the Crisis: “Keys from the Crisis” is intended to humanize an abstraction that has spread across the nation like an epidemic. The number of foreclosures is so vast and the problem so overwhelming that it is easy to get lost among the numbers. One in seven American homeowners are either delinquent or in foreclosure. Over 300,000 houses are going into foreclosure each month, and last year 2.8 million households lost their homes.

“Keys from the Crisis” tells the story of the families and neighborhoods impacted by the foreclosure crisis. The goals of the initiative are to raise awareness of the various facets of the foreclosure crisis, educate homeowners about resources available to them, and to build support for systemic responses to the crisis. “Keys” combines educational events with an exhibit of photographs, house keys, and stories from homeowners and housing counselors.

About NCRC: The National Community Reinvestment Coalition is an association of more than 600 community-based organizations that promote access to basic banking services, including credit and savings, to create and sustain affordable housing, job development and vibrant communities for America’s working families. For more information visit www.ncrc.org  and http://bit.ly/crisiskeys

About David H. Wells: Wells is a freelance photographer focusing on in-depth photo-essays. Each of the issues he has explored was regularly the subject of superficial reporting. By researching and spending more time with a topic, he is able to assemble a photo-essay that gets to the core of the issue.  This award-winning artist has been focused on in-depth photo-essays for publication and exhibitions. He has exhibited around the world and has exhibited in such esteemed venues as Brown University, Harvard University, and the Museo Bardini of Florence Italy to name a few. He has worked for such publications as the Philadelphia Inquirer Sunday Magazine, Chicago Tribune, Life Magazine, National Geographic, and the Washington Post to name a few.   Wells will be providing an artist talk at the Multiple Exposures Gallery which is located in the Torpedo Factory Art Center on September 9 at 8pm.

About Systems Failures Exhibit: Systems Failure is an all media juried exhibition examining the current crises facing our country and the world, and the plight of the people who most suffer from these failures. The submitted works explored subjects that ranged from financial and housing crises, botched environmental policies and government responses to Hurricane Katrina and the BP oil spill, failed healthcare system, and the fall of the church to questionable military policy. Rather than narrow the focus. Tanguy chose 39 works for the exhibition that poetically express the human costs of these breakdowns. Entire show can be viewed online at the Target Gallery current show page at www.torpedofactory.org.

Gallery Information:
The Torpedo Factory Art Center: is the highlight of Alexandria’s Potomac River waterfront, attracting approximately 500,000 visitors annually. Visit 82 artists’ studios, six galleries, two workshops, and the Alexandria Archaeology Museum.   For more information visit our website at: www.torpedofactory.org.  The art center is open daily from 10-6pm and until 9pm on Thursdays.

The Target Gallery, national exhibition space of the Torpedo Factory, promotes high standards of art by continuously exploring new ideas through the visual media in a schedule of national and international exhibitions. Located on the waterfront in Old Town Alexandria, VA. The gallery is open daily from 10-6pm and until 9pm on Thursdays; www.torpedofactory.org

Multiple Exposures Gallery is a cooperative gallery of 15 award-winning photographers whose creations are in many private and public collections. Their distinctly different artistic visions are presented through traditional and digital photographic techniques including alternative processes. Founded in 1985, Multiple Exposures Gallery is widely recognized within the Washington DC metropolitan area photographic community. The members are sought-after speakers, noted educators and traditional and digital photographic specialists and technicians.

The Art League: “By nurturing the artist, we enrich the community.” The Art League develops the artist through education, exhibition, and a stimulating, supportive environment, while sharing the experience of the visual arts with the community.” Founded in 1954, The Art League, Inc. is a multifaceted, nonprofit visual arts organization that meets its mission through its gallery, fine art school, art supply store, and arts-outreach programs. The Art League Gallery is located on the first floor of the Torpedo Factory Art Center.  They have a second new gallery location at National Harbor: The Art League at National Harbor is located at 120 American Way, Oxon Hill, MD 20745.