NGA Nights & Alexandria Art Scene: Celebrating Spring and an Artist’s Legacy

Alexandria, VA – March came in like a lion, then teased like a playful lamb, only to roar mightily again before winter succumbed to spring’s glorious annual awakening. April showers may bring May flowers, but at the National Gallery of Art’s NGA Nights last month it was a floral fantasy in fantastic bloom.

Each spring and fall the National Gallery hosts creative pARTies after hours. Spring soirées this year have been Art Under the Stars, Garden Party, and for the April theme United We Create, a nod to the Celebrating American Art exhibit at the west wing of the NGA – part of the America250 birthday extravaganza.

This month’s soirée, unlike all the other after-hours pARTies, will be held in the West Building where the Celebrating American Art exhibition is housed. The evening is a salute to the soul of America with quintessential American music complementing the five centuries of art in America.

Tickets for the free admission to the event on April 9, from 7 to 9 p.m., are by lottery. If you missed the registration deadline you can always access walk-up admission via the helpful staffers greeting you at the door. Get there early, as January’s entry queue snaked all the way around the Pennsylvania Avenue side of the gallery.

Back over the moat in Alexandria, on March 5, Nepenthe Gallery held a celebration of a different kind: a celebration of life. Beloved gallerist and artist in his own right Robert F. Murray was remembered with a fundraising ART+WINE+ CHEESE Thursday night salon. Bob’s artwork adorned the intimate but dynamic floor-to-ceiling art space. A prolific artist whose work spans over seventy years, framed art lined the gallery along the floor, walls, and tables that were piled mile-high with Bob’s works on paper as well pieces from his own collection.

Family, friends, fans, benefactors, and collectors gathered to toast Bob’s memorable lifetime of art advocacy, and to support Gonzaga High School with purchases of his donated, expansive body of work. Tears and wine flowed throughout the evening as Bob’s life, so well-lived, was honored. Bob would have tried his best to have been there. Through his vivacious expression of life and indefatigable artistic vision, he surely was.