Five Brave Women Form New Arts Alliance in Historic Downtown Vienna Virginia
Recession blues are not stopping these five brave women from pursuing their dreams of operating an art business in the heart of historic downtown Vienna, Virginia. In the past year and a half, five businesses: Ayrhill Gallery, Maverick Mosaics, The Soundry, Applegate Gallery and Red Caboose Gallery & the Vienna Studio School have opened their doors to the Vienna community. Each business has a unique vision and mission. Collectively they have formed an alliance, the Arts Alliance of Vienna , which they call “the AAV” to invigorate an awareness and growth of a township style community arts scene. AAV ‘s mission is to develop a creative culture of art businesses and artists and give back to their community by hosting charitable events. Operation Pine Cone is one of those community outreach programs that the five are involved with this fall. OPC Supports Our Service Members and Their Families and AAV will be collecting holiday cards and notes to be forwarded by OPC in December. For more information on OPC www.operationpinecone.org, for details and to be added to AAV's mailing list please go to www.joanmariegiampa.com/Arts-alliance-Vienna/index
Ayrhill Gallery
Ayr Hill Gallery is a fine arts gallery that features painting and sculpture, and glass of nationally known and contemporary and emerging local American artists. In addition, the gallery is pleased to offer a small collection of exclusive wearable art and estate jewelry. We are located in the heart of the town of Vienna, Virginia, at 141 Historic Church Street. The name of the gallery reflects the town’s heritage—the area which is now Vienna was known as Ayr Hill for about 90 years, until the late 1850s. Vienna resident Gail Roberts is the owner and director of Ayr Hill Gallery. She received her Bachelors degree in Art History and Masters of Public Administration from George Mason University. Ms. Roberts worked previously at the National Gallery of Art, Smithsonian Archives of American Art, and National Museum of American Art, and also as an art consultant in Great Falls, Virginia. Ayr Hill Gallery is proud to have provided work in various local and Vienna homes and public domains from California to Delaware.
Additionally, Ayr Hill Gallery will be partnering with the nonprofit organization, Eagles Watch Foundation, to provide Art Therapy Classes to Military children and families as well as the general public in the rear of the gallery. Gallery hours are 11-5 Tuesday-Saturday, and by appointment or by chance, Sundays. For more information, please contact, Gail Roberts at
703-938-3880
Maverick Mosaics
Maverick Mosaics is an educational art studio, dedicated to nurturing and expanding creative expression through the art of mosaics. Maverick Mosaics creates public and private commissions in its ongoing mission to further expand the awareness and appreciation of mosaics as an art form. Voted "Best Arts & Crafts Studio" Northern Virginia Magazine, June 2009.
Owned and operated by Bonnie Fitzgerald, Maverick Mosaics offers classes for all ages and skill levels. They also host regular "open studio" times, a unique opportunity for anyone to take part in a community of like-minded people who are passionate to learn and to create mosaic art. Open Studio is an on-going opportunity where multi-level students work on projects in various stages of completion.
After 10 years working from a small home studio Maverick Mosaics moved their studio to historic Church, a search that went on for several years for just the right location. Creating a sense of community is the foundation of Maverick's business.
In addition to on-going classes and open studio times Maverick Mosaics brings visiting artists from around the world to teach specialized workshops. Visiting artists include faculty from the Chicago Mosaic School, the Institute of Mosaic Art (Oakland, California) and Liana Shafer, a cultural treasure living in Israel. Ms. Fitzgerald is a graduate of New College in Sarasota, Florida with a B.A. in Humanities, her focus in college was monumental sculpture. In 2006 she earned Master in Mosaico certification at Orsoni Smalti Veneziani in Venice, Italy and has taken numerous other continuing education courses and workshops including programs at UCLA, USC, The Corcoran School of Art, Smithsonian Institution and has studied extensively with world-renowned mosaic artists.
Applegate
Applegate gallery (formerly Oakton Art & Framing) has been open for 5.5 years, 1 year in its current location. We moved from our old location to Church street specifically because of the preponderance of art in the area. Our gallery carries all local artists and all original artwork by those artists. We carry a wide range of media including oil and acrylic paintings, photography, lithographs, etchings, woodblock prints, mixed media works and pen & ink. The Owner’s own background is in the arts. Besides framing for the past 10 years, Applegate has a bachelors of Fine Arts in printmaking from the Maryland Institute College of Art. Her own work shows in the gallery as well. She loves framing, came into it on a whim, and originally opened her shop to be able to see artwork every day and support the huge artist’s community that we have locally.
The Soundry:
Not even a year old, The Soundry was a dream of Jennifer Crawford and her husband, Thor Berglie. After 2 years of looking for a space to house an artist community and coffee house, they were getting increasingly discouraged. "Most of the industrial areas were either being bought up by developers or were in areas we just didn't feel were safe. We eventually stumbled on our current location while walking on the bike trail. I liked that we would be on the bike trail and that we could attract bikers and walkers into the coffee shop and gallery." says Crawford.
Although Crawford had been an entrepreneur since the age of nineteen, she had never owned a brick and mortar business, much less converted a garage. "There wasn't a book to tell us how to do it and no one could tell us how much the build out would cost. In the meantime, the economy collapsed and the banks that admired our business plan, ultimately wouldn't give us a loan. There were a never ending list of obstacles--eventually, pure stubbornness prevailed and we cut our budget, depleted our savings and went for it. It took us a year and 13 days to open the doors.
A former auto body shop, The Soundry is now home to a coffee house, working studio space, rehearsal space, classroom, industrial art gallery and even a stage. Described as a "gym" for creative people, The Soundry is both a private club for its member artists and musicians as well as an intriguing space for the public. The Soundry is proud of its "underground" reputation and was even featured in the Washington Post for its underground nightlife which includes weekly open mics, record listening parties, affordable workshops, bluegrass jams and a poetry night.
Simply put, the mission of The Soundry is to get artists, indie crafters and musicians out of their basements and into the community by providing affordable space and support. It helps the artists and it benefits the community at large. We're for people who want to start taking their art more seriously, and for people who want to support that expression in our community.
Red Caboose Gallery
And finally, the baby on the block, Red Caboose Gallery & Vienna Studio School. Artist, owner and teacher, Joan Marie Giampa, opened her gallery this past August with a sixteen year retrospective. Giampa, a veteran of the DC arts scene, is known for her exhibitions such as “The Smell of Colors” and “13 Fish” at the Foundry Gallery in DuPont circle. Giampa has been exhibiting her work professionally since 1993. Her work is in private collections throughout the United States and Europe. Last year she was selected to be in Mary Washington University's annual Mid-Atlantic Painting Exhibition. The exhibition was curated by John Ravenal, curator for the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. Another exhibition I was invited to display my work in last year was "Virginia Painters Process Unveiled”, Rawls Museum, Courtland Virginia.
Over the past several years, Joan has been working on a series of images called “Earth Objects”. The objects, usually pods, are collected during my walks through the woods in the early morning. Recently the work has evolved into a process I call “Image Archaeology”. My new work is more focused on the origins of the found object in its native environment and the organic patterns found within the object. I am passionate about the structure of design in nature and the underlying structure of painting.
The Red Caboose Gallery will feature emerging regional and national artists. Giampa is especially interested in showing recent MFA, graduates from area schools.
Giampa call hers Studio School “a fine arts school for the new millennium.” She opened her studio alongside of her classroom to foster an environment of open dialogue between herself and her students. It gives students a rare glimpse of their teacher working and teaching. Giampa sees her school as an incubator for the creative spirit. She combine’s artistic production with a gallery venue to complete the cycle of production and exhibition viewing. Her mission is to provide an artistic environment that fosters the growth of the individual in pursuit of their creative process.
703-349-7178
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