D.C. Curator Fired For Bad-Mouthing Public Art

“Curator Philip Barlow’s policy on automatically excluding PandaMania and Party Animals participants from consideration for Washington Project for the ArtsCorcoran’s 2005 Options exhibition has cost him his position. The survey of emerging Washington area artists will now be curated by Libby Lumpkin, an art historian and critic who lives in California. The move came after [the Washington Post] reported Sept. 23 that Barlow did not regard the city-funded sculpture projects as art… WPAC Executive Director Annie Adjchavanich issued a statement last week announcing Barlow’s resignation and condemning his stance as a violation of ‘basic ethical norms of curatorial practice.’ Barlow calls the statement a ‘complete distortion.'”