Phillips@THEARC
We welcome artmakers of all ages and experience levels to our free programs.
Visit Phillips@THEARC at the Town Hall Education Arts Recreation Campus. While we prepare to launch Art-Play-Practice, we’re open only during public programs—come see us then!
Coming June 2026: Art-Play-Practice
Art-Play-Practice is a new initiative at Phillips@THEARC that invites you to step inside a work of art from The Phillips Collection. The first experience is inspired by Broad Cape, the work of internationally renowned DC artist Sam Gilliam. Art-Play-Practice is for all ages and encourages you to play while surrounded by color, canvas, and imagination.
Until Art-Play-Practice launches, our Crochet Circle continues monthly every second Wednesday with guest artist Dwayne Lawson Brown (aka The Crochet Kingpin). Join us!
What’s On
Partner Programs
Community Festivals
Organized by Building Bridges Across the River and 11th Street Bridge Park, community festivals offer a vast range of activities organized by resident partners of THEARC. These festivals also offer a space for community outreach. You can find Phillips@THEARC at the Back-to-School Festival, Taste of the Harvest, Trunk-n-Treat, The Annual Holiday Event, Spring Fling, and Anacostia River Festival.
Partner Programs
Mindful Vibes: Art + Yoga
Mindful Vibes: Art + Yoga started in January 2023 with Dr Valerie Rucker-Bussie, founder of Priority One Wellness and SE resident, as an after-school program for seventh and eighth graders at Washington School for Girls, one of the resident partners at THEARC. At the end of the four-week pilot, students expressed how much joy they found in yoga, art, and community, and the program has continued since.
Creative Aging
Creative Aging is a multi-visit, conversation-based art experience for older adults with memory loss, low vision, and other chronic cognitive and physical conditions, linking art and wellness. Our partners include Iona Senior Services, in Northwest and Southeast DC; Arts for the Aging, throughout the DC area; and Congress Heights Senior Wellness Center in Southeast DC.
School Programs
Free Field Trips to the Phillips
The Phillips offers free field trips to the museum for all DCPS and DCPCS schools.
Free Teacher Training
The Phillips offers free teacher training on Prism.K12, the Phillips arts-integration methodology, to all DCPS and DCPCS schools.
Art Links to Learning
Art Links to Learning is the Phillips’s in-depth partnership program for DCPS Title-1 schools. Partnering-school teachers and students work with the museum’s educators for three to five years on best-practice arts-integration. Currently, Art Links works with the Washington School for Girls at THEARC and Turner Elementary School (DCPS).
