Arlington Art Truck
The Arlington Art Truck season 3 kicks off April 2020 delivering interactive art projects to where you live, work, and play! Photo © Ellman studio, LLC
The Arlington Art Truck is a curated mobile tool box for artists-in-residence to engage the public from April to October in interactive art projects designed to blur the line between participant and presenter, citizen and government. The Arlington Art Truck was nominated for the 2019 Robert E. Gard Award from Americans for the Arts and launched in 2018 with a National Endowment for the Arts grant.
Learn more about the Arlington Art Truck 2020 season below and see the past seasons here and learn about previous projects that informed this programming.
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2020 Activations
Words to Art Spring 2020
An Arlington Community Art Project by Sushmita Mazumdar
Monday, April 27th – Sunday, May 24th
Give artists ONE WORD expressing your feelings and perception of the #COVID19 quarantine and watch them transform it into art! Arlington Arts will ask you to post new words every Monday for the next four weeks. Artist Sushmita Mazumdar and four other Arlington artists will turn select words from your submissions into original sketches to be posted on our social media throughout the weekend. The finished works will be posted on Sushmita’s website, Studio Pause.
Make your own artwork expressing a word at home and post it with #WordsToArtArlington. You can also share it at home in your window, or as chalk art on the sidewalk!
This project was originally designed by Sushmita Mazumdar in 2018 for Art on the ART Bus. The 2020 version takes a new angle by asking you to collaborate.
Participating artists:
Sushmita Mazumdar (Buckingham)
David Amoroso (Douglas Park)
Maribeth Egan (Ballston/Virginia Square)
Kate Fleming (Maywood)
MasPaz (Arlington Ridge)
Virtual Artist Talk and Reception
Wednesday, June 10th, 7 P.M.
Join us in a Zoom reception and talk. Find the invitation in Facebook.
Greetings from Our Microbiome! by Shelly Smith
Tuesday, July 7 – Monday, August 31, 2020
Due to the pandemic, we were not on the streets of Arlington for this activation. It was redesigned as a social media project and virtual artist talk.
The work of Arlington artist Shelly Smith focuses on microscopic life found in water and soil. The artist has illustrated five postcards, featuring the diversity of microorganisms found in five different bodies of water in Arlington, including a bog, vernal pool, and stream. Come examine the living creatures through a microscope, paint the postcards yourself, and then mail them to friends.
Water run-off from our yards and streets not only affects the health of our waterways but it also impacts the larger ecosystem, including trees and plants. The Office of Sustainability and Environmental Management is our community partner, and the postcards share how we can be better stewards of the natural environment by reducing stormwater runoff and pollution at home.
Virtual Art Activation
Tuesday, July 7th – Thursday, August 11th
Explore Arlington’s waterways with Ballston neighborhood artist Shelly Smith. Check the Arlington Art Truck Instagram or Arlington Arts’ Instagram, Facebook or Twitter account July 7 – August 11 to sign up for free postcard packs we will mail to you. The pack will have a mix of color and black and white postcards of which you can color-in yourself and mail to your friends! Choose English or Spanish or a combination.
Virtual Artist Talk
Tuesday, July 28th, 6:30-7:30 P.M.
Join us for the Greetings from Our Microbiome virtual artist presentation. The presentation will take place via Zoom and include a short Q&A. Sign up for the presentation here and we will email you a link and passcode a few days prior to the talk.
Science Sketch Along @ the Virtual Arlington County Fair on Facebook Live (pre-recorded)
Saturday, August 15th, 10 A.M.
Bring your favorite art supplies and join Arlington Art Truck program artist Shelly Smith for a fun drawing session featuring Arlington’s amazing microorganisms. We’ll sketch from images taken with Shelly’s microscope as we learn more about her summer project, Greetings from Our Microbiome, including how to protect our waterways and engage in citizen science. Go to the Arlington Art Truck Instagram or Arlington Arts’ Instagram, Facebook or Twitter for more information. View the video below!
FREE “TAKE AND MAKE” PICK UP LOCATION:
Wednesday, August 5, 9-11:30 A.M., Our Lady Queen of Peace Food Pantry pick up, 2700 19th St South
Science Sketch Along
Vote by Stephen Powers
Wednesday, October 14 and Thursday, October 15, 2020
Stephen Powers, the artist who painted the Arlington Art Truck, designed a sign encouraging everyone to vote. We were fortunate to get a handful of these signs for free and will be distributing at the below locations.
Wednesday, October 14, 6-8pm, Shirlington Dog Park, 2710 S Oakland Street
Thursday, October 15, 12-4pm, Central Library, 1015 N Quincy Street
Thursday, October 15, 5-8pm, Powhatan Springs Skatepark, 6020 Wilson Blvd.
Flight by Greg Stewart
October and November, 2020
Due to the pandemic, we presented a mini activation of Greg Stewart’s project, “Flight”. The Arlington Art Truck offered free seed bird sculpture “Take and Make” kits at the below locations. We look forward to implementing the full version of this project(as described below) after the pandemic.
Learn about the birds that migrate through our area each autumn, and those that are threatened by loss of habitat in Virginia. Artist Greg Stewart and a team of James Madison University students will be on-hand to facilitate your artmaking. You can select from a library of laser cut names of fall migrating birds, then stencil them onto the ground with sifted soil and create a bird sculpture with clay and native seeds in the shape of the threatened birds to take and plant.
Our community partner for this project is Arlington County’s Urban Forestry and Natural Resources Management Offices, who will offer you tips on tree care, wildlife and ecosystem management, grant opportunities for free trees and will be sharing information and collecting input from the public on their Urban Forest Master Plan and Natural Resources Management Plan revision. The Urban Forest Master Plan addresses the conservation, planting and maintenance of trees in Arlington County, preserving a healthy ecosystem, and the Natural Resources Management Plan looks to conserve and enhance the unique ecosystems in our parks.
This project is developed in partnership with James Madison University, Harrisonburg, Virginia.
MAKE & TAKE: A sculpture in the shape of threatened birds made of native Arlington seeds and clay to plant in your own yard. Stencil the names of migrating birds on the ground. View threatened birds through a 3D View-Master.
MEET: Greg Stewart, sculptor, students from James Madison University and Arlington County’s Arborist.
LEARN: About birds and trees of Arlington County, the Urban Forest Master Plan and Natural Resources Management Plan revision.
FREE “TAKE AND MAKE” PICK UP LOCATIONS:
Sunday, October 18, Westover Farmers Market, 8-noon, 1644 N. McKinley Road, (McKinley Road and Washington Blvd.),
Tuesday, October 20, Crystal City Farmers Market, 3-7 P.M. 2121 Crystal Drive , 3-7pm
Saturday, October 24, Lubber Run Farmers Market, 8-noon, 4401 N. Henderson Road (Henderson and George Mason Drive)
Saturday, November 7, Long Branch Nature Center, 9-1 P.M. 675 S Carlin Springs Road
Sunday, November 15, Fairlington Farmers Market, 9-1 P.M. 3308 S Stafford Street
2021 Activations
The Desegregation of Arlington Lunch Counters: 60th Anniversary Tribute by Amos Paul Kennedy, Jr.
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Arlington Art Truck’s first activation of the 2020 season was postponed until Spring 2021. While the public activation has been postponed until next year, those who ride the Art on the ART Bus can continue to draw inspiration, as Amos Kennedy’s work focusing on the desegregation of Arlington’s lunch counters in 1960 will continue to be on-display well into 2021.
Commemorate the lunch counter sit-ins that occurred in Arlington County as you letterpress cards with printer Amos Paul Kennedy, Jr., or Arlington printmaker Justyne Fischer. The sit-ins were peaceful protests that challenged widespread segregation policies. Kennedy has designed seven cards to commemorate the sit-in protests that occurred from June 9-22, 1960. A different quote from one of the participants or community members involved in the historic protests will be available to print at each activation. To collect all seven, visit the Arlington Art Truck each week! On site will be representatives from our community partner the Black Heritage Museum of Arlington offering information about their organization. Drop-in visitors at various activations will periodically include Joan Mulholland, Arlington resident, civil rights activist, and participant in the Arlington sit-ins as well as Serena Bolliger, Arlington’s Historic Preservation program staff.
For more information on the desegregation of lunch counters in Arlington, please go here.
This project is organized by the Arlington Art Truck, Arlington Public Art, programs of Arlington Arts in collaboration with the County’s Historic Preservation Program, Arlington Public Library’s Center for Local History and Arlington Transit’s Art on the ART bus program.
Learn more about Amos Paul Kennedy Jr.
MAKE & TAKE: A new letter-pressed card at each weekly location. Collect all seven!
MEET: Amos Paul Kennedy, Jr., Justyne Fischer, printers and a representative from the Black Heritage Museum of Arlington
LEARN: About the desegregation of Arlington’s lunch counters through seven sit-in protests that occurred from June 9-22, 1960.
Behind The Art Truck Design
Photo copyright 2017 Cynthia Connolly
The Arlington Art Truck’s exterior has colorful and witty illustrations hand painted by internationally renowned artist Stephen Powers. Stephen worked alongside Arlington Art Truck curator Cynthia Connolly to create a “parade of usual and unusual art supplies” including Cynthia’s saddle shoes and Leica camera as a nod to their collaboration. Paying homage to his start as a graffiti artist and tagger, the blank side of the Truck outlined in dotted lines will feature magnetic interchangeable letters in his signature style. About the Artist