Koch is the painter who helped create the Artomatic show 10 years ago as a way to connect artists and performers in the Washington area, while sharing their work with the community. This year the free exhibit runs until July 5. For details visit artomatic.org.
How many artists are participating this year?
This year we have over 1,000 visual artists and somewhere between 800 and 1,000 performing artists.
Artomatic has moved around the city. Where is it this year?
This year we’re in the Capitol Riverfront neighborhood. The exact address is 55 M St. SE. We’re right at the corner of M Street and Half Street, which is at the entrance to the Nationals ballpark.
Why do you move to new places?
We don’t really want to own a building. … We’re not interested in running a show one month, then another show and so forth. We’re really interested in bringing people together on an event basis once a year.
Are there any pieces that particularly stand out for you?
We try not to make recommendations on things. But let me give you something that I think is really clever and very, very interesting. There’s a group of two Ph.D. scientists that have created something called i-robot. They have cards that they ask visitors to their space to draw a robot. … Then what they are going to do is maybe have 400 or 500 of those that will then be turned into a poster and anybody who created a robot would be able to download, for a small fee, from a Web site. It’s really a crowd-sourcing concept and idea. … Any profits from that go to Artomatic.
How has the show changed the art scene since it began 10 years ago?
For a whole variety of reasons, the art scene is more vibrant. … And I think what Artomatic does is show a whole other side of the art community.
