One Day My Soul Just Opened Up Art Exhibition

On view until March 15 

Takoma Park Community Center

7500 Maple Avenue 

Four Black female artists will share their diverse range of work exploring the spiritual world views of African heritage in a new Takoma Park Arts exhibition titled One Day My Soul Just Opened Up: African-American Women and the Black Sacred Cosmos. The featured artists include Debra Jean Ambush, Nikki Brooks, Joan M. E. Gaither, and Anike Robinson.

The exhibition is curated by Brendan Smith, the City of Takoma Park’s arts and humanities coordinator. “I usually choose the theme for an exhibition, but I asked the artists to collaborate on the focus of this show since the work is deeply personal to them and their shared experiences,” he said.

The exhibition addresses a distinct variety of viewpoints regarding the notion of a Black Sacred Cosmos, a time-honored reverential space in which the realm of ancestors and the divine inspire resilience and memory among their descendants. As an expression of how we perceive our sustaining spiritual centers, this convening of an Afro-Futuristic ‘visual dance’ invites viewers to consider the imprint of the African-centered aesthetic on our daily lives.

Debra Ambush, PhD, is an artist and researcher who lives in Ijamsville, Md. Through the mediums of printmaking, painting, and mixed media, her figurative and landscape work expresses family narratives about her experiences growing up during the Civil Rights Movement, as well as examining the vital importance of family, faith, and heritage as a source of resiliency.

Nikki Brooks, who was born in Brooklyn and raised in Spotsylvania County, Va., creates installations and assemblage infused with digital and audio elements, paintings, sculpted text, and collage. Her work focuses on social activism and art that encourages viewers to explore the interconnected forms of writing, storytelling, and shared dialogue.

Joan M. E. Gaither, PhD, is a native Baltimorean who helped integrate local schools and businesses during the Civil Rights Movement. In more than 300 quilts, she has used meaningful fabrics, traditional patterns, collaged text, and images to tell narrative personal stories and collective histories that need to be remembered.

D.C.-based artist Anike Robinson delves deeply into Black cultures and histories across time and geographies to engage in conversations about home, memory, ritual, representation, and gender. Her Gris Gris Gurlz mixed-media series tells the stories of Black people who escaped the death camps of the South for the autonomy of maroon societies.

This exhibition, which will be on view until March 15, is part of the Takoma Park Arts series organized by the City’s Arts and Humanities Division. The series includes free art exhibitions, film screenings, poetry readings, concerts, theater, and dance performances at the Takoma Park Community Center. Go to takomaparkmd.gov/arts for more info and to sign up for our e-newsletter.

ENVIRONMENT(S) Art Opening Reception

Thursday, Oct. 6 at 7:30 pm

Takoma Park Community Center

7500 Maple Avenue

UNSUNG HEROES Art Opening Reception
Thursday, July 28 at 7:30 pm 
Takoma Park Community Center
7500 Maple Avenue 

Local artist Renee Lachman is honoring City of Takoma Park employees whose important work often goes unnoticed in a new series of paintings and charcoal drawings. Sanitation workers, gardeners, crossing guards, and library staff are featured in her artwork.

“During the COVID-19 pandemic, we’ve celebrated the work of doctors, nurses, and firefighters. I wanted to highlight Takoma Park’s other unsung heroes,” Lachman said.

The opening reception at the Takoma Park Community Center is free and open to everyone. The exhibition is supported by a grant from the City’s Arts and Humanities Division. Go to takomaparkmd.gov/arts to learn more about our Takoma Park Arts events series and to sign up for our e-newsletter.

Takoma Park has moved closer to the Caribbean since colorful coral reefs have magically appeared inside two local bus shelters.

Vinyl wraps featuring a lively aquatic design have been installed on glass panels at the bus shelters to enliven community spaces and encourage public transportation. The City of Takoma Park’s Arts and Humanities Division organized the project using public art funds.

“We wanted to create a fun scene that would brighten people’s day while they’re walking by or waiting for the bus,” Arts and Humanities Coordinator Brendan Smith said. “They are the first bus shelters where you can sit next to tropical fish and sea turtles without holding your breath.”

Arts and Humanities Intern Paula Barrios designed the wraps which were installed on shelters at the ALDI shopping center at 1300 Holton Lane and at the intersection of Maple Avenue and Hilltop Road.

Grab a face mask and snorkel and dive in! Take some photos of yourself exploring the coral reefs and share them on the City of Takoma Park’s Twitter page at twitter.com/takomaparkmd and Instagram at instagram.com/TakomaParkMD.

Vinyl wraps promoting the Takoma Park Arts series also have been installed on three additional bus shelters. The wraps feature artwork and former performers in the Takoma Park Arts series, which features free arts events at the Takoma Park Community Center. Two shelters are located at the intersection of Flower Avenue and Houston Avenue, and the third shelter is next to Piney Branch Elementary School at 7510 Maple Avenue.

Go to takomaparkmd.gov/arts for more info about the Takoma Park Arts series and sign up for our e-newsletter.

Stone Sculpture by Michelle Frazier 

Takoma Park Community Center 

7500 Maple Avenue 

Sculptures chiseled and carved in stone by artist Michelle Frazier are on display at the Takoma Park Community Center.

Frazier brings faces, bodies and abstract shapes to life through her sculpture of soapstone and alabaster across a range of natural colors. The exhibition, which is part of the City’s Takoma Park Arts cultural series, is on display in glass cases near the library in the Community Center.

“When I carve a face or figure into the stone, I am guided by the shape of the stone,” Frazier said. “I carve the stone into familiar forms, carrying with them an emotional charge; the forms are beautiful, the stone transformed. With a familiar shape on the stone, the eyes can look in and see this layered inner beauty.”

Frazier received her MFA from the Maryland Institute College of Art and her BFA from the Corcoran School of Art. She teaches art classes for teens and adults with special needs at the Arlington County Department of Parks and Recreation.  You can see more of her artwork at stonewomynarts.com.

Where can you see the Orfeia vocal ensemble, Dong Xi duet, and artwork made from delicate fabric or battered musical instruments?

The performers and artwork were featured in the City of Takoma Park’s Takoma Park Arts cultural series, and they appear now on vinyl wraps that have been installed on glass panels at three new local bus shelters. The public art project is beautifying bus shelters and promoting the Takoma Park Arts series, which includes free City-funded art exhibitions, concerts, poetry readings, film screenings, theater, and other events at the Takoma Park Community Center at 7500 Maple Avenue.

“We want to get the word out about the many free events we host at the Takoma Park Community Center, and bus shelters are a great place to do that,” Arts and Humanities Coordinator Brendan Smith said.

The wraps, which were designed by Arts and Humanities Intern Paula Barrios, are located on a new bus shelter at Piney Branch Elementary School at 7510 Maple Avenue and two shelters at the intersection of Flower Avenue and Houston Avenue. The featured artwork was created by Jacqui Crocetta and Seemeen Hashem, and the wraps were printed and installed by Signarama Silver Spring.

The project is part of the City’s Public Art Works initiative which installs public art projects across the city in conjunction with public works efforts. Other projects include the Art on the Move bus shelter poster series featuring artwork by artists in upcoming Takoma Park Arts exhibitions and a sidewalk poetry program where poems by local residents are being stamped into new concrete sidewalks.

The Arts and Humanities Division also is creating a different design that will be installed at a later date on two more bus shelters. Please go to takomaparkmd.gov/arts for more info about the Takoma Park Arts series, our public art projects, and to sign up for our e-newsletter.

Realm of the Real

Takoma Park Community Center

7500 Maple Avenue 

On Display until July 15 

The Realm of the Real exhibition showcases the figurative artwork of three local artists who explore different aspects and interpretations of the human form, ranging from graceful dancers to historical figures to more abstract representations. The artists include Sarah Louise Hyde, Michael Hyman, and Michael G. Stewart.

Hyde’s paintings of dancers reveal swirling forms, elegant gestures, and the unspoken rhythms of motion. She served on the faculty of the Corcoran School of Art and showed her work in the D.C. area before her death from brain cancer in 2007. Her husband Jack Kline has been sharing her work with a wider audience as “a visual remembrance and memorial to her energy, creativity, and enthusiasm,” he said.

Hyman is a Black artist whose work encompasses painting, digital 3D sculpture, video installation, and photography. “I’m most excited about creating pieces in the range of Negritude Art with linear narratives embedded in social and political abstractions,” he said. “I hope to fascinate, educate, and enlighten the viewer with my work.” Negritude began in the 1930s as a literary movement among French-speaking African and Caribbean writers who asserted the power of Black identity and a rejection of colonialism.

Stewart’s career as an architectural and aerial photographer helped him translate his artistic vision into more personal mediums, such as drawing, etching, and linocuts. He worked for 20 years as a photographer for the National Endowment for the Arts.

This art exhibition is part of the Takoma Park Arts cultural series, which includes free film screenings, poetry readings, concerts, theater performances, and other events at the Takoma Park Community Center.  Go to takomaparkmd.gov/arts for more info and to sign up for our e-newsletter.

The Takoma ARTery arts group has launched a new artist directory featuring artwork and info about local artists. The creation of the directory was funded in part by a grant from the City’s Arts and Humanities Division to support the local creative community, their small businesses, and economic development in Takoma Park.

“The City of Takoma Park has a long track record of supporting the arts through our Takoma Park Arts events series and a wide range of public art projects,” Arts and Humanities Coordinator Brendan Smith said. “We also work with local arts organizations, and the Takoma ARTery has done a lot of great work in a short time bringing artists together to support their livelihoods.”

A group of volunteers started the Takoma ARTery during the COVID-19 pandemic to feature artwork by local artists in underused storefronts in downtown Takoma Park and at the Takoma Junction. City grants also helped fund the group’s start-up costs and the ARTery’s first art fair that was held last summer outside the Takoma Park Community Center.

“The financial and staff support from the City have helped transform the ARTery from an innovative pandemic-related arts project into a vibrant artist community which is boosting the creative economy,” ARTery co-founder Eleanor Landstreet said.

Artists will be charged a $70 annual fee to be featured in the directory to help offset the ARTery’s ongoing expenses. Some fee waivers will be available based on income. There is more info on the ARTery website.

Crafted from plastic newspaper delivery bags and reused straws, a large art installation with an environmental message has been suspended from the ceiling in the Takoma Park Community Center.

The artwork by D.C. artist Jessica Beels critiques our careless consumption of disposable products which can cause serious environmental harms. Beels fused dozens of plastic newspaper delivery bags into 20 colorful flag-like grids which are connected by straightened metal clothes hangers and reused plastic straws.

“I am intrigued by the large destructive environmental impacts caused by our small decisions,” Beels said. “Newspaper bags and straws often aren’t recycled, and they can become microplastics in our oceans where they can disrupt entire ecosystems.”

The artwork was purchased by the City of Takoma Park’s Arts and Humanities Division using public art funds.

“We’re excited to add this meaningful artwork to the City’s permanent art collection,” Arts and Humanities Coordinator Brendan Smith said. “The installation illustrates the City’s commitment to public art and protecting the environment.”

The installation was previously displayed at the Takoma Park Community Center in 2019 during the Art of Evolution exhibition. It will be on display indefinitely in the atrium at the community center at 7500 Maple Avenue. The center’s operating hours are posted on the City’s website.

Beels creates sculptural work which usually addresses environmental themes. Her work has been shown at Strathmore Mansion, Black Rock Center for the Arts, and other venues. You can see more of her artwork at materialworld.studio.