Paying it forward oftentimes necessitates thinking outside the box, creatively coloring over the established lines. And sometimes beyond boundaries. Nobody makes giving more fun than the Carpenter’s Shelter and the Torpedo Factory. Their annual fundraising events are the highlight of the social calendar for all ages and every sized piggy bank.
Saturday, August 18 was the opening of “Dimensions” a new show at the Torpedo Factory alternate exhibit space.
The Carpenter’s Shelter partnered with the Torpedo Factory artists at their satellite gallery in the Mosaic District in nearby Merrifield, an exciting mecca for the arts, entertainment, restaurant and retail therapy.
The shelter has recently relocated to the vacant Macy’s department store space at Landmark Mall in the West End while the original shelter on North Henry Street in Old Town gets rebuilt in an expansion project that includes transitional as well as affordable housing in a new mixed-use facility.
The fundraising event showcased the benefits of expression as therapy and solace during times of stressful personal and financial challenges. One of the participants was Alexandria City Council candidate Amy Jackson, who delighted in channeling her creative impulses, making art and putting the fun in fundraising.
Amy Jackson is a tireless advocate for numerous non-profits throughout the City and DMV. She sits on several charitable boards and advocacy commissions. Amy lives in the West End not far from T. C. Williams, where she graduated high school and serves on the Board of the Scholarship Fund. Carpenter’s Shelter Executive Director Shannon Tud Steene captured Amy in a particularly expressive artistic moment.
She has entitled her masterpiece “Up in the Air”.
Bringing a creative outlet and expressive opportunities to the shelter residents as well as making a better Alexandria, something both Shannon and Amy prove to be equally passionate about, paired with the City’s premier art community is by design destined to be a showstopper.
The Dimensions exhibit in collaboration with the shelter is on view at the Mosaic campus through September 9.
Participating Torpedo Factory artists include Whitney Staiger, daughter of well-known TP painter Marsha Staiger, fiber artist Irina Smirnoff, textural, expressionist abstract painter Lesley Clarke and exquisite draftsmen extraordinaire Guy Jones, whose amazing solo show at the Art League Gallery recently closed after a very successful showing.
Come on out to the Mosaic and have a look at what thinking inside and outside the box while daring to color without lines is all about.
It will do you great good.
Heart and Soul.
