Tag Archives: thursday

Second Thursday Art Night

Enjoy a special after-hours event at the Torpedo Factory Art Center every month. Browse open studios and galleries, interact with artists, and enjoy special programming. Stop by on your way to dinner and make an evening of it!

Before the season wraps up, enjoy an Endless Summer evening during the August Second Thursday Art Night. With five exhibition openings, live music and outdoor painting, it will be quite a diverting evening.

  • 6:30, 7:30 pm: Learn about Alexandria’s Civil War hospitals, including the real Mansion House Hospital, made famous by  the PBS series Mercy Street,  in the Alexandria Archaeology Museum (Studio 327).
  • 6:30 pm: Public reception for Magic and Color in Sites 2 & 3 (located on the 2nd and 3rd floor hallway by the elevator) with treats provided by Tango Pastry.
  • 7 pm: Wade Kramm talks about his minimalist installations in Dotted Space in Target Gallery (Studio 2).
  • 7:30 pm: Opening reception for Landschap and Taking Shape in The Art League Gallery (Studio 21).

Attend receptions and meet the artists in Decathect: a verb in The Associates Gallery (Studio 311) and Materialized Magic: Mythical Creatures in a Yarn Artistry Habitat in the New Project Studio (Studio 8).

The Glimpses, an Alexandria folk rock/Americana duo, performs all evening in the main hall. The 8 pm set features video projections of visiting artist Monica Stroik‘s work.

At 7 pm, Hector Munoz play harp at Site 3 and Rowan Clarke plays covers and originals on her ukulele in Studio 7.

Outside, sit side-by-side with some of the Torpedo Factory’s artists to paint plein air by the waterfront.

Second Thursday Art Night: Red, White, and Blue

#2ndThurs

Enjoy a special after-hours event at the Torpedo Factory Art Center every month. Browse open studios and galleries, interact with artists, and enjoy special programming. Stop by on your way to dinner and make an evening of it!

In July, we partner with the Office of Historic Alexandria to celebrate “Red, White, and Blue.”

  • Take part in our DIY activity with artist Andy Yoder as he constructs Highest Honora site-specific, suspended, 25-ft triangular banner for the Torpedo Factory Art Center, created from sheets of handmade paper and made in collaboration with military veterans, the Art League, and Torpedo Factory artists.
  • Check out the Please Touch exhibit in Target Gallery before it closes, as well as opening receptions for Not a Box and Kathleen Best Gillmann: Vision at Water’s Edge in The Art League Gallery.
  • Meet the new Post-Graduate resident Danielle Smith as she begins her three-month residency at the Torpedo Factory in the Post-Graduate Residency Studio (Studio 12).
  • Hear about CRAVE, a community micro-granting initiative developed by the Torpedo Factory Art Center and the Convergence Arts Initiative, and experience The Silent World, a CRAVE-funded proposal and month-long interactive project in the New Projects Studio (Studio 8).
  • Visit the Alexandria Archaeology Museum to enjoy a hands-on activity and hear updates on Alexandria’s recent discovery of a 300-year-old ship on the waterfront.
  • Stop by Studio 306 for an open house celebrating James Dean and Kara Hammond’s Generations: Space History in Art. A special space-themed cocktail hour will be hosted in Alison Sigethy’s studio (Studio 307).
  • Live music with jazz duo Entre Nous.
  • Enjoy three floors of activities, open studios, refreshments, and more.

Generations: Space History in Art

It will soon be 47 years since humans first set foot on the moon. To commemorate, realist artists James Dean and Kara Hammond bring together their space related works to celebrate the early days of space travel and exploration, in a small, targeted retrospective.

As NASA art director, James Dean escorted the likes of Robert Rauschenberg, Cy Twombly, Jamie Wyeth, Norman Rockwell, and Paul Calle to witness history in the making as they created original works for the NASA Art collection. As the former Curator of Art at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Air and Space Museum, Dean shows his own considerable prowess at capturing the early heady times of space exploration through original on-site sketches and photographs of Cape Canaveral in the early 1970’s.

Established artist Kara Hammond will show several paintings and drawings of early space technology from the 1990’s, including many Soviet era craft that were virtually unknown to the American public until decades later.

Show Opens July 1 and runs through July 31, 2016
Studio 306, third floor
Torpedo Factory Art Center
105 N. Union St.
Alexandria, VA, 22314

Special Open House during the July 14 Second Thursday from 6 to 8pm, in Studios 306 and 307.

The Splashdown Reception will be Sun. July 24 from 1pm to 4pm, to celebrate the 47th anniversary of the return of the Apollo 11 astronauts.

HighResPosterGenerations

Second Thursday Art Night: Art Pride

#2ndThurs

Enjoy a special after-hours event at the Torpedo Factory Art Center every month. Browse open studios and galleries, interact with artists, and enjoy special programming. Stop by on your way to dinner and make an evening of it!

In June, we partner with AGLA and Go Gay DC to celebrate Art Pride.

  • Bring your own shirt or tote bag and embellish it with a rainbow silkscreen design with the help of Anne Smith, current post-graduate resident in studio 12, and Veronica Barker-Barzel of Printmakers, Inc. in studio 325.
  • Live music with 2nd Independence.
  • Attend receptions for Please Touch in Target Gallery as well as TabletopAlex Tolstoy: Watermarks, and June’s Open Exhibit in The Art League Gallery.
  • Meet Ethiopian artist Daniel Taye and talk to him about his month-long residency in the New Project Studio (studio 8) through St. George Gallery.
  • Stop by Sites 2 and 3 for Caribbean Jubilee to see a showcase of work by 20 Caribbean artists for National Caribbean-American Heritage Month.
  • Visit the Alexandria Archaeology Museum to enjoy a hands-on activity about Alexandria’s 19th-century salt-glazed stoneware pottery, with docent-in-charge Joanna Gohmann.
  • Enjoy three floors of activities, live music, refreshments, and more.

ASO Sympatico

#asosympatico

The Torpedo Factory Art Center welcomes back ASO Sympatico for a special night of music. This performance group was developed as a partnership between the Alexandria Symphony Orchestra and the Alexandria City Public Schools to provide high-quality music education for local elementary students who are underrepresented minorities or at-risk youth. This performance will feature three of their music ensembles: Singing Eagles, Strings at Sunrise, and JABBA.

ASO Sympatico seeks to create safe spaces where students can take risks and make strong choices, while promoting student ownership of their role in an interdependent ensemble. Ensembles are hosted at John Adams Elementary School, a Title I and minority-majority school that benefits from a longstanding dual-language program and a Kennedy Center arts-integration partnership (Changing Education through the Arts).

This event is co-sponsored by the Torpedo Factory Art Center as part of the Community Partnership Program.

Please RSVP here or via [email protected]

Second Thursday Art Night – Pets!

#2ndThurs

Enjoy an special after-hours event at the Torpedo Factory Art Center every month. Browse open studios and galleries, interact with artists, and enjoy special programming. Stop by on your way to dinner and make an evening of it!

In May, join us to celebrate Pets!

  • 6 – 9 pm
    • We welcome Animal Welfare League of Alexandria all evening. Stop by the table for information about pet adoptions and on how to care for cherished pets.
    • By the riverfront entrance, four-legged visitors help us create a paw-print mural using pup-friendly paint for the “Dog-I-Y” activity.
  • 6 – 7; 8 – 8:45 pm
  • 6:30 – 8:30 pm
  • 7 pm
    • See the new public mural near the corner of Union and Cameron Streets. Get to know artist Erin Curtis during a community meet & greet. When posting photos and selfies, please use hashtag #beadedcurtain.
  • 7:30 pm

Also on View:

Second Thursday Art Night: Recycling & Reuse

Enjoy an special after-hours event at the Torpedo Factory Art Center every month. Browse open studios and galleries, interact with artists, and enjoy special programming. Stop by on your way to dinner and make an evening of it!

It’s all about reuse and recycling during the April Second Thursday Art Night at the Torpedo Factory Art Center on Thursday, April 14; 6 – 9 pm. Artists will be creating a chandelier from plastic water bottles.  The evening also features a host of new exhibitions, live music, and a look at a newly uncovered 300 year old ship.

 

  • Target Gallery (Studio 2)
    • Lisa Kellner will be installing her site-responsive painting in space, Always into Now. Though there is not a reception, visitors are welcome to meet the artist and observe her process as she progresses throughout the evening.

 

  • The Art League (Studio 21)
    • Modern master Teresa Oaxaca blends together portraiture and still life in her daring compositions. Misfits explores the themes of clowns and dolls, human effigies, and painted faces, integrating human emotions and passions with allegorical storytelling.
    • Orbit, juried by Melissa Staiger, showcases artwork that explores the themes of movements, cycles, revolutions, or the cycles of life.

 

  • The Alexandria Archaeology Museum (Studio 327)
    • 7 and 8 pm: City archaeologist Benjamin Skolnik presents on the history and archaeology of the recently excavated 18th-century ship hull discovered at 220 South Union Street. He will give a first-hand account of the excavation and stabilization of the ship’s hull.

 

  • Torpedo Factory Artists
    • Sheep Jones (Studio 7) and Cindy Richmond (Studio 3) host an opening reception for Fish Stories.
    • Scope Gallery (Studio 19): Flowery Language: Flowers & Blossoms.
    • Potomac Fiber Arts (Studio 29): Singing in the Rain: Inspirations from Movie Songs.
    • The Associates Gallery (Studio 311): It’s Black & White: JoAnn Tooley and Bev Andrews Raku + Photography.
    • Multiple Exposures Gallery (Studio 312): Michael Borek’s Treachery of Images: The White House.
    • Site 3 (Hallway near the elevator on 3rd floor): Reception for Negative Painting: Work from Marsha Staiger’s Art League Workshop.

 

  • Special After-Hours Programming
    • Artists Alison Sigethy (Studio 307), Karen Fitzgerald (Studio 203), and Jen Athanas (Studio 320) create a chandelier from recycled plastic water bottles with elements like eyeglass lenses contributed by Upcycle Creative Reuse Center.
    • 6:15 – 7:15 pm; 7:30 – 8:30 pm: Live music with Hearts & Spades.

 

About The Alexandria Archaeology Museum
The Alexandria Archaeology Museum opened in 1984 in the newly renovated Torpedo Factory Art Center.  The museum serves as the hub of the City’s archaeology program where visitors interact with archaeologists and volunteers working in the public laboratory; experience Alexandria’s 13,000 year-old-history through exhibits, self-guided tours, and hands-on activities; and view the latest finds from current excavations.  For more information, go to www.alexandriaarchaeology.org.

About The Art League
Founded in 1954, The Art League, Inc., a 501(c)(3) organization, is among the nation’s largest and oldest multi-service organizations for visual artists. As a major component of the cultural fabric of Alexandria, The Art League offers extensive exhibit opportunities for artists through its gallery, outstanding fine art education through the school, and valuable outreach programs to the local community. The Art League is headquartered in the landmark Torpedo Factory Art Center.

About Target Gallery
Target Gallery is the contemporary exhibition space for the Torpedo Factory Art Center. The gallery promotes high standards of art by continuously exploring new ideas through a variety of visual media in a rotating schedule of national and international exhibitions. The gallery is open daily from 10-6 pm and until 9 pm on Thursdays.

About the Torpedo Factory Art Center
Founded in 1974 in an old munitions plant, the Torpedo Factory Art Center is home to the largest number of publicly accessible working artist studios in the U.S. The organization’s mission is to foster connections between artists and the public that ignite the creative spirit. Just south of Washington, D.C., the Torpedo Factory Art Center overlooks the Potomac River in the Old Town section of Alexandria, Va. Each year, a half million national and international visitors meet and interact with more than 200 Torpedo Factory Artists’ Association resident and associate members in 82 working studios and seven galleries. The Torpedo Factory Art Center is also home to The Art League School and the Alexandria Archaeology Museum. For more information visit torpedofactory.org  or follow the Torpedo Factory Art Center on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram via @torpedofactory.

About the Torpedo Factory Artists’ Association
The Torpedo Factory Artists’ Association (TFAA) is a thriving artist community dedicated to opening our active workplaces to public visits: Working artists, open studios.

About Upcycle Creative Reuse Center
UpCycle Creative Reuse Center is an Alexandria-based non-profit that connects creativity and conservation by providing an arts materials resource center and a creative making space for our community. At UpCycle, we rethink our notion of waste, collecting cast-offs from our community to serve as creative art materials. Our programs and activities encourage creativity, critical thinking, innovation and environmentally sustainable behavior.

UpCycle’s Spring2ACTion fundraising focus is to expand UpCycle’s outreach to serve over 2,500 students in Alexandria schools during the 2016-17 school year. By participating in UpCycle’s creative reuse programs, students innovate and create with reuse materials and learn to make better decisions about how to manage waste at school and at home. Science and Visual Arts Standards of Learning are reinforced in an instructional environment that is hands-on and fun!

For more information about UpCycle and its Spring2ACTion fundraising plans, please visit www.UpCycleCRC.org

 

 

Second Thursday Art Night

Enjoy an special after-hours event at the Torpedo Factory Art Center every month. Browse open studios and galleries, interact with artists, and enjoy special programming. Stop by on your way to dinner and make an evening of it!

The Torpedo Factory Art Center celebrates the legacy of women in the arts during Women’s History Month. Of the 132 resident artists in the Torpedo Factory, more than 100 of them are women. Throughout the night, visitors are encourage to participate in the broader national conversation on this subject by posting on social media with the hashtag #5womenartists, created by the National Museum of Women in the Arts.

The night also features a host of new exhibitions, live music, button making, and a peek into the life of an Alexandria socialite who became a Confederate spy.

Target Gallery (Studio 2)

  • The 6th Annual March150 exhibition fundraiser will be taking place in Target Gallery. Find works by local artists on sale for $150 each, with proceeds benefiting future programs and special exhibitions.
  • Members of the Factory Society, the Torpedo Factory’s young-professionals network, will sell special discounted tickets for the March150 Art Party on Friday, March 18.
  • Visitors are also encouraged to cast votes for the People’s Choice Award, to be announced during the Art Party on March 18.

 The Alexandria Archaeology Museum (Studio 327)

  • 7 and 8 pm: In celebration of Women’s History Month, the Alexandria Archaeology Museum will highlight Rose O’Neal Greenhow, Alexandria socialite and Confederate spy. Her coded messages and hand-drawn maps of Northern Virginia will be on view and city archaeologist Benjamin Skolnik shares further insight into her life and mission during the Civil War.

The Art League (Studio 21)

  • Two new exhibitions will be on view in The Art League Gallery. Fritz DesRoches: The Caribbean—How Beautiful features DeRoches’ airbrushed work that highlights Caribbean culture, particularly of Haiti. Zoma Wallace juried March’s Open Exhibit, which features work by Art League artists in all media.

Torpedo Factory Artists

  • The Associates Gallery (Studio 311): Reception for Julia Dzikiewicz: Contradictions.
  • Multiple Exposures Gallery (Studio 312): Photographer Timothy Hyde’s exhibition Washington Daybreak explores early morning in the District.
  • Site 2 and 3 (Hallways near the elevator on 2nd and 3rd floors): Reception for Exploring Abstraction, featuring student work as part of Beverly Ryan’s (Studio 333) painting class with The Art League.
  • Potomac Fiber Arts (Studio 29): Salute to Primary Colors: Red, Yellow and Blue, the gallery’s first show in its new location.
  • Scope Gallery (Studio 19): Global ceramics in Cultural Connectivity includes a collection of American Indian, Asian, African, Latin, and European styles of clay art.

 Special After-Hours Programming

    • 6:15 – 7:15 pm; 7:30 – 8:30 pm: Live jazz music with 2nd Independence.
    • All evening, design, create, and wear a custom button at the DIY station on the 3rd floor landing.
    • Celebrate the contribution of women in the arts by adding names, comments, thoughts, and drawings to the lobby magnet wall.

Second Thursday Art Night

#2ndThurs

Enjoy an special after-hours event at the Torpedo Factory Art Center every month. Browse open studios and galleries, interact with artists, and enjoy special programming. Stop by on your way to dinner and make an evening of it!

This month during Second Thursday, we celebrate the past and present of Alexandria.

 The Alexandria Archaeology Museum

The new PBS series Mercy Street is centered in Alexandria during the Civil War. One of the main characters is based on the real Emma Green. See her photo and learn about her relationship with Frank Stringfellow in The Real Emma & Frank: Alexandria’s Civil War Sweethearts.

The Mansion House Hospital was one of many military hospitals in town. In Old Town Alexandria’s Civil War Hospitals, learn about buildings you walk by every day and probably had no idea of their importance during the Civil War.

Target Gallery

Trending: Contemporary Art Now is new this month. Target Gallery partnered with the Women’s Caucus for Art to present the exhibition as part of WCA’s 2016 national conference in Washington, D.C. It features work by 12 self-identified women who are driving the direction of contemporary art and offers a cross-section of media to reflect the leading edge of contemporary art, including video, collage, 3D photography, found objects, installation, and more. The exhibition also includes an online gallery and catalog featuring additional works.

The Art League

In advance of The Art League’s upcoming Patron’s Show fundraiser on Sunday, February 14, The Art League Gallery features a preview exhibition with the work that will be available. It’s a great opportunity for attendees to build a wishlist.

The Associates Gallery (TAG)

Color and Shape opens in The Associates Gallery (studio 311) and features work by painters Jill Finsen and Barbara Muth.

Special After-Hours Programming

  • The artists of the Torpedo Factory Art Center are inviting the community to share their love for art with a community collage on the magnet wall by the Union Street entrance. Create a mini collage on the 3rd floor, then take a portrait of your work before adding it to the wall. At the end of the evening, see the collage grow and review the online photo album to see everyone’s individual contributions.
  • Classical guitarist David Toves provides the soundtrack for the evening with sets at 6:15 – 7:15 pm and 7:30 – 8:30 pm.

 

Second Thursday Art Night

Enjoy an special after-hours event at the Torpedo Factory Art Center every month. Browse open studios and galleries, interact with artists, and enjoy special programming. Stop by on your way to dinner and make an evening of it!

  • 6 – 9 pm: 
    • Four hands-on silkscreen stations will be located throughout the building to allow visitors to create a one-of-a-kind four-color print. Find the final station in the Alexandria Archaeology Museum (studio 327).
  • 6 – 7 pm; 8 – 8:45 pm:
    • Cat Janice performs her original jazzy/alternative rock songs throughout the evening.
  • 7 pm:
    • Visitors are encouraged to bring in items to photocopy and experiment with Xerography in Target Gallery’s (studio 2) current exhibition, Printed Matter.
  • 7:30 pm:
    • The Art League Gallery (studio 21) hosts openings for Muted, featuring works subtle works that softly represent their subjects, and the Solo Preview 2016, which offers a glimpse of the nine artists who will have solo shows this year.