Falls Church Arts: Cultural Hub at the Center of the City

Want to see flourishing and vibrant culture and community in the heart of downtown Falls Church? Well, Falls Church Arts (FCA) – a non-profit visual arts gallery and cultural hub in the center of the city – provides just that from The Kensington Building at 700-B West Broad Street. 

The Falls Church Independent spoke with Joe Wetzel, a Falls Church Arts founder and current president, about the organization’s founding, how it’s flourished over the years, and why it plays such a central role in building community and enhancing cultural vitality in The Little City and beyond.

Founded in 2003, FCA’s mission is to “ensure the arts are an essential part of the cultural environment,” of the city and has focused since its inception on the “visual arts, bringing exhibition opportunities and the chance to learn, share, and grow while reveling in the joy of making, sharing, and experiencing art.” An all-volunteer organization, FCA is “supported by the strong funding of its members and the generosity of corporate donors and the community at-large,” as well as by grants from the City of Falls Church and Arts Fairfax.

The Origin Story

Fittingly, it all began at the Falls Church Community Center, Wetzel said. “We’ve gone from nothing to something – with a visible presence – in what I think is a pretty remarkably short period of time, basically 20 years…. And, it all started, as you will, around a kitchen table at the Community Center.” Back in 2003, there was talk about a new Falls Church city-center and Wetzel and a small group of like-minded visual arts aficionados got together to brainstorm how to find their way into the new development.

A Vision

Wetzel’s vision for FCA was inspired. He and his founding cohorts were looking to create a space where visual artists could showcase their work, interact with the artistic community and receive helpful feedback.

But, it was also something deeper. “Art is what makes the soul sing. It’s the cream in your coffee. It’s what makes all of the hard work on all of the other things worthwhile… And, I think our membership growth demonstrates the need and the symbiotic kumbaya-ness that happens once you get that gathering [of artists and community] together.” 

Though the city-center development never came to pass, Falls Church Arts was soon up-and-running. At first, however, it was a real challenge to find gallery space. “We were gypsies and vagabonds for the first five or six years. We did find places to take over from time to time,” Wetzel recalled. “You know, in an empty storefront here or there. Don Beyer Volvo, for instance, would lend us their old showroom.” Then FCA teamed up with Art and Frame on Park Avenue. Then with Creative Cauldron theater, in the front of their new spaces on Maple Avenue. 

But, as the community theater grew (happily), Falls Church Arts was squeezed out. “So, in 2017, we were able to get the space [in] the gallery in the lower level of The Kensington,” Ketzel recalled. Because FCA pays a “significant amount of rent” for the space, the “generosity of others” is essential to allowing FCA to remain at the center of the city.

The central role of volunteers in FCA’s flourishing therefore particularly pleases Wetzel and other FCA Board members. “We love volunteers! We appreciate volunteers like no [one else] appreciates volunteers,” Wetzel gushed. “...We have almost 250-300 members and, of that… we have 75 or so at any given time actively doing something for us. It may not be the same 75 – because everybody’s life has needs – but it really spreads the enthusiasm and allows people to participate at a much deeper level than relying on just a few folks for everything… And, it’s fun. You know, it’s a need and a service that may not pull at your heartstrings, but it brings to the surface our very reason for being.” 

The proliferation of energetic volunteers allows for highly detailed logistical planning for FCA’s ambitious exhibition schedules and community programs. With all the planning behind the scenes, “it all looks so effortless,” Wetzel mused. “We’ve been careful and diligent to harness and focus the enthusiasm and not try to be everything to all people at exactly the same time… There’s a minutia [to all the work] that’s almost mind-boggling because all our members do so many things with so much gusto. So, for example, the same people who sit on the Exhibition Committee are not the same people who work on our Plein Air Festival – the outdoor painting festival we do annually.” A separate volunteer brigade runs the annual Halloween Window Painting events as well.

Taking Art Out of The Gallery and into The Community

Shaping the wider community’s cultural experience, beyond simply the gallery spaces, has become a central focus of FCA’s mission and a reason for their success. “It’s about all of those outreach efforts,” Wetzel said. 

“It’s the fact that we don’t contain ourselves just to the gallery walls. It’s that we do that Plein Air Festival where we draw participants not just from Falls Church, but painters from a much broader area. It’s that we do the Halloween Window Painting which is obviously not happening in the gallery, but rather all through the community. It’s that, just in the last year – and I’m proud of this one too – we started a scholarship fund for high school seniors who are pursuing the visual arts in higher education.” FCA provides a $1000 scholarship to let the aspiring arts student know that, “Yes, you are seen and don’t give up” on your dreams. 

“You’ll see for a couple of weeks” before the Plein Air festival, that “seemingly random people will be sitting and painting” around the city, “and then they come together for that culmination at the Community Center,” Wetzel said. And, the Halloween Window Painting is also “one of the most remarkable things” FCA “has going.” To paint shop windows along Broad Street for Halloween, the event brings together “Girl Scout and Boy Scout troops, moms and dads and the whole family, or even block parties getting together to take over a window. It’s really great!”

Over the years, Wetzel has marveled at how much artistic inspiration can be tapped throughout the community. “I find it amazing how many people are artists,” he said. “You would never have thought that one of the city’s planning directors [Jim Snyder], for example, is such a great watercolorist.” 

The View from the Chamber of Commerce 

Though Wetzel enjoys “drawing a bit," all of his “arts time” is taken up with his high-level work for FCA as well as the McLean Project for the Arts. But his wife, Catherine Day, is “an artist of some note,” he said. And the two have a running joke about how he serves as “her people” when she tells folks, “Sure I’d love to have a show. I’ll have my people hang it…”

Wetzel also wears other hats. By day, he’s a commercial real estate developer with the Young Group focusing on projects in the Little City. As a member and past president of the Falls Church Chamber of Commerce, he has a keen understanding of the symbiotic nature of business vibrancy and the arts. “Imagine you’re just finishing up your university work in Oregon and you’re at the top of your class and trying to decide where you go… You’re about to start raising a family, so you decide where to go based on how vibrant the community is… You want more than just a job. You want your new family to feel warm, loved and exhilarated. The arts will provide that… It’s part of intellectual creativity to want to be surrounded by creativity expressed in the arts.”

For a more in-depth view of what the arts mean to local business, go here for a brief sidebar from FCA.

Wetzel also commends the enthusiasm and creativity of FCA’s membership. When the e-newsletter goes out to over 2100 subscribers, the “open rate” is nearly 60 percent, a staggeringly high number. “That’s bizarre. I mean, I’m impressed by all that we do, but that alone just blows me away. Obviously, these are people who want to read what we’re sending them.”

Another of FCA’s major contributions to the community are the plentiful arts courses and summer camps they offer, expanding the center’s reach even further. “We do have classes in the gallery in the same spaces as the gallery space,” Wetzel said. “A pipe dream, of course, would be to have enough space to have dedicated classrooms…. And we run them for all ages, from little tiny kids and lots of summer camp-like activities, up to adults – and they’re not just classes, meaning scheduled 6-to-8 sessions in a particular direction – We also have one-day workshops on this, that, or the other thing. You know, how to do paper-cutting or how to decorate a Ukrainian egg. They’re all very popular. And, given where we are in The Kensington, which, as you know, is a retirement community, we also run memory care classes… Sally Evans is the woman who runs those and she’s a trained professional and does a great job.” 

Fostering an ‘Anti-Snooty Environment’

Above all, Wetzel is proud that Falls Church Arts is able to “show great art in an anti-snooty environment.” Sadly, the “visual arts exhibition community often has a snooty atmosphere attached to it, but Falls Church Arts is not that. I think anyone who’s interested will find it welcoming at many different levels, either just as a passerby, somebody who might come into the gallery to enjoy what’s on the walls, or somebody with a little more energy that we can tap and put to work for one thing or another. “

Not only is there no pressure to sell or buy artworks, the organization’s commitment to rotating curators, judges, and “outside third parties who are experts in their own fields” assures a more open and less cliquish gallery atmosphere. “So, you're always getting fresh eyes on fresh submissions.” 

Upcoming Exhibition

Opening April 20 and running through June 9 – and free and open to the public – 61 “artworks from an equal number of artists will be on exhibit” when FCA introduces an all-media art show on the theme: “Flora and Fauna: Thriving or Threatened.” The exhibit will open with an “evening reception” on Saturday, April 20, from 7-9:00 p.m. Exhibiting artists will be “on hand to share their process and inspiration” and the Juror’s Choice Award will be announced. 

Artists were asked to “submit work that celebrates the beauty and diversity of the natural world or explores the challenges it faces.”

Bryan Jernigan, a “renowned artist and instructor,” will serve as the Juror for the show. “I was blown away by the number of works as well as the quality of the entries,” Jernigan said, per a press release from Falls Church Arts. “My goal for the show was to get as much artistic representation as possible, so I chose one piece from each of the artists represented. One of the most exciting things about this show is the breadth of mediums presented. It’s not just about paintings. It’s about paintings in oils, acrylics and watercolor, photography, quilting, sculpture, ink, fabric, and much more.”

“The amount of talent in this show is truly amazing, the thoughts shared by these artists around the endangered nature of these flora and fauna is deep and heartfelt. Everyone who entered should be so proud of the work they continue to make. This show is a must-see!”

Artworks can viewed online beginning on April 20, at www.fallschurcharts.org. All pieces can be purchased at the gallery or on the website.

By Christopher Jones