The final weekend of The ARTS Place Pop-Up included a family Halloween mask-making workshop with Encore Stage & Studio. Children who took part then paraded through the building in costume, ARLnow reported Oct. 30.
ARLnow reported that Alliance organizers held 30 free workshops during the seven-week run inside a former Walgreens. The pop-up closed Oct. 25; for seven weekends the empty storefront at 3130 Langston Boulevard served as a free gallery, gift shop and gathering place for local artists and neighbors.
The project opened Sept. 10. The Arlington Artists Alliance says Rooney Properties LLC provided the pop-up space. The former Walgreens at 3130 Langston Boulevard, across from Lyon Village Shopping Center, was awaiting redevelopment, ARLnow reported. Arlington Magazine reported that an earlier arts pop-up in the same storefront, organized by the Langston Boulevard Alliance, ended in March. After that project, Rooney Properties invited the Artists Alliance to use the space, according to Alliance board member Sandi Chesrown. The two pop-ups had different organizers, but each gave the retail unit a limited-run arts use.
The Alliance arranged The ARTS Place as small gallery areas featuring work by more than 40 local artists. The Alliance’s listing says artists worked in a range of styles and media.
An opening-week report from Arlington Magazine described 13 mini-galleries rather than a single group exhibition. Painter Barbara Januszkiewicz planned a small art library where people who bought her work could take books home, a way to pass along inspiration. That library was a plan reported before the pop-up opened, not a post-event count.
The program offered visitors reasons to return. Event listings described a changing mix of art talks, painting activities, performances, cultural events, workshops, live music, food and beverages. Admission was free, and the storefront's ordinary public hours were Friday through Sunday, noon to 6 p.m., through Oct. 25.
A weekend program posted by the Alliance for Oct. 9–11 put Hispanic Heritage Month in focus. Its schedule included food, salsa dancing, a marigold craft workshop and piñata activities. That mix gave the pop-up a role beyond displaying work: families could arrive for an activity as well as a gallery visit.
Oil painter Andrea Schellman told Arlington Magazine that the storefront made room for larger paintings that are difficult to show in smaller galleries. That practical detail helps explain why a temporary retail space could be useful to artists, even for a short run.
For the artists, the temporary setting offered a way to put work in front of people who might not already know the Alliance. Painter and board member Marshall Ginn told ARLnow that the space let members explain the organization and its work. Artist Sarah Young, who helped organize the project, described a steady flow of visitors to the pop-up.
Organizers did not report a final attendance total or a sales figure. Alliance board member Sandi Chesrown told ARLnow that attendance landed around the middle of what organizers had projected. She said most artists who wanted to sell work found success.
The work behind the galleries was substantial. Chesrown reported that volunteers contributed 1,800 hours over the run. Volunteer Kathi Beerbohm recruited more than 75 restaurants and some supermarkets to support food and beverages.
This was a short-term use of a building with a longer-term future. The pop-up listing described the storefront as empty and awaiting redevelopment. ARLnow reported that the building was likely to be gone by next fall and that Alliance leaders were looking for another venue for a possible 2027 edition. The story of the project is therefore still open: there is no confirmed next address in the reporting reviewed here.
For seven weekends, the former Walgreens storefront made room for local art. The Alliance's reported workshop and volunteer totals show the labor behind that temporary gallery, while the artists' accounts describe the less countable part: meeting visitors, explaining their work and seeing neighbors spend time in the space. Whether the pop-up returns will depend on finding another home.
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