Apprenticeship in Art

UNION MARKET is a unique story of artisanship and apprenticeship. Drawing on its rich history in food and culture, the market is once again poised to be a culinary epicenter. With more than 40 artisan retailers, neighbors will discover the art of fresh bread, pickles, milk, cheese, empanadas, seafood, chocolate and more – all made by the best local talent in DC.

Dan Steinhilber and his apprentice, Miles Thomas, are the sculpture artists for the Union Market chandelier. Dan Steinhilber began his career in the early 1990s as a painter of landscapes, eventually exploring sculpture and installation as an extension of painting. Living in rural Monterey County, Calif., in the mid-1990s, he was inspired to work outdoors, placing thin squares of plastic and colored canvas threads in fields and around trees to make three-dimensional “paintings” in nature. The artist moved to Washington in 2000, and turned his attention to the urban landscape, using mass-produced consumer items as his primary materials. Steinhilber has exhibited work in galleries, museums, sculpture parks, and not-for-profit spaces. He has had solo exhibitions at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C., The Baltimore Museum of Art in Baltimore, the Mattress Factory in Pittsburgh, and the Contemporary Art Museum in Houston. He has been awarded artist grants from the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, the Joan Mitchell Foundation and was awarded a Smithsonian Artist Research Fellowship.

EDENS wanted to offer an apprenticeship to a bright DCPS art student. High school senior, Miles Thomas, was the perfect fit. Thomas was born in Washington D.C. on November 5, 1994. His interest in art began at an early age and that curiosity has continued into a steady practice. His goals for the future are to continue his arts education and to establish a name for himself as an artist in whatever field of art he chooses to follow. Currently he attends Duke Ellington School of the Arts as a senior in the visual arts department. In his sophomore year the Dickstein Shapiro Law firm awarded him a scholarship to attend the Anderson Ranch Art Center in Snowmass, Colorado. He spent his first week in a volume and form wood workshop with the sculptor Andy Buck. Earlier that same year he won first place in the Dickstein Shapiro LLP winter card contest.