Fall Art Tour

By Bob Tagert

Artists of Rappahannock

As you will learn in this issue, October is Virginia Wine Month and a perfect time to drive out to the Blue Ridge Mountains. Tailgating Virginia Wine Month is the 14th annual Fall Art Tour of the Artists of Rappahannock County the first weekend of November.

The Blue Ridge Mountains are more than home to beautiful scenery and world class wine, they are also home to many outstanding artist’s studios and galleries. You are invited to tour over 40 galleries and studios featuring more than 100 participating artists showing works in a wide variety of media, including paintings, sculpture, pottery, forged ironwork, jewelry, textiles, stained glass and photography. The self-guided Tour begins at The Washington School in “Little” Washington, Virginia, where, for a $10 per person admission, you will be able to view representative artwork from each of the studios and galleries and pick up a map with driving directions to all locations. The Fall Art Tour is brought to you by the Rappahannock Association for Arts and Community (RAAC), the flagship nonprofit organization founded in 1982. RAAC offers art programs in multiple disciplines to the Rappahannock and surrounding communities.

As those of you who regularly read our publication, we love the Blue Ridge and Rappahannock County. We try to spend at least one night a month out there. The fall months are the perfect time of the year to spend a few days in the mountains. The air is crisp, and the leaves are beginning to show their fall colors. The leaves will begin to change color earlier in the mountains than in the cities, so it is perfect timing. The Greenfield Inn is a primo place to lay your head after a long day of touring as is 29 Main.

The galleries and studios are strung out throughout the county. Some are clustered together in the beautiful towns of Sperryville and Washington while others are up a winding roads in the heart of the mountains. In addition, you can also enjoy the various dining options around the county and in town. One of our favorites in Tula’s in Little Washington. Meeting the locals is also a treat…you will find many former Alexandrians here. Getting around is easy as all of the roads are in good shape and traffic is unimpeded as there are no traffic signals in Rappahannock County.

It would be very difficult to feature all the artists we met while gathering information for this piece in this article, so we leave it up to you to introduce yourselves when you take the tour and be sure to tell them that the Old Town Crier sent you. This is one of the premier events in this part of The Commonwealth, so make your plans now!