STARTING FRESH AT THE TORPEDO FACTORY

BY MARY ANN BARTON

For nearly 50 years, Alexandria artist and community leader Marian Van Landingham has made her way down to the City’s waterfront, where she heads to Studio 321 at the Torpedo Factory Art Center.

“Four days a week, I go down there and paint,” said Van Landingham, 85, who was instrumental in turning the former munitions plant into what it is today. The soaring space filled with art galleries and art studios is a place where the public can stop in to watch an artist create their latest masterpiece, with the Alexandria waterfront as a backdrop.

In 1974, the building was dilapidated, with broken windows and pigeons roosting inside. Van Landingham was president of The Art League. “We were at 315 Cameron St., right across from City Hall and our lease was running out,” she recalled.

“I was looking at every space in town to figure out where we could go,” she said. The editor of one of the local newspapers suggested the Torpedo Factory. At the time, it had fallen into disrepair. “He said, ‘Why not the Torpedo Factory?’ Nobody knows what to do with it.’”

Van Landingham went down to take a look at it. “Gosh what a space! But it was a mess,” she said.

As it was owned by the city, “it would have to be a tourist attraction,” she said. The City Council backed the idea. Then-Mayor Charles “Chuck” Beatley, “was very supportive,” she said.

Van Landingham and other artists gathered that summer, when Alexandria was celebrating its bicentennial, for a celebratory opening near the loading dock of the building. When artists moved in, a jury system was put into place after it was apparent that “some artists weren’t up to snuff,” Van Landingham said. For years, many of the same artists occupied the studios.

A new annual jury system implemented recently, which involves new jurors each year and uses a point system, has “certainly been controversial,” she noted. “Some good people gave up and left. It was a sad time around the Factory this fall.”

Brett John Johnson, director of the Torpedo Factory, said one-third of the building’s artists were re-juried last year. The jury system is based on points, with the majority of those earned by the quality of the artists’ work. Other factors include an artist’s ability to engage with the public and communicate about their art.

The city-owned Torpedo Factory is implementing the city’s vibrancy plan, also known as the Action Plan for Vibrancy and Sustainability at the Torpedo Factory Art Center. Since 2016, the art center has been managed by the City’s Office of the Arts.

Meanwhile a 20-member stakeholder task force, made up of representatives of local groups working with a consultant, has been busy considering ways to help attract more visitors and will offer up strategies for the future. The group committed to at least five meetings with City Manager James Parajon.

The group was surveyed to prioritize actions to improve the vibrancy at the Torpedo Factory. The top suggestions were to enhance the waterfront entry;

“wow factor” intervention, public visible events space and creating a rooftop sculpture park/cafe/coffee shop and gift shop. Under “not recommended” was a restaurant and modifying the main stairway.

The task force saw how a number of similar art centers from around the country operate, regarding budgets, public-private management, programming and more. (One insight: If the Torpedo Factory wants to offer more programming, more staff will be needed.)

Artists who earn a spot at the Torpedo Factory are required to spend at least 1,456 hours per year at their studio, which breaks down to roughly 28 hours per week. The time commitment is less for those sharing studios. Similar art organizations don’t set as high a bar, according to the consultants working with the task force.

One member of the stakeholder task force noted that some artists at the Torpedo Factory aren’t keeping up their commitments to work in their studios during visiting hours. “That’s one reason vibrancy slips,” he said.

Johnson noted that he does not personally monitor artists’ time at the Torpedo Factory but some sort of electronic system may be considered.

The artists rent the space at 60 percent below its market value (less than $17 per square foot), which is one of the most-subsidized of similar art centers. A task force member noted that raising rents should be considered as well as governing the art center with a board, which could offer more flexibility in terms of fundraising.

Eighty-five percent of the Torpedo Factory’s revenue comes from the rental of the studios; the rest is from outside rentals for things like weddings and other events and income from the Target Gallery.

The Torpedo Factory further engages the public with ongoing special events, including its “Late Shift” events held until 10 p.m. on the second Friday of every month from April to October. A “flex space” on the third floor, looking out on the waterfront, is available for artist talks, weddings and performances.

“We just started using it,” Johnson said. “We want to do more ticketed events.”

Before the pandemic, the Torpedo Factory saw about a half-million visitors per year. Those numbers plummeted during COVID but the art center is back to seeing nearly half a million annual visitors again.

The Torpedo Factory is also sharing its art with exhibitions at the Hilton Alexandria Mark Center in the West End. An all-City high school exhibition is expected to be underway and on display this spring through March 10.

In March, the Target Gallery’s 13th annual March 150 open exhibition fundraiser will see more than 100 artists create

In March, the Target Gallery’s 13th annual March 150 open exhibition fundraiser will see more than 100 artists create 10” by 10” works that they then donate. Each work of art will be for sale for $150. Look for cherry blossom-related events coming up in April.

Meanwhile, Johnson and others interested in the future of the art center, await the recommendations of the task force meetings. “Because of that, we’re not making major program decisions until we see the outcomes,” he said.

What everyone agrees on: The Torpedo Factory Art Center is unique, it needs some capital improvements and all are interested in seeing it not only succeed, but thrive.