Annual Report for 2018

The Touchstone Foundation for the Arts (TFA) is a nonprofit tax-exempt 501(c)(3) organization created by the artists of Touchstone Gallery in Washington, DC. The mission of TFA is to expand the reach of Touchstone Gallery and its artists into our community.

TFA’s flagship project is the Touchstone Foundation Fellowship for Emerging Artists. The fellowship is open to Washington area artists who have not been professionally represented.  It is designed to help these artists develop and grow through a two-year full membership in the Touchstone Gallery.  The fellowship includes the opportunity to exhibit in monthly gallery member shows, representation on the gallery website and related marketing materials, and mentoring by established artists.  The fellowship culminates with a month-long solo show.

Two Touchstone Fellows, selected in June 2016, held their solo shows in June 2018.  Susi Cora’s show, ‘Highwire: Precarious Balance’, utilized ceramic sculpture and photomontage to communicate a haptic approach to memory.  Carol Ann Moore’s show, ‘Seeking Refuge’, presented a distinctive collection of original lithographs and intaglio prints that are her personal response to the natural world.  

One fellow was selected in 2018, Jenny Wu, an artist using mixed media.

In the fall of 2018, the installation, ‘The One House Project’, a partnership between TFA and ArtWatch, a local collective of artists promoting democratic values, was moved to the Blackrock Center for the Arts, Germantown, MD.  One hundred artists joined the original 220 from the show in 2017. The installation consisted of a crude building covered with 12”x12” plaques representing the stories of over 300 artists and/or their relatives as they came to this country.  The overriding principle is a vision for a country where we are united as one people, irrespective of our backgrounds of race, gender, class, religion, etc.

In 2019, TFA plans to continue supporting the development of emerging artists; the melding of artists from Touchstone Gallery with Shaw community organizations; and offering exhibition opportunities in Touchstone Gallery for the non-traditional artists that they serve.  Plans are developing to partner with New Community ArtSpace for an exhibit of fiber art.  In February 2019, TFA will help support the annual Exposed DC photography exhibit to take place at Touchstone Gallery.

Board of Directors

Anita Miller, President, Developmental Psychologist

Rachel Dickerson, Member at Large, Director, ArtSpaceDC at the New Community Church

Gabrielle Tillenburg – Filmmaker/artist, Visual Arts Coordinator at Strathmore, and Freelance Photographer 

Michael Lang - Liaison to Touchstone Gallery