Every once in a while I go the Kojo Nmandi show on WAMU to discuss DC area visual art stuff… many years ago I was discussing the lack of interest, or better still, apathy that most Washington area museum curators exhibit (pun intended) towards our DMV area artists. In what was to become a battle cry of the ignored, I noted that “it was easier for a local DC area museum curator or director to take a cab to Dulles to catch a flight to Berlin, or London, or Madrid, etc. in order to visit an emerging artist’s studio, than to take a cab to Georgetown, or Arlington, or Rockville to do the same.” A few years after American University’s gorgeous Katzen Museum opened, I updated that statement by noting that the Katzen had taken the lead (in a one horse race) in showcasing, exhibiting and documenting the DMV art scene. The Katzen had become, and remains the only major DC area art museum that pays attention to its own backyard! The driver here is the Katzen’s energetic director Jack Rasmussen. This is a man with a deep connection to the DC area art scene that goes back many decades, and it was a brilliant coup by the AU leadership to hire him. And I say that not only based on the Katzen’s interest and support of its own city’s artists, but also because Rasmussen has proven to the other area art museums that an intelligent combination of regional artists with national and international artists can be accomplished. What does that take? I’m not sure, but the libertarian part of me suspects a certain degree of “taking the path of least resistance” on the daily workload of other local museum curators/directors, many of which are government employees; it is much…