Good Stuff

by Sydney Johnson

Art in the Time of Covid

Falls Church Arts was poised to unveil a new exhibit, A Woman’s Journey, in March of 2020 when its opening night was spoiled by the statewide stay-at-home mandate. Sixteen months later, the nonprofit gallery staged what felt like a fitting comeback show—works created by 34 local artists during their year of isolation.

Debuting in July, A Year Apart captured the breadth of emotions brought on by pandemic life, and, in some instances, revealed how artists used art making as a coping mechanism. Upon entering the gallery on West Broad Street in Falls Church, visitors were confronted with “Grief,” a large oilon-linen work by Elaine Sandeen, incorporating embroidery and beading, of a somber woman holding a bouquet of flowers. “Even the edges of this piece are raw and uncertain, reflecting the circumstances of the pandemic” read Sandeen’s artist statement.

A washy, figurative painting by Ian Graig, depicting police oficers in masks during the Spanish flu outbreak of 1918, was overlaid with the phrase, “U.S. deaths near 1,000, an incalculable loss.” Molly McCracken’s mixed-media “Monochrome 2,” meanwhile, presented the current health crisis in a modern context, with eight abstract collages pasted onto cardboard from Amazon grocery deliveries.

Jinny Isserow’s mixed-media “Lean on Me” captured the raw emotion of the Black Lives Matter protests that erupted in the wake of George Floyd’s death.

“It [was] a really beautiful show,” exhibitions coordinator Pamela Huffman says. And for many, very relatable. fallschurcharts.org

Lunches for nurses

Lunch Line

Arlington’s mom-and-pop restaurants were hit hard by the shutdown orders at the start of the pandemic. So the Columbia Pike Partnership (CPP) found a way to support those beloved small businesses while also helping another heavily affected group: nurses. Through its Buy a Nurse Lunch program, donations from area residents began funding free lunches, prepared by struggling restaurants, for nurses at Virginia Hospital Center. Café Sazón provided the first lunc drop, delivering 30 meals in April of 2020. With that order, the café was able to reopen after several weeks of being closed for business.

“These restaurants needed access to capital,” says CPP program director Stephen Gregory Smith. “They didn’t need their hand held, they didn’t need a therapist, they needed money.” Peruvian Brothers, Pupatella, Dama Ethiopian Café and Rincome Thai provided meals in the weeks that followed, and CPP expanded the program, coordinating meal deliveries to nurses at Mary Marshall Assisted Living Residence, the Arlington Free Clinic and Arlington Pediatric Center. Then it partnered with business improvement districts throughout Arlington to widen the circle of participating restaurants and donors even further. The program ended in May of 2021, having raised more than $65,000 and delivered some 4,300 meals to frontline health care workers.

“[Our nurses’] morale was boosted ten-fold, knowing that they had this gift to look forward to each week,” says Hilary Phillips, executive assistant to the president of Virginia Hospital Center, who coordinated the lunch deliveries with Smith.

The week of the last delivery, Smith received a thick envelope filled with thank-you notes from nurses. “This is one of the proudest things I’ve done in my life,” he says. “It shows the best of human beings. It helped sustain these businesses and also helped sustain these nurses’ souls. It’s been a bright beacon.” columbia-pike.org