The Village at Rockville Hosts Art Festival

The Village at Rockville is hosting its first Summer Art Festival this weekend featuring the work of senior artists. Work was solicited from artists in Rockville and the surrounding the area age 60 and older; each was invited to submit up to three entries. The juried show will open with a reception with the artists Friday from 5-8 p.m., and remain on display Saturday, 10 a.m to 5 p.m. The festival is free and open to the public. 

According to Jason Gottschalk, director of Life Enrichment, the show will include 39 works representing 13 different artists. "Five or six” are residents of The Village at Rockville retirement community.  While entries were open to all media, all submissions were paintings, drawings and photography. Some works will be available for sale.

The plan is that this festival will become an annual event. Gottschalk said they’re thinking that one artist will be chosen each month to have their work displayed throughout the Village at Rockville’s main community building, and then they will be invited to submit again to the annual show.

The show was juried by Cynthia Fischer, a Ph.D. student in art history at University of Virginia. Thirteen out of 15 artists made it through the jury process. First place goes to Ruth Ragan for her striking acrylic painting “High Houses in the Country,” inspired by Kandinsky.  Honorable Mentions go to Doris Jouanett for an untitled watercolor of a golf course, Helmer Junghaus for an untitled colored pencil drawing of a fish, Guarina Huntress for  an untitled oil still life and John D. Barnes for an untitled photograph of fireworks. 

Huntress is also showing a colorful “Spanish Fiesta” (oil). Jouanett is also showing “Rocks and Trees” (oil), featuring a flaming orange tree that captures the eye and the imagination.

Gottschalk told Patch that while the art show is The Village at Rockville’s first foray into highlighting the skills and talents of senior artists, they’re also partnering with some local schools and youth groups such as Girl Scouts to do dance and theater intergenerational programming.

“We are focusing in on all the different arts, both performing arts and visual,” he explained. “We have a concert series once a month where we bring in local as well as regional artists to perform, partially underwritten by a grant from the Maryland State Arts Council.  This also ties in with our lifelong learning courses on everything from history and literature to art appreciation and music enrichment, led by scholars in the field or local amateurs, partly cosponsored with OASIS.” (OASIS is a national nonprofit organization promoting lifelong learning for successful aging; they operate in cities throughout the country including the Washington, DC metro area.)

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The Village at Rockville Art Show will be held at Lang Hall, 9701 Veirs Dr., Rockville. 301-424-9560, www.thevillageatrockville.org