Artomatic media contact: Marina Reiter, 202-271-4748
NoMa BID media contact: Leslie Braunstein, 703-234-7762

For immediate release: June 23, 2008

Artomatic, the Washington, D.C. area’s homegrown arts extravaganza, came to a triumphant close this month, setting new records and breaking new ground for artists in the region.

Held May 9 through June 15 in D.C.’s NoMa neighborhood, Artomatic 2008 attracted a record 52,500 visitors, more than any previous Artomatic event. Hosted by the NoMa Business Improvement District (BID), Artomatic included art, performances, workshops and special activities.

“Artomatic 2008 was a phenomenal event and it exceeded even our expectations,” said Veronica Szalus, Artomatic president. “We are glad to be able to provide this opportunity for artists and to enrich the D.C. creative community.”

In all, about 1,540 individual artists took part in Artomatic — also a new high. The total included 740 visual artists — such as painters, sculptors and photographers — who showed thousands of artworks. The event also included individual 800 performing artists, such as dancers, poets, theatre groups, drummers, comedians, fire troupes and musicians.

Highlights of Artomatic 2008 included an art-themed fashion show, blood drive, art car foot race, marketplace, book signings and on-site tattoo parlor. One of the more popular attractions was a display of dioramas from the Sunday Source Peeps Diorama Contest held by The Washington Post. Artomatic visitors cast their vote for their favorite diorama during the event, naming “The Trojan Peep” by Virginia and Marge Haufler as the Artomatic Peeples Choice Award winner.

For the first time, Artomatic had a full schedule of free children’s events every weekend, including popular workshops on mobile-making, Peeps dioramas, drawing and sculpting. More than 20 children’s events were held, attracting hundreds of participants and budding artists. Adult educational workshops and lectures were also held, focusing on topics such as art collecting and photography techniques.

Presented regularly since 1999, Artomatic transforms an unfinished indoor space into an exciting and diverse arts event that is free and open to the public. Volunteers worked for three months to convert 225,000 square feet of space on 10 floors of the Capitol Plaza I building into a temporary arts and performance space. In contrast, it will take about two weeks for Artomatic to deconstruct and vacate the space.

Although Artomatic is leaving NoMa, Elizabeth Price, president of the NoMa BID, promised it won’t be the end for arts in the D.C. neighborhood, which is currently hosting a summer-long James Bond Film Festival.

“The NoMa BID was proud to host this year's record-breaking Artomatic, which brought tens of thousands of people to NoMa for the first time while creating a new sense of vibrancy through artistic expression,” Price said. “The BID will continue to attract high-energy arts and entertainment events to this emerging new neighborhood.”

As a nonprofit organization run entirely by volunteers, Artomatic depends on the generosity of its donors, sponsors and participants to run its events. In addition to the NoMa BID, partners for this year’s Artomatic included VEF-VN Capitol Plaza I LLC, Miller and Long Concrete Construction, the D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities. For a full list of sponsors and supporters for Artomatic 2008, visit http://artomatic.org/about/credits .

“We are extremely grateful to our sponsors for their support and generosity,” said George Koch, Artomatic’s chair. “Without the assistance of these partners, Artomatic would not be able to continue.”

Organizers are now working on plans for the next Artomatic event, with dates and location to be determined. Previous Artomatic sites have included a former museum, government offices and a home improvement store. This year was the sixth Artomatic event, which will be celebrating its 10th anniversary in 2009.

To stay up to date year-round on Artomatic, visit www.artomatic.org and sign up for the newsletter.

Hi-res photos from this year’s event are available now for press use and can be downloaded online. For a password to the press photos Web page, contact one of the media liaisons listed at the beginning of this news release.

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About Artomatic: Artomatic is a creative community that collaborates to produce and present a free arts spectacular. Participation is open to all, from recognized artists to undiscovered talents, who work in a variety of arts forms. In partnership with the development community, Artomatic transforms unused building space into a playground for expression, serves as a catalyst for community growth in up-and-coming neighborhoods, and helps to grow our creative economy. The nonprofit Artomatic organization is headed by a volunteer Board of Directors and is funded in part by the D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities, an agency supported by the National Endowment for the Arts. For more information, visit www.artomatic.org.

About the NoMa BID: NoMa is an emerging mixed-use neighborhood north of the U.S. Capitol and Union Station in Washington, D.C. Private developers have invested over $1 billion in 2007–2008 alone, with plans to develop more than 20 million square feet of office, residential, hotel and retail space in the 35-block area covered by the NoMa BID over the next 10 years. For more information about the BID, including an interactive development map, see the BID Web site at www.nomabid.org