Post 596: A PWAS Look Back and What's Ahead 2026

A PWAS Look Back and What's Ahead 2026

An email from the Prince William Art Society (PWAS) Interim President, Sandra McClelland Lewin and the PWAS 2024-2025 Board reviewing the activities and successes of the art group. Let's have a look at some of the art shows and events.

January 2026 PWAS

The current outgoing members of Prince William Art Society's Board of Directors have compiled a report of the major activities and accomplishments during the past two years.  WOW!  It has been an extremely active and productive time for PWAS.  We encourage you to review the report and think of ways you can get involved.  It is important that our members participate as PWAS board members.  Elections are planned for the January 26th meeting.  Most of the current board members will not be running for re-election, so there is plenty of room for new voices.  New board members will be able to call on the experience of the outgoing board whenever needed, so you won't be going it alone.

 

See a History of the Prince William Art Society 

PWAS 2024-2025 Review

🎨 PWAS Member Update: A Look Back & What’s Ahead!

It has been an incredible journey since the current PWAS Board began work in January 2024! As our 2024–2025 board term ends, we wanted to take a moment to celebrate everything we’ve accomplished together.

Over the past two years, PWAS has experienced an exciting period of growth, change, and creative energy. The Board has worked thoughtfully to guide the organization forward, opening the door to new opportunities and collaborations. Members came together in early 2024 for the GoWell Exhibit and celebrated the creation of our Plein Air group (PWAS Plein Air Posse), giving artists new ways to connect, paint, and share their work.

PWAS 2024

The momentum continued throughout 2024 with a full calendar of engaging events. PWAS artists participated in art gatherings such as the Bluebell Festival in April, the Artist Inventory Sale in Manassas, the Bee Festival, and ArtsAlive 2024. We had successful juried exhibits at the Sunshine Ridge Winery and the ArtFactory.  We used grant money to provide a memorable field trip to the National Gallery of Art in October. We wrapped up the year with well-received exhibits at Montclair Library and Three Fox Vineyard & Brewery, capped off by a joyful Holiday Party 2024 that brought everyone together to celebrate the season and our shared accomplishments.

PWAS 2025

In 2025, PWAS continued to expand its presence and deepen member connections. From the Bull Run Library Show in January to spring and fall shows at Tall Oaks, our artists stayed busy and visible. Highlights included the juried exhibit for PWAS members at the ARTFfactory followed by our first PWAS sponsored Best of Region Show that was also held at the ArtFactory. This was the first Best of the Region show that had been held in several years and brought in artists from all around the Northern Virginia area. We participated in the Bluebell Festival at Merrimac Farm in Nokesville, the Maker Faire at Bull Run Library in June followed by favorite events like ArtsAlive at the Hylton Center and Art in the Garden at Montclair Library. November brought the newly renamed Autumn Art Market at the ArtFactory. I should note that none of these pop-up art shows would be possible without our members volunteering to organize, bring and return art stands and equipment from our storage facility, and run the sales. Once again, the year concluded with a festive Holiday Party 2025 that celebrated another successful year.

Encouraging the artistic growth of our members is a major objective of PWAS. For the past two years we have expanded our offerings of classes and workshops under the direction of our Member at Large, Tom Payne. Classes have included watercolor, collage, framing, marketing, gilding, and plein air painting just to name a few. We often have guest speakers at our meetings who share their techniques and introduce new materials. (Guest Speakers include Mike Flynn, Christine Dixon, Jessica Pidcock, Charles and Holly Todd, Valerie Larson, M. Jane Johnson, Janet Stoeke, Delwyn Elizabeth, Robert Dew, Patty Gutledge, Elena Jochum, and Michele Frantz)

We also make time to get to know each other better through activities like “Get to Know Your Fellow Artists” and popular Show & Tell evenings, where members share their work and stories.

PWAS continues to support our Jewell Pratt Burns Scholarship Program, providing a $1000.00 scholarship to one or more Prince William high school seniors who plan to major in art. In 2024 the awards went to Allyson Burke from Colgan High School and Zeenat Ameri from Battlefield High School. In 2025 the award went to Faith Garcia Young from Saint John Paul the Great High School. These scholarships are made possible through donations and the hard work of our scholarship committee, led by Emily Hawes.

Behind the scenes, important foundational work has also taken place. PWAS updated its By-Laws and established a solid 2026 budget. Thanks to our webmaster, Larry Burch, we are now able to take payment and register for classes and events online. The PWAS Artistry Spin Blog, written by our Social Media chair Donna Liguria, provides helpful information about the business of art and upcoming exhibits.

What’s in store for the coming year? We have an exciting, juried art show coming up in July at the ArtFactory—a month-long, well-publicized exhibit designed to draw art lovers and collectors from around the region. Who knows? One of them may fall in love with your work!  We’ll also continue our popular pop-up shows while exploring longer-term exhibit opportunities. With the recent closure of the Prince William County Arts Council (PWCAC), there may be an opportunity to help form a new county-wide collaborative group focused on visual artists. That effort could eventually lead to a dedicated gallery space for exhibits, meetings, and classes year-round—and it will take enthusiastic volunteers like you to help make it happen.

 

All of this reflects the friendly, creative, and forward-looking PWAS community we’re so proud of—and we’re excited about what’s still ahead.

Thanks for being part of the PWAS journey,

Your 2024-2025 PWAS Executive Board

 

Sandra McClelland Lewin, Interim President

 

Eric Nodofor, Treasurer

 

Bettie Sperty, Secretary

 

Tom Payne, Member at Large

 

Staci Blanchard, Community Arts Liaison 

 

🎨🎨And from me, Donna Liguria, I want to thank this Executive Board for a job well done. I've been to nearly every PWAS Meeting and PWAS Board Meeting the last 2 years and have been impressed with this team of artists (and friends). Every single person has worked diligently and professionally at all times to ensure that the Prince William Art Society is successful in all of our activities and projects.  It does indeed take a village and those willing to help make the PWAS art group known and ongoing for the PWC artists.

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Author: Sandra McClelland Lewin Interim President and artist member.

Author: Donna Liguria is the Blogmaster for the PWAS Artistry Spin Blog and Donna's Cave Paintings Blog, and an artist member of the Prince William Art Society (PWAS) in Woodbridge, Virginia. And she takes on the PWAS social media duties as well (help me!) Donna specializes in acrylic painting of landscapes, seascapes, historic locations, animals and many subjects. Visit her Website at DonnaLiguriaArt.com and her Donna's Esty site to shop her art. 

Local Art: The Prince William Art Society is a 50+-year-old non-profit art group in PWC for the appreciation of fine art throughout the county and Northern Virginia. Visit us at any of our local art shows or join us for our monthly meetings - held on the 4th Monday of the month at the Tall Oaks Community Center at 12298 Cotton Mill Dr, Woodbridge, VA at 7:30pm (typically, but check the website in case of any changes).

Want to join PWAS? Go to https://www.princewilliamartsociety.com/membership

Have an idea for a blog post? Are you a writer and want to help with the blog? Let me know! Thank you for visiting, and remember to Share, Follow, and Comment (below)! ...Remember, comments are monitored so they will not show up immediately.

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Post 576: PWAS Elections Discussion Oct 20 and Nov 24, 2025

Prince William Art Society Elections Discussion Oct 20 and Nov 24, 2025

Yes, it is that time again. The Prince William Art Society will be nominating and voting for a new Board of Directors for the 2026 and 2027 term in our next couple of meetings. In October and November, the PWAS meetings will include the makings of the future of PWAS. It is the people that volunteer that build a vibrant art community, enriching the entire team of artists, encouraging the new members, and communicating the art culture in the community.

The PWAS Art Group in Prince William County

The Prince William Art Society began in 1971. That is a good, long history for an art group, right? Fifty-four years as of this typing. That is a lot of artists joining together for a common cause and love of art - and volunteering to get those causes and projects, art shows and events, meetings and programs, field trips and art classes completed for the benefit of all involved.

Who were those people that led the group? They were all artists the same as you and me. They were all people that jumped in and took charge of projects to get all of our art seen and heard throughout our area, one way or another. 

Volunteering. We may look at that as a bad word, because who has time between family, home, work, and studio time to do anything else? Let alone for FREE. There was a saying a few years ago that might apply - "Everyone wants a piece of me!" Probably true, but time and talent, a desire, loyalty, and determination are what we need.

As you know, when we desire/want to do a thing, we do find a way to do what we want to do. And when we find we must do a thing, we find a way to get it done whether by getting it done ourselves, or directing it done by another.

For a 501(c)3 Nonprofit art group, like the Prince William Art Society, that means that according to the by-laws, that no Board, Committee person, or member is compensated. In plain terminology members are not paid to do the work of the art group. Period. We are a group of volunteers, offering our desire to help the group succeed in our goals and purposes.

Even better if we already have the skill sets to make the job happen. And perfectly fine if we at least have the desire to learn how to make that position work. 

Wherever possible, how to do the job, the position, whatever, is documented. The past members that had those positions are more than willing to help you launch. 

What Do You Want to Get Out of the Art Group?

People join art groups, art communities for a variety of reasons. Here is a list of reasons:

• Inspiration
• Collaboration
• Networking
• Exposure
• Support
• Feedback
• Motivation

Which one are you? What made you join PWAS? In the group we can:

• Celebrate each others successes.
• Build up long time friendships with like minded creative souls. 
• Get out of our comfort zones and take risks, learn something new.
• Organize art challenges, learn a new approach, push our boundaries. 
• We may offer mentorship for someone.
• We may go to places we may never have gone to on our own. 
• Perhaps potentially make money from the things we create with our own hands.

Now, for the big question. What are YOU doing to be a part of your art group?

Unfortunately, every organization that is built by the people that volunteer their time is running into difficulties in having people step up and help. We hear it from other art groups, near and far how difficult it is to find people. There simply comes a time when the next generation of leaders, must arrive and do the work for a thing to continue. 

If there is something you don't like about your art group, if there is something you would like to see improved upon - YOU can be the one to help make that change. You can be on that management team that maintains, develops, and moves the vision of that group.

What are you willing to do? 

• Are you being an active participant?
• Are you sharing your skill sets, your knowledge?
• Are you using your organizational skills?
• Are you being encouraging and supportive of your fellow artists? 

Learn by Doing - Personal Growth

You know, everyone has ideas and suggestions for how to do something or how something should be done. We all do it. We can so easily volunteer these suggestions... We turn that back to you and say, "Great suggestion! Go ahead and get it done".

I've always heard that someone that teaches felt that they learned more about the topic than the students. I think that's true for leaders too. It is an investment in yourself and your own well-being.

You are called upon to step up as the next generation of PWAS Board of Directors. Just be the best you can be by doing the best you can. We believe in you - the next group of volunteers - and we'll all be there for you. You can make a difference.

“The greatest leader is not necessarily the one who does the greatest things. He is the one that gets the people to do the greatest things.” – Ronald Reagan

 

For Further Information 

See 5 Benefits of Artistic Volunteerism for Personal Growth and Volunteer Opportunities in Art Communities in 2024

If you want to learn more about the PWAS Board Positions and their duties, and more about the PWAS Committees, please check out these posts: 

PWAS Board Elections Coming This Fall 

What I Would Like to See at PWAS 

PWAS Group - Something to Think About - Your Board Members

Getting Involved in Your Local Art Group 

See Prince William Art Society (PWAS) for Artists and Art Lovers for the history of the art group.

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Author: Donna Liguria is the Blogmaster for the PWAS Artistry Spin Blog and Donna's Cave Paintings Blog, and an artist member of the Prince William Art Society (PWAS) in Woodbridge, Virginia. And she takes on the PWAS social media duties as well (help me!) Donna specializes in acrylic painting of landscapes, seascapes, historic locations, animals and many subjects. Visit her Website at DonnaLiguriaArt.com and her Donna's Esty site to shop her art. 

Local Art: The Prince William Art Society is a 50+-year-old non-profit art group in PWC for the appreciation of fine art throughout the county and Northern Virginia. Visit us at any of our local art shows or join us for our monthly meetings - held on the 4th Monday of the month at the Tall Oaks Community Center at 12298 Cotton Mill Dr, Woodbridge, VA at 7:30pm (typically, but check the website in case of any changes).

Want to join PWAS? Go to https://www.princewilliamartsociety.com/membership

Thank you for visiting, and remember to Share, Follow, and Comment (below)! ...Remember, comments are monitored so they will not show up immediately.

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Post 565: PWAS Board Elections Coming This Fall

PWAS Board Elections Coming This Fall

Every two years at the Prince William Art Society, known as PWAS, the 2 year term for the PWAS Board of Directors comes to a close. Member elections take place and the outgoing Board is replaced by the incoming Board. With PWAS having started back in 1971, that cycle has made for a long list of people stepping up to volunteer for this nonprofit art organization. Let's take a look at what and who we need to help find our new Board.

 

I voted!

Photo by CHUTTERSNAP on Unsplash

Nominating Committee

Great people with great ideas and a willingness to serve help make up not only the Board of Directors (BoD) for every nonprofit, but for any committee within that group as well. A Nominating Committee is a sub-committee to the BoD that helps to identify and nominate the persons best suited for each position on the Board. The PWAS Board elections will occur later this year, at the PWAS November meeting on November 24, 2025 with the new Board being seated in January 2026 and run until the end of 2027. This being the beginning of May, its a GREAT time to serve on this committee and begin the search!

Positions to Fill for the Board/Vote on:

President

Vice President

Secretary

Treasurer

Member at Large

PWCAC Liason 

Each of these Board Members having voting rights within the Prince William Art Society, setting goals, mission, policy; they are all making decisions about the ultimate success of the art organization. Not all may be leaving, some may desire to continue their roles but the positions will still need to be voted on.

Consider becoming a Nom Com member to help find people that would fill each of the very necessary Board positions. This committee can be a few people or not more than 5 and you will be researching and recruiting your potential PWAS Board members from the PWAS Members!

For the Nominating Committee, you will develop a team of PWAS people that will serve over the next few months or so with the goal of finding those hidden gems within the membership that have the skill sets, the willingness, are active, are respected, have strong decision making skills and its always good to have some great diplomatic skills.

You will need to get familiar with the PWAS By-Laws, especially if they have been updated in recent months. Basically, the Nom Com will prepare the Election Process to be ready in November. We have previously used this time to do some polling with the PWAS members to get ideas from them about art topics they are interested in as well.

And WHO do you contact if you want to be ON the Nominating Committee? Your current Member at Large, Tom Payne. See https://www.princewilliamartsociety.com/board

About the PWAS Board

Several of the current 2024-2025 PWAS Board members have served in their position or in multiple positions, for more than this 2 year cycle, and thank goodness for that. This Board has stepped up and developed some wonderful partnerships and opportunities that have really gotten PWAS better known throughout the area and opened up more areas for PWAS members to share their art, learn more about art, and have FUN with art. And definitely a lot of research has been done with the goal of trying to find our next gallery space. 

But as most of them have said, it is time for some new blood, some fresh faces, perhaps those with new and exciting, energetic personalities to take the potential 2026-2027 Board into Prince William County's art culture future. Nothing happens without someone volunteering their time.

I may not have this quote exactly right, but I think you'll get the gist of it... from our current Interim PWAS President, Sandra McClelland Lewin and it goes along these lines..."If you want to make a change, put yourself in a position so that you can be there to help put those changes in place." It may not be word for word, but doesn't it make sense?

I have some previous Blog Posts about the PWAS Board Positions, Elections, Committee Stuff, Benefits. All worth having a look at.

PWAS Group: Something to Think About 

Get Involved With Your Local Art Group

NonProfit Art Group Committees 

What I Would Like to See at PWAS

Getting Involved With Your Local Art Group, Benefits to Volunteering 

Board Shadowing, Be a Board Stalker

The best thing though, if you are considering a Board position (or a Committee) is that you have time to learn about the position from the persons currently IN those positions. And those Board members are more than willing to answer questions, explain the agenda items, share the contacts, any of the things you need to know. There is time to get a foot in the door and think about how you can volunteer.

The outgoing Board members will be back in the general pop of PWAS in 2026 and will still be available to answer questions along the way too. You don't have to do it on your own!

Have your potential nominees do a trial run by shadowing the potential position they may be considering!

The Prince William Art Society is 54 years old. I'm not sure about you folks, my fellow PWAS'rs, but the benefits of being part of this art group have far exceeded my expectations in not only what I have learned, but the friendships made. And for getting me as an artist in Northern Virginia, the ability to put my art 'out there'.

Volunteer to be a part of the Nominating Committee today! And grab a friend to help!

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Author: Donna Liguria
Artistry Spin Blogmaster and an artist member of PWAS in Woodbridge, VA, specializing in acrylic painting. She paints landscapes, seascapes, animals and many subjects. Visit her Website at DonnaLiguriaArt.com, her Donna's Esty site and her Blog at Donna’s Cave Paintings.

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Local Art: The Prince William Art Society is a 50+-year-old non-profit art group in PWC for the appreciation of fine art throughout the county and Northern Virginia. Visit us at any of our local art shows or join us for our monthly meetings - held on the 4th Monday of the month at the Tall Oaks Community Center at 12298 Cotton Mill Dr, Woodbridge, VA at 7:30pm

Want to join PWAS? Go to https://www.princewilliamartsociety.com/membership

Have an idea for a blog post? Are you a writer and want to help with the blog? Let me know! Thank you for visiting, and remember to Share, Follow, and Comment (below)! ...Remember, comments are monitored so they will not show up immediately.

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