Old Town Fairfax is becoming a new hotbed for the arts.
With a label like Old Town, you can be forgiven for overlooking it, but a quick walk down Main Street reveals something new is happening within the historic blocks of Fairfax. In the past year a number of shops and galleries have opened their doors and are serving as the foundation for an emerging arts community in Northern Virginia.
Among the area’s new residents are Mobius Records, which opened last August and sells new and vintage vinyl records, De Clieu Coffee, which is connected to Mobius and opened last October, and Olly Olly Art Gallery, which opened its doors this past January.
Dempsey Hamilton, a former live sound engineer for bands Thao & The Get Down Stay Down and Blonde Redhead, opened up Mobius because he saw a resurgence in vinyl records.
“Whenever I would finish sound check I would find a local record store for my own habitual needs,” says Hamilton. “Then I started noticing there were more and more people the more I would go … something is happening here.”
Hamilton, who lives with his family just three blocks from Old Town Fairfax, landed with his location because De Clieu Coffee was already scheduled to open in the adjacent building, and the two businesses quickly saw an opportunity to integrate.
“We are kind of a cohesive thing regardless of the fact that we’re two separate businesses,” says Hamilton. “We can cross promote and help each other out all the time.”
That’s just one example of the supportive artist community Jessica Kallista, one of the Olly Olly Art Gallery founders, set out to create when she opened the studio.
“The name Olly Olly comes from when we were kids and playing hide and seek,” says Kallista. “It’s Olly Olly oxen free; it’s like a call to artists to come back into the game or come out from hiding from their homes and studios and have a home base to be collaborating and creating together.”
One element of Olly Olly that facilitates collaboration is a weekly art gym. People of all artistic ranges can buy a membership and come to Olly Olly on Tuesday or Thursday nights to work out their art muscles by creating and sharing pieces.
Why is Old Town Fairfax becoming a hotbed for arts all of a sudden? The answer may be George Mason University.
Mason is now one of the largest universities in the state, with enrollment larger than Virginia Tech, University of Virginia and James Madison University. The influx of youth has brought fresh life to Old Town Fairfax.
“Once they embraced we were a college town, more stuff has been happening,” says Hamilton, who certainly has seen the influence of college kids; nearly 60 percent of Mobius’ customers are high school- or college-aged.
With redevelopment going on since 2006 and culminating with Old Town Square, a park set to open April 18 on Main Street and University Drive, Old Town Fairfax has a whole new look.
“It’s growing really, really quickly,” says Kallista. “A lot of stuff is happening down here.”
“I’ve lived here since ’08,” says Hamilton, “and it’s taken quite some time for things to happen, but I think this kick-start has finally pushed [Fairfax] into the mainstream where people are paying attention.” —Michael Balderston
(April 2015)
