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WASHINGTON POST STYLE
MONDAY APRIL 11, 1988  B7

Arts Beat
Spring Is for Swede Arts
by Kara Swisher
Special to The Washington Post

Look, they're not Charles and Di, but if you think you see some ermine and velvet this week around the museums of Washington, your royal radar is not mistaken.  King Carl Gustaf and Queen Silvia of Sweden will tour two of Washington's museums-the National Portrait Gallery this afternoon and the National Gallery of Art tomorrow afternoon-to kick off this city's celebration of "New Sweden" the 350th anniversary of the New Sweden colony in American.  And the culture of Sweden will be honored nationwide with concerts, lectures, theater and, of course, art.
Washington seems to be getting its fair share of the Swedes with Swedish theater at the Source, American Showcase Theatre, Washington Stage Guild and the Folger; art shows at NGA, NPG, Meridian House International and the National Museum of Women in the Arts; and music groups everywhere.

The Taxman Confuseth
The dreaded ides of March is nothing compared with the 15th of April, at least this year with the new tax laws in effect.
Because of the changes, visual artists now must follow the "uniform capitalization rules" of Section 363A of the 1986 tax law, which say that capitalization of "tangible personal property" applies to "a film, sound recording, videotape, book or similar property."  Similar property is the Internal Revenue Service's lyrical way of describing art.
At their most basic level, the tax revisions have changed the rules for deducting expenses from income.  Now artists must pair specific expenses with specific works of art.  And worse, except for advertising and marketing costs, artists can't deduct paints, other materials and indirect expenses such as studio rent until the work of art is sold.  Under the old tax system, all expenses could be deducted en masse regardless of sales.  Now artists might have to wait for years to deduct costs.

And there's more, like forecasting "income stream" and taking into account works made but not sold before 1987-all told, a potential nightmare that could force artists to think more about complex filing systems than about their creative work.

Best advice: Call an accountant soon.  Tax returns are due Friday.

Entries Due
The International Sculpture Center and the D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities are calling for artists to create an interior design and art installation for the newly Stables building at 410 Eighth St. NW, the upcoming Grand Central Station for local arts and new home for the commission.  Design proposals, which can be collaborations of any artists living in D.C., are due Monday at 5 p.m.  Call 965-6066 for information.

This Week
Today, the Smithsonian begins its eight week program "Masters of the Art of the Cartoon," with Jim Berry of "Berry's World."  Over the course of the program, other cartoonists-including political cartoonist Pat Oliphant, caricaturist Mort Drucker and "Gasoline Alley's" Jim Scancarelli-will talk about their work and inspiration and show original drawings.

Tomorrow night, Irish poet Jessie Lendennie will read with Washingtonian Terence Winch at d.c. space, in a program sponsored by the local arts magazine Washington Review.

Wednesday night, that rock-crazy (and I don't mean music) duo of Kate Ericson and Mel Ziegler will try to explain exactly why they have placed 432 stones from more than 20 quarries nationwide on the 72 window ledges of the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden for their exhibit "The Conscious Stone."  The types of rocks in the show range from marble to limestone and are representative of many buildings and monuments in Washington.

Thursday, parents can teach their children a somber lesson at the Capital Children's Museum's new exhibit, "Remember the Children: An Exhibition for Children About the Holocaust," opening this week in honor of Holocaust Remembrance Week.  The exhibit, which organizers say is the first major show of its kind about and for children, traces the story of the 1.5 million Jewish children who died in one of history's greatest tragedies.  The show is interactive, and includes and area where visitors can paint a memorial tile about reaction to the exhibit.  Selected paintings are to be displayed at the planned U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum.

Friday night, the Australian Jazz Orchestra comes up from Down Under to play at the National Museum of Natural History's Baird Auditorium.  The group, organized by the Australian Bicentennial Authority, is comprised of jazz all-stars from that country.

Saturday night at Lisner, the 80-voice Gay Men's Chorus of Washington will hold a choral mini-festival with the award-winning, 100-voice Windy City Gay Chorus of Chicago.

Next Sunday afternoon at the Hirshhorn, artist Jacob Lawrence, whose powerful works portray the struggles of American blacks, will lecture on his life and art.

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