The Bader Fund: News

The Franz and Virginia Bader Fund
5505 Connecticut Avenue, NW # 268
Washington, D.C. 20015

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Johanna Halford-MacLeod (202-288-4608; 202-253-5351)

THE FRANZ AND VIRGINIA BADER FUND ANNOUNCES 2007 GRANT RECIPIENTS

Washington, D.C., January 15, 2008—The Franz and Virginia Bader Fund is pleased to announce that it awarded a total of $50,000 to three area visual artists in December 2007. The recipients of these grants are: Heidi Fowler of Reston, Virginia, Michael Platt of Washington, D.C., and Elzbieta Sikorska of Silver Spring, Maryland. Fowler makes contemplative and symbolic landscape paintings that address issues of consumerism and stewardship. Platt, who was born in Washington, D.C., studied at Columbus College of Art and Design in Columbus, Ohio, and received his MFA at Howard University, is known for his prints and drawings. His images are grounded in the human condition, particularly the history of Africa and the African Diaspora. Coincidentally, he is the first recipient of a Bader Fund grant to have shown his work at Franz Bader’s gallery. Sikorska, a Polish-born graphic artist who studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw, produces very large landscape drawings over which the figures of wild animals are sometimes superimposed in a way that suggests the great age of the landscapes and the species that live hidden in them.

This is the sixth year that the Fund has given grants to artists. Previous recipients of Bader Fund grants include the following painters: Kevin MacDonald and Charles Ritchie, both of Silver Spring, Maryland; Steven Kenney of Washington, Virginia; and Alex Kanevsky, Susan Moore, and Scott Noel, all of Philadelphia. Sculptor Yuriko Yamaguchi, of Vienna, Virginia, received a grant in 2004, and Richard Weaver, of Charlottesville, Virginia, received a grant in 2005 for his terra cotta reliefs. In 2006, awards were made to photographers Frank Hallam Day and Joe Mills, and to painter Philip Geiger.

ABOUT THE FRANZ AND VIRGINIA BADER FUND

The Franz and Virginia Bader Fund was established in 2001 in accordance with the will of the late Virginia Bader to provide grants to visual artists who have reached the age of forty and reside within 150 miles of Washington, D.C. Virginia Forman Bader, who died in 2001, was the widow of Franz Bader, who was well known in Washington as the owner of a gallery and art-bookstore. Bader retired in 1985.

Bader was born in Vienna, Austria, in 1903. His father was a flour merchant and his mother was a painter. Franz was expected to work in his father's business, but he became a bookseller instead because, as he said, he could not see why he should spend his life making bread more expensive for people. In the mid-1930s he became the owner of Vienna's oldest bookstore, the Wallishauser'sche Buchhandlung. Following the German annexation of Austria in 1938, Bader, like other Jews, lost his business. He and his first wife, Tony, fled the country in December 1938 with nothing but twenty-four dollars. A bottle of rum given to them by well-wishers to add to their tea was confiscated at the border. The Baders arrived in Washington in January 1939. Bader went to work in James Whyte's bookstore, selling foreign language books, maps, and modern art. Bader persuaded Whyte to hold monthly art exhibitions. In 1953 Bader opened his own art gallery and bookshop at 1705 G Street, NW. The gallery had various addresses over the years, including two on Pennsylvania Avenue. It was located at 2001 Eye Street at the time of Bader's retirement. It continued to operate, moving to 1701 Pennsylvania Avenue around 1987, and then to 1500 K Street in 1990. It closed in 1995. The Franz Bader Bookstore was bought by one of Bader's employee and continues to operate at 1911 I Street, NW.

Many well-known artists exhibited at the Franz Bader Gallery, and Bader was always interested in late-bloomers: he gave Grandma Moses her first Washington show and Alma Thomas her first show in a commercial gallery. Among the crafts shown at Bader's gallery were ceramics by the Natzlers.

Tony Bader died in 1966, and in 1971 Franz Bader married Virginia Forman. He died in 1994. Virginia died in 2001.

The Franz and Virginia Bader Fund is governed by a committee of nine, and a trustee responsible for financial oversight. All were friends of Franz and Virginia Bader. The Fund is administered by an executive director.

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GRANT APPLICATION FORM Download Grant Application Form Requires Adobe Acrobat Reader. If you don't have it, click the image below:		The Franz and Virginia Bader Fund 5505 Connecticut Avenue, NW # 268 Washington, D.C. 20015 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Johanna Halford-MacLeod (202-288-4608; 202-253-5351) THE FRANZ AND VIRGINIA BADER FUND ANNOUNCES 2007 GRANT RECIPIENTS Washington, D.C., January 15, 2008—The Franz and Virginia Bader Fund is pleased to announce that it awarded a total of $50,000 to three area visual artists in December 2007. The recipients of these grants are: Heidi Fowler of Reston, Virginia, Michael Platt of Washington, D.C., and Elzbieta Sikorska of Silver Spring, Maryland. Fowler makes contemplative and symbolic landscape paintings that address issues of consumerism and stewardship. Platt, who was born in Washington, D.C., studied at Columbus College of Art and Design in Columbus, Ohio, and received his MFA at Howard University, is known for his prints and drawings. His images are grounded in the human condition, particularly the history of Africa and the African Diaspora. Coincidentally, he is the first recipient of a Bader Fund grant to have shown his work at Franz Bader’s gallery. Sikorska, a Polish-born graphic artist who studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw, produces very large landscape drawings over which the figures of wild animals are sometimes superimposed in a way that suggests the great age of the landscapes and the species that live hidden in them. This is the sixth year that the Fund has given grants to artists. Previous recipients of Bader Fund grants include the following painters: Kevin MacDonald and Charles Ritchie, both of Silver Spring, Maryland; Steven Kenney of Washington, Virginia; and Alex Kanevsky, Susan Moore, and Scott Noel, all of Philadelphia. Sculptor Yuriko Yamaguchi, of Vienna, Virginia, received a grant in 2004, and Richard Weaver, of Charlottesville, Virginia, received a grant in 2005 for his terra cotta reliefs. In 2006, awards were made to photographers Frank Hallam Day and Joe Mills, and to painter Philip Geiger. ABOUT THE FRANZ AND VIRGINIA BADER FUND The Franz and Virginia Bader Fund was established in 2001 in accordance with the will of the late Virginia Bader to provide grants to visual artists who have reached the age of forty and reside within 150 miles of Washington, D.C. Virginia Forman Bader, who died in 2001, was the widow of Franz Bader, who was well known in Washington as the owner of a gallery and art-bookstore. Bader retired in 1985. Bader was born in Vienna, Austria, in 1903. His father was a flour merchant and his mother was a painter. Franz was expected to work in his father's business, but he became a bookseller instead because, as he said, he could not see why he should spend his life making bread more expensive for people. In the mid-1930s he became the owner of Vienna's oldest bookstore, the Wallishauser'sche Buchhandlung. Following the German annexation of Austria in 1938, Bader, like other Jews, lost his business. He and his first wife, Tony, fled the country in December 1938 with nothing but twenty-four dollars. A bottle of rum given to them by well-wishers to add to their tea was confiscated at the border. The Baders arrived in Washington in January 1939. Bader went to work in James Whyte's bookstore, selling foreign language books, maps, and modern art. Bader persuaded Whyte to hold monthly art exhibitions. In 1953 Bader opened his own art gallery and bookshop at 1705 G Street, NW. The gallery had various addresses over the years, including two on Pennsylvania Avenue. It was located at 2001 Eye Street at the time of Bader's retirement. It continued to operate, moving to 1701 Pennsylvania Avenue around 1987, and then to 1500 K Street in 1990. It closed in 1995. The Franz Bader Bookstore was bought by one of Bader's employee and continues to operate at 1911 I Street, NW. Many well-known artists exhibited at the Franz Bader Gallery, and Bader was always interested in late-bloomers: he gave Grandma Moses her first Washington show and Alma Thomas her first show in a commercial gallery. Among the crafts shown at Bader's gallery were ceramics by the Natzlers. Tony Bader died in 1966, and in 1971 Franz Bader married Virginia Forman. He died in 1994. Virginia died in 2001. The Franz and Virginia Bader Fund is governed by a committee of nine, and a trustee responsible for financial oversight. All were friends of Franz and Virginia Bader. The Fund is administered by an executive director.