The students of McLean will take center stage in two new arts exhibitions set to open next month.
To celebrate Youth Art Month, which is typically held every March, the McLean Project for the Arts (MPA) is bringing back its annual youth art shows, which showcase work by students in elementary through high school in the McLean and Langley pyramids.
The first show, focused on the McLean High School pyramid, will be available for viewing at MPA’s gallery in the McLean Community Center (1234 Ingleside Avenue) starting next Monday (March 4) and continuing through March 16. A reception to mark the exhibition’s opening is scheduled for Thursday, March 6 at 4:30-6 p.m.
Students in the Langley High School pyramid will then get their turn in the spotlight with a show from March 19-26. There will be an opening reception on March 20 at 4:30-6 p.m.
Both shows are open to “all friends of the arts,” MPA says. The initiative is sponsored by two local real estate agents: HBC Group Keller Williams principal Lizzy Conroy and The Prendergast Team founder Marianne Prendergast.
MPA’s gallery is open on Mondays through Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. While the youth art shows are on display, the gallery will have extended hours of 1-4 p.m. on Sundays (March 9, 16 and 23).
Youth Art Month was started in 1961 by the Art & Creative Materials Institute, an international association of art supply manufacturers, to celebrate kids participating in the visual arts. The campaign is now organized nationwide by the Council for Art Education, a nonprofit created by the institute in 1984.
The McLean Project for the Arts, a nonprofit that offers educational programs as well as regular art exhibitions, is in the midst of a capital campaign to raise funds for a new arts center at The Signet condominiums in downtown McLean.
Along with additional galleries, the facility will have educational space, a ceramics studio, administrative offices and a cafe with an outdoor terrace.
The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors approved a $500,000 contribution last year, but the nonprofit estimates that its expansion plans will cost a total of $7.2 million, including $5 million to build out the 6,000-square-foot space.
