H Street Gallery and Courtyard creates Pop-Up Gallery with Video Projection
Gallery O on H activates historic Anacostia building during Lumen8
During Lumen8 Anacostia, using a combination of projection, art installation and live music performance, Gallery O on H will recreate their gallery and courtyard in a historic Anacostia building. Located at 2021 Martin Luther King Blvd., the event will take place from 4 to 9 p.m. and will showcase outsider artist, Brian Dowdell and a live local music showcase by Listen Local First.
Gallery O on H, located at 1354 H Street NE is an indoor/outdoor community space where art, music and minds intersect for cultural experience. The pop-up gallery, much like the H Street space, will combined art and music allowing sound to flow into the street using speakers to project out the windows of the second floor space.
The space will be recreated through a mix of live art, live music and projected video scenes of the original space, featuring hyper-local H Street celebrities. The experience is open to the public.
“Recreating the outside in is an exercise in fusing sensory realities, and I find that fascinating. This piece of video projection art captures the burgeoning and exciting Gallery O on H space – and its lively community on H street – within the walls of Anacostia,” explains Isabelle Carbonell, videographer.
Live musical performances include local artists Rene Moffatt, Justin Trawick, The Sweater Set and Jess Dye of Lightfoot.
Gallery owners and community advocates, Steve Hessler and Mary Ellen Vehlow are using this experience to launch a series of events that they hope will build community on H Street. After holding onto this property and surrounding structures for years, the couple has begun execution for a mix-use plan including temporary and permanent concepts that foster creative entrepreneurs. The full concept, set to roll out in stages over the next two years, will begin with a more active use of the current gallery and outdoor venue space for ticketed events including art, music and community featuring a pop-up markets for food and retail.
“We see this as an opportunity to infuse local community with an energy beyond the bars and the night life of H Street,” explains Vehlow.
The space will host their first event, Blossom Bake+Brew, on April 21 in collaboration with ScoutMob, Chocolate City Beer and Think Local First to benefit H Street Main Street. Jazz in the Hood, a component of the DC Jazz Festival, is set for June 2 and 9th. A summer music series, Music in the Courtyard, hosted twice a month begins in July. A full listing of events can be found online at www.galleryoonh.com.
For more information about the pop-up space in Anacostia, Gallery O on H or their events please contact Stacey Price atstaceydeniseprice@gmail.com.
About Isabelle Carbonell
Isabelle Carbonell is a documentary photographer and documentary filmmaker who documents political, social, whimsical, ethnographic, and environmental stories around the world. When filming, she becomes her environment — sleeping, eating, and breathing with those she is focusing on, absorbing their culture, transcending the divide between observer and subject.
Isabelle also taught documentary filmmaking to a class of software designers and engineers at Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar, and more recently did a two-week photography workshop for National Geographic.
Unique in her perspectives and methods, she also comes from a wide cultural background as half-Belgian and half-Uruguayan. Based out of Washington D.C. and Brussels, Belgium, she graduated from the Residential College at the University of Michigan with degrees in Environmental and Social Science, Photography and Filmmaking. Her documentary skills have taken her to countries such as India, Qatar, Cuba, Mexico, Vietnam, the Dominican Republic, Nepal, Kazakhstan, and Nicaragua.
About the Music
Rene Moffatt – http://www.renemoffatt.com/
Justin Trawick – http://www.justintrawick.com/
The Sweater Set – http://www.thesweaterset.com/
Jess Dye of Lightfoot – http://www.hellolightfoot.com/
Listen Local First, an program of Think Local First DC is a local music initiative devoted to building awareness and creating opportunities for local musicians and venues in order to raise the profile of DC’s local music scene. This campaign includes a monthly Local Music Day and Local Music Showcases highlighting a variety of venues and genres of local music. www.listenlocalfirstdc.com
About Brian Dowall
Like many of the self-taught artists, Brian is prolific & compulsive, he intuitively taps into a space that spontaneously spills out onto that which is his favorite canvas “cardboard” or scripts sand spirits deftly.
Brian Dowdall is an original self taught creative force; prolific in paint, colors drawn from nature’s elements: fire, water, wind & earth …he calls up the spirits of animals & goddesses from his inner being. The work is joyful, unconscious & sometimes strange. Brian is a 35 year VISIONARY & “outsider” internationally exhibited.
Listen Local First 
