If the historic walls of Workhouse Arts Center (workhousearts.org) could talk, they would tell very different stories from those they are collecting now as a cultural arts center.
President Theodore Roosevelt launched the site at Lorton Workhouse in the early 20th century to house and rehabilitate Washington, D.C., prisoners in a more uplifting environment than crowded urban jails. The site continued as a correction facility for over 90 years but was abandoned around the turn of the 21st century.
Today, the Workhouse Arts Center has seven artist studio buildings, galleries and a Youth Arts Center. Performing arts are staged in a theater and the film institute. When all renovations are complete, the complex will have nearly 300,000 square feet of reused and new buildings on 40 acres of open space.
The Gallery Building and the Quad host events and meetings. The Gallery building has two floors and can be rented in whole or part to accommodate up to 350 people for dinners and receptions. The Quad was designed in the early 20th century to promote positive social interaction and is bordered on two sides by brick-lined arcades that connect artist studio buildings. It offers a fresh, outdoor ambience for events.
