Ex City Paper

Readers should know that I'm no longer writing for the Washington City Paper.

The proximate cause for my dismissal was a letter to the editor, which the paper forwarded to me two weeks ago. In the letter, a reader asked for a correction with regard to something I'd written for the best-of issue. An April correction would have meant back-to-back corrections for articles I'd written. (In March, I wrote that the "Collectors Select" exhibit at Arlington Arts Center showcased the efforts of five curators. There were in fact six/seven: five collectors and one husband-and-wife collector team, all of whom I discussed in the piece.)

I stood behind what I'd written in the April issue and protested the correction. A subsequent investigation (including two interviews with persons involved in the story) conducted by editor-in-chief Erik Wemple proved me right. No correction was run.

But vindication did not change the fact of the matter: It's time that the paper and I part ways. I've enjoyed working with Mark Athitakis and Matt Borlik and my work has benefited from their editing. I won't talk out of turn so I'll just say that I'm proud of the reporting and criticism I've written on the city's visual art scene for the last two years.

No doubt, I'll continue writing about District gallery shows, primarily in art magazines. Reviews for April/May shows will hit newsstands in a couple months and I'll let you know when they pop up online. Other reporting and opinion-y stuff will appear elsewhere. So keep reading.