Arlington Art Truck
The Arlington Art Truck delivers interactive art projects to where you live, work, and play!
Photo © Elman Studio LLC for Arlington Arts
The Arlington Art Truck is a curated mobile tool box for artists-in-residence to engage the public from April to October in interactive art projects designed to blur the line between participant and presenter, citizen and government. The Arlington Art Truck was nominated for the 2019 Robert E. Gard Award from Americans for the Arts and launched in 2018 with a National Endowment for the Arts grant.
Learn more about the Arlington Art Truck 2024 season below, see the past seasons here and learn about previous projects that informed this programming.
View the Plastic Policy for the Arlington Art Truck.
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What is the Arlington Art Truck? Watch the video below!
2025 Activations
For the most updated information, including cancellations due to weather, follow us on Instagram @arttruckarlington
Hand Lettering a Family Tree
by Felecia Brice McFail
Spring 2025
Left: Persimmon family tree papercut by Melanie Kehoss; Right: Family tree illustration by Christiann MacAuley
SEE & DO: Choose a template family tree and fill in names in your own writing style or use our basic introduction guide to calligraphy. Watch the calligrapher, Felecia Brice McFail, title your tree with your family name and transform it into a piece of art. Get a library card so you can later use the free genealogical resources at the library.
MEET: Native Arlingtonian and hand lettering artist Felecia Brice McFail and a representative from our community partner, Arlington Public Library.
LEARN: To create calligraphic letterforms and about the genealogical tools our library provides. Explore your family heritage.
Wednesday, April 2 - Dorothy Hamm Middle School – 8-2pm – not open to public
Saturday, April 5 - 8 – noon, Lubber Run Farmers Market opening day, 4401 N Henderson Road
Friday, April 11 - 4–7pm, Green Valley Farmers Market, John Robinson Town Square, 2406 Shirlington Road
Sunday, April 13 - 9 –1pm, Columbia Pike Farmers Market, 2820 Columbia Pike
Saturday, April 19 - 8 – noon, Arlington Farmers Market – N. Uhle and 14th Street N., Courthouse Metro
Sunday, April 27 - 11 – 5pm, Earth Day, Every Day, 4500-4550 Cherry Hill Road
Saturday, May 3 - 10 – 1pm, Remembering Little Saigon Event, Clarendon Central Park, Clarendon Metro, TBC
Saturday, May 17 - 11 – 4pm, Arlingtonpalooza, Lubber Run Community Center and Park, 300 N. Park Drive, Ballston Metro (.8 mile walk)
With Native Arlingtonian and hand lettering artist Felecia Brice McFail, choose one of the template family trees drawn by Arlington artists Melanie Kehoss and Christiann MacAuley and fill in the names in your own writing style or use our basic introduction guide to calligraphy. As the finishing touch, watch Felecia Brice McFail title your tree with your family name and transform it into a piece of art. Get a library card so you can later use the free genealogical resources at the library.
The community partner for this project is Arlington Public Library. At most activations, meet a representative from the library who can tell you more about the Charlie Clark Center for Local History, and their genealogical research tools available on library computers. Get a library card on the spot to get you started. Arlington Public Library is the heart of thoughtful, inclusive and dynamic community where people and ideas connect.
Learn more about the artist
Exposing Life Cycles
by Zofie King with Michele Montabano
Summer 2025
SEE & DO: Contemplate organic waste and how it goes back to the earth. Use the sun to create cyanotypes of organic matter while thinking about life cycles.
MEET: Arlington artist Zofie King, Virginia artist Michele Montalbano and a representative from the Solid Waste Bureau who can talk about our food scrap collection program. Zofie’s mixed media work combines cyanotypes and drawings of nature and architecture. (…and she is an avid composter.) Michele is a painter, printmaker, and uses the cyanotype process for camera-less photography.
LEARN: About the County’s food scrap collection program using on-street collection locations or your green cart. The food scraps are composted by the county and turned into soil amending compost that is shared with the community. Keep organic waste out of the trash. Vegetables, fruits, peels and rinds, meats (including bones), bread, poultry, etc. — basically anything that we eat, plus things like greasy pizza boxes, soiled napkins, natural corks and even hair and fingernail clippings are all food scraps and can go in the specialized bin. “If it grows, it goes.”
Sunday, June 1 - 9 – 1pm - Westover Farmers Market,1644 N. McKinley Road
Sunday, June 8 - 10 –1pm - MoCA on the Move with MoCA Arlington at MET Park “Celebrating Spring: Family Series”, South Elm Street between South 13th and South 14th Streets, Crystal City Metro
Tuesday, June 10 - Thomas Jefferson Middle School, not open to public
Saturday, June 14 - 1 – 5pm, (entire festival is 1-7pm) Columbia Pike Blues Festival, Walter Reed Drive at Columbia Pike
Tuesday, June 17 - Campbell Elementary School – 9am – 1pm, not open to public
Sunday, June 29 - 9 – 1pm - Fairlington Farmers Market, 3308 S Stafford Street
Using the kits developed by Arlington artist Zofie King at the Arlington Art Truck and organic items found on site (think: leaves), create sun prints (aka cyanotypes) which turn organic waste into beautiful artwork, just as composting turns organic matter into beautiful soil and mulch, which in turn goes back into our community!
The community partner for this project is the Solid Waste Bureau, promoting food scraps collection. From curbside collections to street sweeping to E-CARE collection events, the Solid Waste Bureau keeps Arlington clean and sustainable.
Patch or Swap: A Textile Rescue Lab
By Roxana Alger Geffen
Fall 2025
SEE & DO: Be inspired by viewing gorgeously patched and embellished fabrics by artist Roxana Geffen. Trade in your loved clothes for someone else to enjoy, pick up an artist-designed instructional zine and the supplies to sew and patch with us or save for a future project.
MEET: Roxana Geffen, a sculptor and collage artist from Washington, DC and a representative from our community partner, Arlington Cultural Affairs Textile Studio.
LEARN: How to patch, sew and embellish the clothes you love, giving them a second life and about the Arlington Cultural Affairs Textile Studio.
We have all had clothes that we loved and lost—to coffee stains, rips or years of wear. This project is about rescuing those well-loved things and making them wearable again. Sculpture and collage artist Roxana Geffen, will show you simple ways to mend your clothes in a visible but cool way and give you some supplies to get started, either at the Arlington Art Truck or at home. If you decide that you don’t need another project, you can also swap a tired garment for something on our swap rack, leaving a short description of the story of the piece for our collection.
The community partner for this project is the Arlington Cultural Affairs Shared Studios. The Shared Studios are scheduled to open in Fall 2025 and will provide fully equipped fine craft studios for skilled artisans to develop their practice and share with the community through classes, demonstrations, art talks, and other activities. The Shared Studios includes the ceramics and printmaking studios at the LAC Studios and the textile studio (formerly known as the Costume Lab). The 1,392 SF textile studio will have multiple sewing tables, steam press, fabric storage, mannequin and pattern storage, a dye vat sink, washer, and dryers.
Learn more about the artist
Rethinking Plastic
In designing the Arlington Art Truck projects, we endeavor to use minimal or no single-use plastic. When plastic is used, it is re-used from previous projects, or used again in future work. For example, you might see us using wheat paste instead of glue sticks, re-using plastic signs with a paper sign mounted over it, or not using markers or “disposable” wipes (which are made of plastic). We model these ideas in our public facing platform, creating a new norm and hope that others will be inspired to do the same.
Behind The Truck Design
Steve “Espo” Powers and the Arlington Art Truck, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 6-17-2017
Photo © 2017 Cynthia Connolly
The Arlington Art Truck’s exterior has colorful and witty illustrations hand painted by internationally renowned artist Stephen Powers. Stephen worked alongside Arlington Art Truck curator Cynthia Connolly to create a “parade of usual and unusual art supplies” including Cynthia’s saddle shoes and Leica camera as a nod to their collaboration. Paying homage to his start as a graffiti artist and tagger, the blank side of the Truck outlined in dotted lines will feature magnetic interchangeable letters in his signature style. About the Artist