Pyramid Atlantic Art Center

We are very lucky to have this in our community.
I went to Pyramid for Crafts and Cocktails– a wonderful event where I got to do letter press, stamping, screen printing, and I made a book out of twigs and leather.
This place is just awesome! A communal art studio that allows community members to use professional equipment to make wonderful art.
They have stuff for
Screen Printing (including that giant machine that exposes images onto screens)
Letter Press
Glass Making Studio
Paper Making Studio
Book Making materials
I mean— what more could you want! And the management there is awesome! And they have the Washington Printmakers Gallery in the building. And they have studio space for artists. And they’re the best.
I’m so glad that I learned about this place! It’s just such a special piece of the community that everyone should know about and utilize!

Discovered this place today, although surprisingly I must have walked by it over 50 times. It’s set back just a bit from the main road, in a nonchalant – yet artsy brick building. Look for the [seemingly changing] sculpture in the front lot.
It was pretty amazing actually. When I had gone to the «Torpedo Factory» in Alexandria, I think I might have imagined something more like this and was disappointed, so now I’m happy again… Pyramid is such a unique venue… for artists, lovers of art, and Looky Lucy’s who are just curious. They have a gallery upstairs, where they showcase locals and hold private events. On the main floor there’s the kitten kaboodle:
— Paper Making stations (from s-​c-​r-​a-​t-​c-​h)
— Book Making stations (with gorgeous plethora of covers to choose from)
— Screen Printing stations (where you transfer images from PDFs, to transparencies, cover with acrylic, and hot box to dry – pretty neat process)
Each of these activities has a great depth of detail. For my first time in, it was fun to dabble in the basics, but if you join the center you can learn such range and technique for each purpose. I found the whole building to be one big piece of art itself. The Director (Jose) and each of the working artists have such a passion for what they do – and they can communicate it! They’re easy to talk to and delighted to teach. Great venue for camps, parties, team building, therapeutic activity, and learning/​refining artists alike.
Final Review: «4.5» stars, only because [I didn’t see, so] I don’t think there was a station for learning about Pottery. Whenever I think of an art studio, the scene from Ghost keeps popping in my head and one day I’d like to learn how to do that.

I’m reviewing this as a music venue. Pyramid Atlantic hosts a series called Sonic Circuits, which features experimental music and mixed media. A friend and I took our 8 year old daughters to the first 90 minutes to check it out. The music sounded like the soundtrack to an alien invasion movie, and was oddly relaxing. Almost meditative. the best part was the intimacy of the environment. The girls got to try the performer’s instruments before the show, which they loved. We saw two acts. It wasn’t really what moves me musically, but I’m glad to have it in the neighborhood. The show was seated (folding chairs) and cheap. They had beer and water for sale, and you could look at the art gallery between sets.

Only place I know anywhere that has free shows of talented experimental music on many evenings of the month, hosted by a collaboration of musicians known as Sonic Circuits. The coolest place ever.

I took one of the Free for Members class at Pyramid on Friday. It was taught by Karen Brown and was an experimental printmaking class. It was so freeing and creative. I felt that all of my ideas where welcome and I never felt like I was talented enough or intimidated. I left feeling like the most talented artist in the world. Whether I am or not doesn’t really matter. It was just great to be in a welcoming creative space for 2 hours.