Arts

For artists, who tend to work in isolation, friendships are not only a way to maintain sanity but also, sometimes, a creative stimulant. By 2003, Nichols says, the lack of camaraderie was intolerable—and so, like an annoying telemarketer, she started a cold-call campaign “to [find] other artists in town and to see if they wanted to join a group.” She got more than a few “clicks,” she says, before eventually discovering a small group of kindred spirits. That year, Nichols and 15 other artists formed Great Falls Studios—a collective, not a location, and organized an exhibition of their work.

The inaugural show was a bit seat-of-the-pants and attended mostly by the artists themselves. “We got together in a caravan of cars and toured each others’ studios,” Nichols recalls. Still, the interaction was uplifting. Artists began collaborating with each other, equipment was shared, friendships were formed. The next year, a handful of local residents joined the tour, despite rainy weather, and by 2006 the studio tour was drawing a modest number of people. Word got out, more artists popped up, the tour slowly grew. Today, Great Falls Studios has 88 members whose work spans the spectrum—there are painters, potters, sculptors, photographers, digital artists, printmakers, calligraphers and jewelry makers. And the group’s annual fall tour has become a major event in the community.

Certainly, there is no shortage of talent. Jinny Beyer is considered one of the top quilters in the U.S., and busloads of people visit her commercial shop. Ronni Jolles makes layered paper art and is represented in top D.C. galleries. (She formerly taught at Sidwell Friends, which the Obama girls now attend.) Jan Bender is an old-fashioned photographer who makes artful black-and-white photographs. Robin Kent, another Great Falls photographer, has a state-of-the-art digital studio and takes dramatic images of D.C. monuments. Jonathan Fisher, a retired magazine editor, creates massive sculptures and colorful structural reliefs out of wood. “Having those first 16 people go around together built a culture right away,” says Nichols. “It started out being supportive, not competitive. It’s the sense that we’re in this together.”