NEA News--The National Endowment for the Arts has celebrated its 40th Anniversary of service to America. Since President Johnson signed the National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act in 1965, the NEA has played a pivotal role in fostering the arts across the U.S.; and it remains the nation's largest annual funder of the arts. "Highlights in NEA History," a compendium of historic and current programs made possible by NEA support, can be viewed at the newly designed home page at www.arts.gov.

Holiday Stamps Dedicated--The U. S. Postal Service has dedicated 2005 holiday stamps at the Pillsbury Test Kitchens in Minneapolis, MN. The stamps feature cookie-shaped gingerbread men, Santa Claus, snowmen and an angel to celebrate the child in everyone and evoke favorite memories from the simple pleasure of decorating cookies of the season.

Coin Newly Designed--For the first time in history, the image of President Thomas Jefferson will face forward on the new 2006 five-cent coin. "Jefferson, 1800" will conclude the Westward Journey Nickel Series. The forward-looking nickel obverse or heads side was designed by U.S. Mint Artistic Infusion Program artist Jamie Franki of Concord, NC, based on a Rembrandt Peale painting of Jefferson in 1800. This image was selected from 147 designs submitted by the U.S. Mint sculptor-engravers and AIP artists from throughout the country. The '38 classic rendition of Jefferson's home, Monticello, by Felix Schlag will return to the reverse or tails side more highly detailed after careful restoration by Mint sculptor-engraver John Mercanti.

Women Honored--The National Women's Hall of Fame, Seneca Falls, NY, has honored ten outstanding American women, including the renowned architect and sculptor Maya Y. Lin. Lin was the architectural designer for the Vietnam Veteran's Memorial in Washington, D.C, and created the award-winning Civil Rights Memorial in Montgomery, AL. She was also recently honored at the third annual Women in the Arts Luncheon at the Brooklyn Museum, which celebrates the many contributions women have made to the advancement of the arts and culture.

Exhibitions:

New York, NY -- The Metropolitan Museum of Art -- Vincent van Gogh: The Drawings is the first major exhibition in the U.S. ever to focus on van Gogh's extraordinary drawings. It is comprised of 113 works selected from public and private collections worldwide that reveal the range and brilliance of the artist's draftsmanship as it evolved over the course of his decade-long career. Through Dec. 31.

Detroit, MI -- Detroit Institute of Arts -- The Art of Screenprint presents the versatility of screenprint by concentrating on the variety of procedures artists employ to create images in this major category of modern printmaking. The objects are selected from the museum's collection and the archives of Stewart & Stewart, printers and publishers of fine art screenprints in Bloomfield Hills, MI, for 25 years. Highlighted artists include Janet Fish, John Himmelfarb, Hunt Slonem and Steven Sorman, among many others. Through Dec. 31.

Washington, D.C. -- National Gallery of Art -- Pieter Claesz: Master of Haarlem Still Life showcases 25 works from all phases of the artist's career. Claesz was one of the most important Dutch still-life painters of the 17th century and pioneered the development of monochrome tabletop still lifes (the so-called "monochrome banketjes"), quietly restrained works imbued with an extraordinary sense of naturalism. The paintings of mincemeat pies, breads, lemons, olives, nuts, fruits and wine are visual feasts that delight the eye and whet the appetite. Through Dec. 31.

St. Louis, MO -- Saint Louis Art Museum -- American Art Pottery, an installation of 40 works from the Saint Louis Art Museum's collection and several private collections, celebrates the beauty and variety of artistic ceramics made in America between 1880 and 1920. Included are works by many award-winning art potteries such as Grueby, Van Briggle, Rookwood, Tiffany, Dedham, Gates and Walrath as well as 12 works made in University City at the Art Academy and Porcelain Works. Through Dec. 31.

Portland, OR -- Portland Art Museum -- Roy Lichtenstein Dossier Exhibition -- The Museum celebrates the opening of the new Center for Modern and Contemporary Art (CMCA) and the acquisition of Roy Lichtenstein's massive sculpture Brushstrokes by presenting a dossier exhibition of original preparatory drawings, maquettes and small-scale sculptures using a brushstroke theme. Brushstrokes is one of a series of heroic-scaled sculptures that the artist created in the last decades of his life. The largest public work by Lichtenstein on the West Coast, the 29.5 foot-tall painted aluminum sculpture will be placed on the east side of the Museum campus at the entrance to the Evan H. Roberts Memorial Sculpture Mall and the new CMCA. Through Feb. 12.

Copyright ARTtalk Vol. 16 No. 1 -- November 2005