Join us for a special artist demonstration with Amy Sabrin, who will give us a behind-the-scenes look at how she creates the collage elements featured in No Words.

Working with found language, vivid imagery, and layered materials, Sabrin transforms words and fragments of text into visually compelling works that ask us to look twice. During the demonstration, she’ll share her process, techniques, and the ideas behind the works in the exhibition.

Come see No Words from a new perspective and discover how Sabrin’s collages take shape, layer by layer.

Join us after work for art, complimentary beverages, and impeccable vibes! As part of our 50 for 50 series, Touchstone is featuring a weeklong spotlight exhibition by Trei Ramsey. Other fall exhibitions will also be on view.

Trei Ramsey’s work features colorful, whimsical imagery that weaves in underlying themes that address serious and niche perspectives on our shared world. This approach is evident in the works at Touchstone, all from his Precocious Kid series.

Join us at Touchstone Gallery for a reception celbrating the opening of two compelling solo exhibitions featuring the work of Anne Stine and Amy Sabrin. Come experience the exhibitions, meet fellow art lovers, and celebrate the artists with us. Plus, 50 for 50 Visual Artist spotlights are back! See watercolor works from Jamie Hurst.

No Words—We live an era where our leaders debase language, mislead us with rhetoric, and flip the meanings of words of on their heads. In response, artist Amy Sabrin has created a series of works that invite us to look beyond their gorgeous, vivid surfaces to discern the words and sometimes troubling truths hidden beneath.  These paintings reflect a realm where things can be the opposite of what they seem; a sphere where all things -- including the paintings themselves – can be turned upside down; a world where words have meaning. Or do they?

What the Small Things Know is Anne Stine's exploration of how nature adapts and survives through community. In this collection of encaustic mixed-media paintings, she delves into the hidden worlds beneath our feet and the water's surface. Her paintings explore the quiet intelligence held within these tiny ecosystems, showing smallness as a place of resilience, reciprocity, and belonging. These micro‑landscapes remind us that the smallest organisms often carry the largest truths about how to live in relationship. This collection invites viewers to slow down, look closely, and consider what these intimate worlds can teach us about our own. 

50 for 50: With the nostalgic perspective of a mother, Jamie Hurst’s current body of work focuses on the landscape as setting for childhood play. These scenes are places of potential games, craft, escape, connection, mystery, and memory.

Preview our new solo exhibitions before the opening reception on Saturday. Be the first to see new work from local artists during the extended evening hours, including Anne Stine: What the Small Things Know and Amy Sabrin: No Words.

Join us from 1-3 pm for a special Meet the Artist Closing Reception with Debra Perkins and Linda Bankerd. Celebrate the conclusion of their solo exhibitions, engage with the artists about their creative processes, and connect with fellow art enthusiasts. We look forward to an inspiring afternoon of art and conversation.

Note: Touchstone Gallery will be open from 11 am - 3 pm on Sunday, September 20.

Late night at Touchstone Gallery! 🎤🎨 🧁👉🪨💖

Join Touchstone for Art All Night as we celebrate our 50th anniversary with an evening of art, creativity, and community!

The gallery will feature special art activations by Locko and Charmaine-Seymone, inviting visitors to experience art in new and unexpected ways. Explore the current exhibitions, and help us celebrate five decades of Touchstone with a special 50th Birthday Cake.

Locko (b.2000) is a DC based artist whose multidisciplinary practice spans drawing, painting, installation, and print based media. Rooted in explorations of personal experience, identity, and Black joy, his work develops a distinct visual language of stylized, self referential doodles, recurring caricatures that operate as vessels for memory, vulnerability, and history. Balancing playfulness with emotional depth, Locko’s compositions construct intimate yet expansive narratives of selfhood and belonging.

His work has been commissioned internationally and is held in both private and institutional collections, including St. John’s College, PA Representative Ismail Smith-Wade-El, and Mary Cull.

Locko has completed several studio residencies including Barbès Boulevard Residency in Paris, Hamiltonian Artists, and Art Roving. Other notable projects include a collaborative mural for the Mitchell Art Museum (Annapolis, MD), a site specific sculptural installation in The Forgotten at Adkins Arboretum, and mural commissions for BERHTA in Washington, D.C., and Selina Hotels.

Art All Night at Touchstone is supported by Touchstone Foundation for the Arts

Join us for the opening reception of new solo exhibitions by Debra Perkins and Linda Bankerd, plus a late summer group show by Touchstone artists.

Linda Bankerd: Home Is Where the Art Is II

Linda Bankerd returns to her favorite subjects: still lives and interiors. In her usual manner, she paints with exuberance, using strongly infused colors and bold compositions. For Bankerd, color remains the most important aspect.

Be the first to see new solo exhibitions by artists Linda Bankerd and Debra Perkins. RSVPs are encouraged but not required.

Don’t miss the final day of Fifty: A Community Memoir, a group exhibition which explores the layered histories, lived experiences, and enduring legacies that form our collective identity.

Join jurors Laila Abdul-Hadi Jadallah, Fabiola R. Delgado and L. Kasimu Harris in discussion about Fifty: A Community Memoir, a juried exhibition which explores the layered histories, lived experiences, and enduring legacies that form our collective identity.

Join us for the Opening Reception of The Lives We Never Lived, a group exhibition exploring alternate pasts, presents, and futures through memories, connections, and self-perceptions. Taking place in the summer project gallery, this exhibition is curated by Touchstone Intern Skylar Ogunshakin-White.

The Lives We Never Lived invites viewers to look at life through a different lens, questioning how the choices we make—and the ones we don’t—shape who we become. 

Artists: Anice Hoachlander, Anne Stine, Charlene Nield, dana brotman, David Alfuth, Dee Levinson, Debra Perkins, Elaine Florimonte, Elena Tchernomazova, Gale Wallar, Janathel Shaw, Jazz Williams, Jill Brantley, Lesley Clarke, Linda Bankerd, Marthe McGrath, Maryam Rassapour, McCain McMurray, Neville Barbour, Setareh Pourrajabi, Skylar Ogunshakin-White, Susan Dykeman, Tory Cowles, Veronica Barker-Barzel

Fifty: A Community Memoir is a group exhibition juried by Laila Abdul-Hadi Jadallah, Fabiola R. Delgado and L. Kasimu Harris which explores the layered histories, lived experiences, and enduring legacies that form our collective identity.

Artists: Abby Huston, Amira, Autumn Spears, Aynex Mercado, Bevadine Zoma Terrell, Brandin Barón, Carley Dupre’, Carolyn Marshall Wright, Cathy Abramson, Cora Olson, dana brotman, Imani W. Russell, Jacques Liautaud, Jada Plummer, Jessica Cherry, Jonathan Fuentes, Julie Paez, Julius Cavira, Kristine DeNinno, Kwaku Ofori-Yirenkyi, Lin White, Margaret Dowell, Margarita Padua, Melanie Kehoss, Michelle Oconis, Nolan, Oscar Lopez, Reem Bassous, Ruth A. Keitz, Sally Canzoneri, Saya Behnam, Sharon Robinson, shedrick pelt, Shyama Kuver, Susanna Eisenman, and Yoshiko Ratliff.

Also honored at this reception are two 50 for 50 Artist Spotlight shows: Cathy Wilkin and Pat Goslee.

Join us for a special Meet the Artist Closing Reception with Lesley Clarke and Anice Hoachlander. Celebrate the conclusion of their solo exhibitions, enjoy an opportunity to chat with the artists and hear about their creative processes while you connect with fellow art lovers. Don’t miss this engaging afternoon of art, conversation, and community. Plus, celebrate Saya Behnam's 50 for 50 Spotlight exhibition.

Join us for an evening of art as we celebrate the summer exhibitions, including solo exhibitions by Lesley Clarke and Anice Hoachlander, an open exhibition group show as well as a 50 for 50 Spotlight by Lori Katz.

Lesley Clarke: Echoes of Place

This body of work reflects Lesley Clarke’s experience of traveling through four countries that left a lasting impression: Scotland, Iceland, Nepal and Croatia. Each place is represented through a sequence of three sizes of paintings that explore the way memory evolves over time. Working in encaustic, Clarke builds layers of pigmented wax that are fused with heat, creating depth, translucency and textured surfaces.

Anice Hoachlander: Nature As Architect

For more than three decades, architectural photographer Anice Hoachlander has explored the relationship between structure, light, and form through the built environment. In Nature as Architect, she turns that same disciplined eye toward the organic world. Hoachlander approaches Nature as her client, revealing the quiet geometry and design embedded within forests, botanicals, and ancient trees. These photographs blur the boundary between natural form and constructed space, inviting viewers to consider nature itself as the original architect.

50 for 50 Artist Spotlight: Lori Katz

Lori Katz makes artworks that are a visual and tactile exploration of her materials, and increasingly include the substitution of areas that were, or could have been clay, with wire, recycled kiln parts and the occasional found object. Connection, conceptually and in practice, looms large as she coaxes sometimes disparate elements to work together.

50 for 50 is an artist opportunity that invites 50 community artists to showcase their work at Touchstone throughout 2026, the year of Touchstone’s 50th anniversary.

Join us for the Opening Reception of David Gootnick’s 50 for 50 Visual Artist Spotlight. Gootnick is a mixed media artist working principally with wood. His designs draw from kumiko—a uniquely Japanese art form developed roughly 1400 years ago, with his works being contemporary interpretations of this technique at the interface of art and design.

Plus, preview new solo exhibitions by Anice Hoachlander and Lelsey Clarke during this special evening event.

Don’t miss this nighttime dance party. Sip on a rickey while you groove to the Too Much Talent Band. Enjoy selections from our dessert bar as the night unfolds with great music, energy, and atmosphere.

Join us for the Grand Reception of Medium Material Method, a vibrant group exhibition celebrating the materials, techniques, and creative processes behind the contemporary art practices of Touchstone artists as part of Touchstone’s 50th Anniversary celebration. Dress to impress in your most artful attire (70s inspired is welcome!) and immerse yourself in over 100 works of art and interactive materials as you explore how ideas become finished works.

Join us to discover how the Touchstone Foundation for the Arts Emerging Artist Fellowship can support your artistic growth. Chat with current Fellows about their experiences and learn how the gallery provides opportunities for emerging artists. Drop in before the Ain't No Place curatorial tour to learn more.

Join us to celebrate the work of artist Kira Belostotska, featured in the 50 for 50 Visual Artist Spotlight from May 19-25. This reception will precede the Oliver Jones Smith 50 for 50 performance at 7:30 pm.

Kira Belostotska is a visual artist based in Washington DC. She has a dual degree in Studio Arts and Computer Science from the University of Pittsburgh. Her art practice is shaped by close observation of natural patterns and an interest in how meaning shifts through repetition and process. When not making art, Kira enjoys reading, learning languages, and exploring local farmers’ markets.

Oliver Jones Smith presents Preliminary Research on the Behavior and Migratory Patterns of Traffic Cones in the DC Metro Area as part of the time-based media programming for the 50 for 50 series.

The gallery will open at 6:00 pm for exhibition viewing prior to the 7:30 pm performance.

This work is a live performance structured as a formal research briefing delivered in the tone and format of a field update at a research conference. Framed as preliminary findings from the artist’s ongoing Coneology research in the DC metro area, it draws upon sustained field documentation, including time-stamped photography, longitudinal comparison of individual subjects and fixed sites, and a six-hour census documenting over 500 cones across approximately 166 acres of the National Mall.

Join us for an evening of art as we celebrate the opening of new exhibitions, including a solo exhibition by Makda Kibour, Ain’t No Place: History and Legacy in the Black Community, a group show of Touchstone artists, plus a 50 for 50 Interactive by Rick Gonzalez.

Learn more about the current solo exhibitions by McCain McMurray and Rosemary Luckett in two artist talks. Come early to explore the exhibitions and celebrate the end of the first round of 50 for 50 Exhibitions.

2:00 pm McCain McMurray

Overlapping planes of color animate the works in McMurray’s Shape & Surface. This work is a continuation of and an expansion of his earlier joined panel work. These works are cut and shaped to form interlocking forms of mostly primary colors inspired by the ideas of the De Stijl movement.

3:00 pm Rosemary Luckett

Luckett’s solo exhibition Searching and Shelter reflects on movement as a fundamental force in human life—moments when individuals are compelled to search, leave, or transform. Some journeys are visible and life-altering, while others unfold quietly until they emerge into awareness. Through an intuitive practice of layering paper, paint, and assembled forms, the artist allows images to evolve and reveal their own meanings.

Join us to celebrate the work of artist Xenia Gray, featured in the 50 for 50 Visual Artist Spotlight from April 19-25.

50 for 50 is an artist opportunity that invites 50 community artists to showcase their work at Touchstone throughout 2026, the year of Touchstone’s 50th anniversary. The Visual Artist Spotlight portion of this program features week-long single artist exhibitions.

About Xenia:

Xenia Gray is a contemporary figurative ar tist who primarily works in mixed media, including oil, acrylic and charcoal. Fascinated by unexpressed feelings and things left unsaid, Xenia explores emotions t hrough paintings of the human body.

Xenia grew up in Siberia in the aftermath of the Soviet Union's collapse, and her sense of color and aesthetics is heavily influenced by the industrial environment of her hometown. Xenia enrolled in a local art school at the age of nine and continued her art education in Saint Petersburg where she achieved an MA in advertisement design from Saint Petersburg State University of Technology and Design. She moved to the United States in 2010 and currently resides in Fairfax, Virginia.

Join us to celebrate the work of artist S. Manya Stoumen-Tolino, featured in the 50 for 50 Visual Artist Spotlight from April 12-18.

50 for 50 is an artist opportunity that invites 50 community artists to showcase their work at Touchstone throughout 2026, the year of Touchstone’s 50th anniversary. The Visual Artist Spotlight portion of this program features week-long single artist exhibitions.

About Manya:

S. Manya Stoumen-Tolino is a Maryland-based artist known for gestural, mixed-media paintings that exist between representation and abstraction. Her work often weaves together human, avian, and natural forms to explore transformation, ambiguity, and the persistence of memory

Manya earned her BFA from the University of the Arts (Philadelphia College of Art) and her MFA from the University of Pennsylvania. Early in her career, she spent extended periods working independently in Italy, where the study of light, narrative, and the figure deeply informed her practice. She maintains an active studio practice in Maryland while exhibiting regularly, with works held in numerous private collections