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Phillips@THEARC

We welcome artmakers of all ages and experience levels to our free programs.

Trap Bob Workshop

Visitor Information

Phillips@THEARC is located at THEARC West:
1801 Mississippi Avenue, SE
Washington, DC 20020

Metro Green Line

Southern Avenue Station (12 minute walk / 3 minute drive to THEARC)

Metro Bus Lines

94 (Stanton Road Line)
30, 32, 34, 35, 36 (Pennsylvania Avenue Line)
W2, 3 (Southeast Community Hospital-Anacostia Line)

The Phillips Collection’s workshop and gallery at the Town Hall Education Arts Recreation Campus (THEARC) provides a space to view, discuss, make, and exhibit art. Our programs are co-created with our partners and participants to encourage authentic community dialogue, community planning, and community action. Our work is about making friends, sustaining relationships, and bringing joy.

Phillips@THEARC Exhibitions and Events

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Phillips@THEARC Exhibition
Collage of three artworks by CARD fellows

Three Lines

Free / In-Person

Colorful collage made of patterned fabric

Community Exhibitions

Our community exhibitions at 21st Street and at Phillips@THEARC provide opportunities to show the important works of art made by our communities.

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Public Programs

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  • Hands-On Artist Led Workshops

    Local artists discuss their work and teach art making techniques.

  • Spinning a Yarn: Crochet Circle:

    Join our Community Crochet Circle led by Dwayne Lawson-Brown (aka the Crochet Kingpin), where the worlds of ekphrastic poetry, visual art, and textile craft intertwine. Each month, we will select a work of art from The Phillips Collection as inspiration for our crochet projects. All skill levels and ages are welcome. 

    Learn more about Dwayne and the Crochet Circle

  • Creative Seedlings

    Inspired by Wesley Clark’s centennial installation genesis, Phillips@THEARC, in collaboration with Blerdcon founder Hilton George, hosts a series of dinner and dialogues on Blerd culture. 

    Event Schedule

    • Thursday, September 12, 2024, from 6-8:30 pm
    • Thursday, December 12, 2024, from 6-8:30 pm
    • Thursday, April 11, 2025, from 6-8:30 pm
    • Thursday, June 12, 2025, from 6-8:30 pm

Local artists discuss their work and teach art making techniques.

Trap Bob Workshop

Partner Programs

Phillips@THEARC at the Anacostia River Festival

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.

Photograph of two older women seated at a table using colorful tape to make are

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.

Photograph of female students in an art workshop with one smiling at the camera and holding up her creation

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).

Photograph of the Creativity Workshop at Phillips@THEARC


Working with the Community

Community Advisory Committee

Before developing Phillips@THEARC, the museum conducted an eight-month Community Advisory Committee Initiative to determine needs, goals, and programmatic directions in collaboration with our new neighbors. The committee discussed community needs, performed asset-mapping, and provided insights on draft goals, preliminary programming, and the architecture and design of the facility. 

Four strategic goals, for the first three years, emerged from the Phillips@THEARC Community Advisory Committee Initiative:

  • Demonstrate an authentic connection and commitment to East of the River communities, developing relationships with THEARC partners
  • Create an engaging, inviting, and active atmosphere through the architectural and interior design of the Phillips@THEARC spaces
  • Pilot programs in collaboration with THEARC partners that tap into existing community resources
  • Deepen the Phillips’s ongoing school partnerships East of the River, connect these K-12 partnerships to Phillips@THEARC in intentional and innovative ways, seek out new potential K-12 partners in Wards 7, 8.

We are currently reforming our Community Advisory Committee to address our changing times. Stay tuned for ways that you can get involved.

Why Phillips@THEARC?

Our programming at Phillips@THEARC takes art and wellness beyond the walls of the museum. One of our strategic goals is to engage communities in a meaningful way. We do this by forming partnerships and collaborations to deepen our social commitment, responsibility, and sustainability to our community.
We envision Phillips@THEARC to be a place where access and equity is built into the planning and implementation of our programming, exhibitions, and engagement.