Promoting Art In Our Community

Fairfax Art League (FAL) is a non-profit organization providing arts education and promoting local artists, with members actively participating in the planning and managing of events, exhibits and outreach. We provide members opportunities to display art at regional juried and non-juried exhibits, events, and competitions; and art education to local day care, senior centers, and the public as outlined on our Programs page. Membership includes a free dedicated online gallery, community receptions to ‘meet and greet’ member artists, continued education, promotional opportunities, and more.  

Built So Creatives Can Flourish

Fairfax Art League regularly exhibit at:

  • Fairfax Old Town Hall

  • Fairfax Regional Library

  • Spotlight on the Arts Festival

  • Food, Wine and Art Festival in Fairfax

  • Church of the Good Shepherd

  • and other venues

 

Our History

The Fairfax Art League traces its roots to an informal art show featuring six local artists, organized by neighborhood friends in 1986 at the former John C. Wood Elementary School. A year later, these six artists—Donya Bauer, Jackie Cawley, Art Cole, Deron Decesare, Kathryn Higgins, and Deb Smith—founded “The Fairfax Art League.”  In 1989, the League became a non-profit corporation. Since 1991, the growing Art League has hosted rotating shows and sales at Old Town Hall, the 1900 neo-classical building at the corner of Main Street and University Drive.  The gallery’s motto: “Original Art at Affordable Prices.”

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Founding Members

Mayor of Fairfax, founding members, and the most active co-founder, Kathryn Higgins, pictured second row, on the left..

From six members, Fairfax Art League has grown to 100 members, who run the gamut of artistic media and backgrounds.  The Art League hosts monthly non-juried shows featuring an artist of the month, sponsors workshops, participates in the City’s Spotlight on the Arts Festival and other special events, and partners with George Mason University for its Festival of Arts.  A longstanding Art League program is its support for student artists at Fairfax High School and other Fairfax County elementary schools.

League co-founder Kathryn Higgins’s goal of “community education for the arts” remains honored and unchanged even after her passing in 2000. Kathryn, once described as the “real spirit of the League,” is the namesake for FAL’s art gallery in 2023.

    Today, the Fairfax Art League continues producing “original art at affordable prices” and promoting community arts education for its member artists, the general public, and Fairfax County schoolchildren. The League is sustained through the tax-deductible contributions of its generous donors and sponsors, including the City of Fairfax, Clarion, and the Kathryn and Wilbert Higgins Endowment Fund.

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Fairfax Art League gratefully acknowledges historical research assistance provided by Susan Inskeep Gray, Director of the Office of Historic Resources, the City of Fairfax Museum and Visitor Center, and Megan DuBois, the Cultural Arts Manager for the City of Fairfax’s Parks and Recreation.

Board of Directors

President: Amanda Fletchersmith

Vice President: Maya Gorrez

Treasurer: Ligia Perez

Secretary: Patricia Giovanonni

Sponsors

The Fairfax Art League gratefully acknowledges sponsorships received from the following contributors.