The Issue: The owner of the Takoma Theatre is planning a five-story apartment building for the historic spot. The theater has occupied the corner of Fourth and Butternut Streets NW since 1923; Milton McGinty bought the building in 1983. But the low-density neighborhood of Takoma has not been kind to a privately owned arts building that puts on plays, and McGinty wants to head to a greener pasture—real estate. In 2007, he petitioned to turn the theater into an office building, catalyzing the formation of Takoma Theatre Conservancy, a nonprofit that wants to purchase the property; he was ultimately denied by the Historic Preservation Review Board (HPRB). But now McGinty proposes razing the theater and replacing it with an apartment building—with a tiny theater on the ground floor. With the local Advisory Neighborhood Commission (ANC) and the Conservancy up in arms, will HPRB still pull an Atropos? Read More "Neighborhood Watch: In Takoma, Will the Last Theater of Ward 4 Survive?" »

From a press release:

Due to unforeseeable building construction, the Japan Information and Culture Center, Embassy of Japan regrets that we must temporarily close the Counter-Photography: Japan’s Artists Today exhibit until further notice. Members of the JICC mailing list will be notified when the exhibit reopens. We apologize for the inconvenience, and sincerely hope that we will be able to make the exhibit accessible to the public as soon as possible.

From Ward's email:

In the next few months I will be transition from my role as Executive Director of the Washington Project for the Arts and join the WPA Board of Trustees. The decision to leave as Executive Director is solely precipitated by my desire to spend more time with my immediate and extended family. In the next few years my children will begin leaving home and starting college and I would like to be more present in their lives and see them as much as possible.

More info on WPA's search for a new executive director coming shortly.

Well, not literally, but moviegoers and fans of prog can catch the godfather of strange-rock's most notorious film, Uncle Meat, next week at the Library of Congress.

Surprised to learn that an institution as fundamentally square as the LoC would screen something as inherently controversial as a Zappa flick? (Four of them, actually.) Norman Middleton says, Don't be.

A senior producer at the Library of Congress and the host of the Frank Zappa Mini-Film Festival, Middleton begins his defense of the film schedule--which includes obscenity-laden classics like Uncle Meat, The Amazing Mr. Bickford, Does Humor Belong in Music?, and Motels--by clarifying that Zappa is not obscene--"he's diverse."

Read More "Frank Zappa’s Ghost Visits the Library of Congress" »

Historically addresses ending in "SE" haven't received the arts coverage that they would otherwise be showered with if they were located near 14th St. NW, but that doesn't mean there's not a thriving arts scene on the other side of the river. FOTO Week DC ends Saturday, but we at City Paper would be remiss not to point out some of the great SE venues participating in the festival:

Read More "FOTO Week DC Exhibits in Anacostia" »