Posts Tagged ‘Museum’
Spring Break Guide: On The Cheap
Posted by Lorin Drinkard / Wednesday, March 28th, 2012
Save some money and have a ball. / Photo credit: Shutterstock/ Yan Lev
We know times can be tough (could gas be any more expensive right now?) but with the break from school and classes, it’s about time to enjoy yourself without breaking the bank. (If you are hitting the road, check out our post for a few travel tips). Here are a few inexpensive ways to enjoy all that lovely free time:
Free:
- Hit up a local farmer’s market. Browse through all the yummy local produce, smell the pretty blooms and maybe even pet an animal or two. We love Cox Farms Market in Centreville with its great selection of jams, great playground area for the little ones and spring container gardens. The market opens for the season on April 5th.
- Get cultured at a local museum or art studio. We are lucky to have over 50 free museums and historical sites in NoVA. The Artisphere always has a ton of shows and exhibits that won’t cost you a penny. View Luis Sierra’s take on The Wizard of Oz with a prism twist, the Congressional Art Competition selections and more. McLean Project for the Arts is currently showing a youth art show and the Torpedo Factory has tons of great fiber and glass exhibits throughout the month. Or head to The Udvar-Hazy Center* in Chantilly for an up close look at air and space crafts. *While admission is free, parking is $15 so plan to visit after 4 pm.
$5 or less:
- Catch a flick at the Drafthouse. With a wide variety of films on screen (The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, The Sitter and more), Arlington’s old school cinema showcase has $1 movie nights. Bypass The Hunger Games and that means date night could be $2, plus change left over for some Reeses Pieces or Milk Duds. Movies on Mondays are $1, Tuesday nights are $2. Head there Wednesday through Sunday night? Tickets bump up to $5.50.
- Make like the 80s and hit a roller skating rink. Reminisce over middle school birthday parties and holding hands during slow songs at Skate-N-Fun Zone. Tuesday nights at the Manassas are just $5 a person, including skate rentals, play zone and four tokens. They also have laser tag on Wednesday nights for $4, plus $1.99. Although it’s technically above the $5 max, it’s still a heck of a good deal.
$10 or less:
- Hunt for marshmallows. Really get into the spring of things (pun intended) by heading to Great County Farms for their 9th annual search for the fluffy white goodness. The marshmallows are usually ready for picking on or around April 1st. To make it even better, Great County Farms also has daily Easter egg hunts for the kiddos. With four separate hunts (separated by age groups), there’s no egg shortage here. Advanced tickets are recommended and can be bought online here.
- Jump and then jump some more. If you like trampolines, you’ll love rebounding. What’s rebounding? Glad you asked – it’s basically a room full of connected trampolines that allows you to freely run, jump and flip for 60 minutes at a time. Rebounderz in Sterling has the market cornered on this fantastic idea. With under $10 deals running from Monday through Thursday nights, you may just have to go more than once.
$20 or less:
- Get your roller coaster fix. For a limited time, Six Flags will be offering up deeply discounted tickets ($20 per person) for the park’s opening day this season. With more than 100 rides to choose from, this deal’s too good to pass up. Tickets are available online here (select “buy tickets now” under daily tickets and choose opening day) and at the Main Gate on March 31st.
- Grab a few drinks at a tiki bar and bask in the sunshine. So you can’t head to Bora Bora? No problemo. NoVA has plenty of hot spots with cool drinks that will have you forgetting you’re still landlocked. Clare and Don’s Beach Shack anyone? For a full list, check out over here.
For more spring break goodness, check out our Ultimate Spring Break Guide, Gut Check’s recommended eats, SWAG’s spring style deals and steals, plus stop by our blog daily.
– Lorin Drinkard
Historic Bourbon Producer A. Smith Bowman Now Offering Distillery Tours
Posted by The Editorial Desk / Thursday, October 13th, 2011
Image: Alexandr Vlassyuk/Shutterstock
For those of you who don’t know, the historic A. Smith Bowman Distillery in Fredericksburg goes way back. Abram Smith Bowman started distilling bourbon back in the years before Prohibition and, after the repeal of Prohibition in 1927, moved to Virginia with his family to continue his bourbon distillation on what was then called Sunset Hills Farm in Fairfax County.
The distillery is now in Fredericksburg and continues to produce a variety of Bourbon whiskeys, rum, vodka and gin.
Their newest offering: distillery tours.
Open to the public, the tours will last one hour and will teach participants about distillation, barreling and bottling of bourbon. The tours will allow participants to see the museum, still house, barrel warehouse, and barrel dump and fill room, as well as sample the bourbon and other products.
Tours will run at 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. Monday-Friday or by appointment.
“We are very excited to expand our role in Virginia tourism,” Master Distiller Truman Cox of the historic family-run distillery says.
For more information, visit the distillery website at www.asmithbowman.com.
A. Smith Bowman is located at One Bowman Drive in Fredericksburg (540-373-4555).
-Julia Harbo
Local artist brings photographs to The Art League
Posted by clara / Wednesday, July 6th, 2011
Wednesday, July 6, 2011
Frances Borchardt. Image Courtesy Frances Borchardt and The Art League.
Frances Borchardt grew up in the Washington, D.C. area and has always been fascinated by art. Though she’s not sure where her inspiration comes from, she says, “perhaps having access to museums as a kid got me started.”
Her exhibit “Prints in Pieces: Views of South County” takes an honest look at a community south of Annapolis, Maryland. “It is a farming community that has successfully fought off development,” Borchardt says. That is one reason to capture it now. Many of the towns in the D.C., Northern Virginia, and Maryland areas, are now cosmopolitan centers of business and growth. “I’ve tried to capture the natural beauty of the area. A lot of people don’t understand the calling of the community.”
Borchardt got her start in photography at the University of Maryland and worked as a photography editor for newspapers and magazines, not wanting to take the risks of being a photographer. “It takes initiative and financial backing to start photography as a career,” she says. “It is essentially a small business.” After traveling through Southeast Asia and taking photographs, she realized that it was time for her to make the switch. “I think of myself as a non-traditional photographer,” she says.
She describes her images as “clean and straightforward” though some of what she’s capturing is “very eclectic housing.” She lists the water, farms, tobacco barns, and community events as some of the subjects of her work. She’s also got their Fourth of July parade. She says she likes how her parade photos capture the spirit of the community and adults when they’re playful. “The community itself is like taking a step back in time, and the exhibit is trying to capture that and its rural, natural beauty.”
"West River Sunrise." Image Courtesy Frances Borchardt and The Art League.
"Jug Bay Medley." Image Courtesy Frances Borchardt and The Art League.
Some of her photographs have great memories. “I went rowing and I’d take a photo of the sunrise every morning,” she says, describing “West River Sunrise.” When Borchardt captured “Jug Bay Medley” she found it was a nice place to kayak. “I don’t think the Washington area even knows it exists,” she says. Set on a 2,000 acre tract of land, those photographs contain images of wildlife such as eagles, turtles, and snakes. “There is an abundance of wildlife at the bay,” she says. “But that’s also characteristic of this area.”
Though her artwork is of South County, she will be featured in Alexandria, and hopes to do more photography work in the NoVA area. Frances Borchardt’s exhibit “Prints in Pieces: Views of South County” for The Art League is at 105 North Union Street in Alexandria, July 8 through August 1. The Opening Reception and Meet the Artist, featuring a bluegrass performance by The Higher Ground String Band, is on Thursday, July 14, from 6:30 – 8 p.m. For more information, visit www.theartleague.org.
–Clara Ritger
Posted by The Editorial Desk / Wednesday, September 16th, 2009
The Reston Museum reopens its doors this week after spending eight months revitalizing the space where the town’s history is told
By Chase Johnson
September 16, 2009
Photography by Chase Johnson
The Reston Museum and Shop will reopen its doors this week after closing in January to undergo a much-needed and long-awaited overhaul. The celebration will begin with an invitation-only ribbon cutting event Thursday night before opening to the public Friday.
Eight months ago, the museum was a meager but well-intentioned hole in the wall pocketed in Lake Anne Center. It housed a hodgepodge of historical Reston miscellanea, comprised mainly of attic treasures, photographs and historical documents. Members of the Reston Historical Trust, which operates the museum, presented the story of Reston the New Town as best as they could, but it lacked the cohesion and professional look of a proper museum.
“It was just run on a shoestring,” Lynn Lilienthal, chair of the Reston Historical Trust Board of Trustees, recalls.
For four years, the museum had been cutting through miles of red tape seeking money to pay for a renovation. “The whole space hadn’t been renovated in 45 years,” Lilienthal says. “The air conditioning and the heating, everything needed to be upgraded.”
Finally, with the help of Hunter Mills Representative to the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors Cathy Hudgins, the museum received two grants totaling nearly $250,000—the first from Fairfax County Housing and Community Development Committee and the other from the Fairfax County Office of Community Revitalization and Reinvestment.
The space was gutted and completely redecorated. The room itself is a muted charcoal gray from floor to ceiling, which was done in order to make the colors of the exhibits pop. The museum features 12 exhibition panels that jut out from the walls diagonally. These panels tell the history of the town, and feature photos and artifacts that illustrate the story.
The museum brought back the topographical map of Reston that was donated to the museum when it first opened. “That was always our best thing because people love to look at it and say, ‘There’s my house!’” Lilienthal says. “We’ve upgraded that, and provided two photographs of the Town Center, which wasn’t even on that map because the map stopped [being updated] in 1984.”
Other details dot the walls, including photographs of the town, various proclamations and a golden sledgehammer used to drive in the final spike at the Wiehle Avenue Bridge. Even the bathroom is an exhibit, as the room is filled with signs and posters from Reston events past.
Lilienthal is looking forward to seeing the public’s reaction.
“It’s really the first time that the community is invited in to see it, and we hope that lots of people will come in over the weekend and the following weekends,” Lilienthal says. “Before, we did what we could with very little resources. This tells the story in a very professional way.”
For more information, visit RestonMuseum.org or call 703-709-7700. The museum is located at 1639 Washington Plaza in Reston, and is open from noon to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and Sunday, and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday.
Posted by The Editorial Desk / Monday, January 5th, 2009
By Willona M. Sloan
This month, archaeology buffs can get in on rare deal: a real dig. The 2008 Field School in Public and Historical Archaeology, which is organized in partnership with George Washington University, runs from May 19 to May 24 and May 26 to May 31 through the Alexandria Archeology Museum.
On non-dig days, visitors to the museum can read maps dating back to the Civil War, view census records and learn how Alexandria’s artifacts were discovered, identified and preserved. The museum offers tours such as “Hayti: Uncovering an African American Neighborhood,” which reveals some of the city’s rich black history, and hands-on activities for class field trips, adult groups and families.
For more information about the field session, email gwsummer@gwu.edu or call 202-994-6360.
(May 2008)
Posted by The Editorial Desk / Wednesday, December 31st, 2008
Slave museum fights to shake off financial shackles
By Willona Sloan
Construction on the United States National Slavery Museum is slated to begin in 2009. Courtesy of the United States National Slavery Museum
Former Virginia Governor L. Douglas Wilder first conceived the idea for the United States National Slavery Museum (USNSM) after a trip to Senegal in 1992. Though it has been years in the making, the interactive museum, designed by Chien Chung Pei, is still more dream than reality.
Funds permitting, construction will take place along the Rappahannock River in Fredericksburg beginning in 2009, but that date has yet to be set in concrete. Despite the passionate efforts of Wilder and board members such as Bill Cosby, fundraising efforts have stalled.
“Hurricane Katrina has posed quite a challenge to our fundraising,” said Dr. Vonita Foster, executive director. USNSM has raised about $50 million towards the $200 million goal.
Even though it hasn’t been built yet, organizers are clear about the mission. “The museum is founded on the ideals of quality and justice,” said Foster. “We want to design the exhibits for young people to help them to embrace and learn as much as they can about American history.”
While visitors may have a long wait for the museum’s grand opening, the USNSM opened an exhibit garden in June 2007 that is available year-round, so be sure to see this bit of history-in-the-making.
Visit www.usnationalslaverymuseum.org or call 540-548-8818.
(February 2008)