• Classifieds
•    Employment Ads
•    Word Ads
•    Services
•    Worship Directory
•    Place an Ad

• Viewpoints
•    Letters to the Editor
•    Close to Home
• Features
•    Humor Me
•    Recipe Box
•    Senior Focus
•    Restaurant Review
• Obituaries
• Announcements
• Sports
• Community Guide
• Cookbook

• Advertise With Us
• About The Observer
• E-mail a News Item

May 9, 2008

ArtSpace Herndon to Open This Summer

By Rebecca Plevin Observer Staff Writer

When Les Zidel and Robin Carroll walk through the former Hands Inc. building, they look past the construction dust and envision ArtSpace Herndon, the Herndon Foundation for the Cultural Arts' interim arts center. "This is going to be the most exciting place in town," said Zidel, who serves on the foundation's board of directors.

Where some people see ladders and dangling electrical wires, Zidel and Carroll see the beginnings of a unique art gallery that will be the "new place to be" in Herndon, as it was called by Carroll, president of the board of directors. They picture the gallery walls filled with community artwork, lit up by state-of-the-art lighting, and they see the center's large, open space as being a multi-use room that could serve as a reception hall, an auditorium with a small stage or a nightclub with a portable, wooden dance floor.

The foundation members' dream for a local arts center is finally coming to fruition and ArtSpace is expected to be open by the summer, Zidel said. But before their vision can be realized, the foundation needs to raise an additional $50,000 to cover the costs of signs, painting, new floors and furniture. The project, which is completely funded through ArtSpace, is expected to cost about $85,000.

The arts center will contain a larger gallery and two smaller rooms, one that will be used as a classroom and another that will be used for artistic and creative projects. Zidel and Carroll have started brainstorming the types of activities and programs that they would like to see at ArtSpace and the possibilities are "limitless," Zidel said.

One program idea for the arts center, Carroll said, is to have a competition featuring plein air painting-or outdoor painting-during the town's Labor Day Wine and Jazz Festival. During this event, she said, artists could paint people, landscapes and events anywhere within the town's limits, and then the arts center would exhibit the Herndon-centric works. Carroll said the arts center could also hold brown-bag lunches, where residents could spend their lunch break chatting with local artists at the arts center.

Zidel said he would like to develop an after-school arts program where students can get serious artistic mentoring from professional artists. He said the foundation is interested in purchasing a projection system, so the arts center could support a film club. He also said he would like the center to display temporary junk sculptures, made from everyday items, on the grass between the arts center and the library. The arts center, he said, needs "to do something that catches the imagination."

ArtSpace is intended to serve as the town's temporary arts center, until a theater is constructed as part of a redevelopment project in downtown Herndon. Carroll said that as they renovate the center, the foundation is putting minimal money into the beautification of the building and is spending more on top quality lighting for the gallery and other furnishings that could be transferred to the future arts center.

Carroll said the foundation would start its next round of fundraising within the next few weeks. "It's happening now," she said, and town residents and community organizations, "still have an opportunity to be part of it."