Applications Due--Applications for the National Gallery of Art's 2005 Teacher Institute are due March 15. The Institute will focus on storytelling and the visual arts, and two six-day sessions will be held at the Gallery and other Washington locations. A detailed description of the program and the application are online: www.nga.gov/education/teacinst.htm.

Milestones Reached--Renowned Chicago Pop artist Ed Paschke has died at age 65. He leaves a legacy of work in museums, galleries and public/private collections around the world.
--Famed abstract painter Agnes Martin has died in New Mexico at age 92. One of America's most distinguished artists, she won the National Endowment for the Arts prestigious National Medal of Art in 1998.

Sales Record Broken--At Sotheby's December sale of American paintings, Sargent's celebrated painting entitled "Group with Parasols" (A Siesta) set a new record for the artist at auction when it sold for $23.5 million. Thirty-two other auction records were set for artists, including George de Forest Brush, Dennis Miller Bunker, Charles Bird King and others

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Turner Prize Awarded--The prestigious Turner Prize has been awarded to British artist Jeremy Deller at Tate Britain. He was short-listed for "Memory Bucket," a mixed media installation at ArtPace, San Antonio, TX, documenting his travels through the state of Texas.

Major Acquisition Announced--The Frick Collection, New York, NY, has announced its first major acquisition by purchase in almost a decade. "Portrait of Etienne Vincent-Marniola," a terracotta bust, was executed by French portraitist Joseph Chinard around 1809.

NEA News--Three new members of the National Council on the Arts have been confirmed by the U.S. Senate and include James K. Ballinger, director of the Phoenix Art Museum.
--In its first major grant announcement of Fiscal Year 2005, the NEA will award more than $21 million to 839 grants--distributed to nonprofit national, regional, state and local organizations across the country. The budget for FY 2005 is $121 million.
--$1.7 million will be awarded through 171 grants in the Challenge America Fast-Track Review Grants category. These awards support projects that provide opportunities for people to experience and participate in a wide range of art forms and activities, enable arts organizations to expand and diversify their audiences, and emphasize the potential of the arts to help strengthen communities, particularly those with underserved populations.

Exhibitions:

New York, NY -- Metropolitan Museum of Art -- Klee: His Years at the Bauhaus (1921-1931) presents some 30 works that Klee created during the years he taught at the Bauhaus, first in Weimar and then in Dessau. Differing widely in style, these range from experiments with color gradations to works of whimsical humor. Through April 3.

Washington, DC -- National Gallery of Art -- Six Centuries of Prints and Drawings: Recent Acquisitions presents 142 of the finest works of art on paper acquired by the museum through gifts and purchases over the past five years. On public exhibition for the first time, they range chronologically from the earliest German drawing on paper to come to America, "Christ Kneeling in Prayer" (c. 1425), to etchings by Glenn Ligon from the 1990's. Through May 30.

Los Angeles, CA -- Getty Museum -- The Making of Furniture presents the elaborate process of the making of furniture throughout the 1700's in France, which involved a variety of craftsmen, from the cabinetmaker to the bronze founder to the finisher. To illustrate the steps in making such furniture, the museum commissioned three reconstructions of a mid-18-century writing table from its collection, made in Paris by contemporary craftsmen using tools and techniques similar to those employed in the workshop of Jean-Francois Oeben, where the original table was made. Ongoing.

Copyright ARTtalk Vol. 15 No. 3 -- January 2005