The Rubells Capitalize in DC

Don and Mera Rubell are expanding their footprint in the nation's capital with the purchase of a former school-a site where the art collectors will build a contemporary art museum and hotel.

The Rubells purchased the former Randall School at 65 I Street SW in D.C. for $6.5 million from the Corcoran Gallery of Art and College of Art + Design, which bought the school from the city in 2006 but never developed the site. In a joint venture with urban development firm Telesis Corporation, the Rubells will build a satellite museum and hotel complex just down the road from their other D.C. property, the Morris Lapidus-designed Capitol Skyline Hotel.
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ArtLA President Stephen Cohen Says His Fair Will Regroup

With evidence of an economic turnaround still in question at the start of a new year, one Los Angeles art fair has decided to pull up stakes. The sixth edition of the artLA fair, scheduled for January 21-24 in Santa Monica, announced cancellation on December 30. But art fair president and photography gallery owner Stephen Cohen says that the interruption is only temporary.
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Washington, DC: 36 Artists in 36 Hours

Still shy of 7 AM on a Saturday morning, Adam de Boer had just opened his Chinatown warehouse studio to art collector Mera Rubell. For a young artist like de Boer—a 25-year-old figurative painter and recent graduate of the University of California-Santa Barbara—the attention might have felt as puzzling as flattering.
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In Profile: Kristen Hileman, Contemporary Curator of the Baltimore Museum

The Baltimore Museum of Art has hired Kristen Hileman as its curator of contemporary art and chief within its contemporary art department. Hileman, who has worked as a curator for the Smithsonian's Hirshhorn Museum & Sculpture Garden for the last eight years, will begin in her new role on November 2. She replaces Darsie Alexander, who left the position to take the top curatorial slot at the Walker Art Center.

"My experience to date is in institutions that focus on contemporary and modern art," says Hileman. "I'm very excited to move to an institution with collections from various parts of the world and various time periods and to build a new program within that context."

Hileman joined the Hirshhorn as an assistant curator in 2001 and was named associate curator in 2007. During that time, Hileman oversaw two curated permanent installations: "Ways of Seeing: John Baldessari Explores the Collection" and "Strange Bodies: Figurative Works," which is currently on display. She directed several exhibits for "Directions," a series of smaller, exploratory solo-artist shows typically organized for unique spaces in and around the museum. Between 2004 and 2006, she assembled Directions shows featuring the works of Cai Guo-Qiang, Jim Hodges, and Oliver Herring.
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