The Art of Making Room
The Spark October 2026
Creativity thrives when people make room for each other.
The Art of Making Room
At Lawrence E. Boone Elementary School in Southeast Washington, the art room is preparing to welcome some new makers: students alongside their families.
With support from Tour de Force Foundation, October grantee Fionnuala Smyth is developing Boone Family Clay Studio, a series of free ceramics workshops where children and caregivers will shape clay, return to glaze their pieces and gather to celebrate what they've made.
The school already has a studio and kiln. Fionnuala's idea is to open that creative space to families, giving adults and children an opportunity to make something together.
It's the kind of invitation TDF loves to support.
Looking a little further afield, we see that same spirit on the horizon across the DMV. On November 7, Adams Morgan Fall PorchFest will turn neighborhood porches, patios and local businesses into stages for free live music around Washington, DC. Then, November 13–15, Pottery on the Hill brings ceramic artists from across the country to Hill Center on Capitol Hill, where visitors can meet the makers and discover handmade work. The Saturday and Sunday show is free.
Both events offer another glimpse of what happens when people open their spaces to others.
A classroom, a studio, a front porch. Each can become somewhere people meet, share ideas and discover what they're capable of making together. Sometimes all it takes is an invitation.
Explore further
IN FOCUS
Keeping It Messy and Creative
Fionnuala Smyth | October 2026 Grantee
Boone Family Clay Studio — Lawrence E. Boone Elementary School, Washington, DC
There's a special joy in opening a kiln and recognizing something you've made. That's the experience visual arts educator Fionnuala Smyth hopes to share through Boone Family Clay Studio at Lawrence E. Boone Elementary School in Southeast Washington.
Her free workshops will invite students and caregivers to shape clay, return to glaze their pieces and finally display them together. The school's Family Engagement Team is helping reach approximately 30 families, with more than one making session planned to fit different schedules.
Fionnuala brings more than two decades of visual-art teaching experience, much of it in DC Public Schools. Originally from New York, she holds a BFA in Painting from the School of Visual Arts and a master's degree in education from Mercy College.
Workshops are proposed for November, with glazing in January and a family gallery celebration in late January or early February, pending school approval. Part of the pleasure is coming back to something you've made and seeing it alongside everyone else's.
Fionnuala signs her correspondence, “Keeping it messy and creative.” We couldn't have put it better.
COMMUNITY HAPPENINGS
What's Happening Around the DMV?
Three ways to discover, learn and make art around the DMV.
1. Go-Go Graffiti
Words Beats & Life | Washington, DC
Saturday, October 24, 2026 | 12:30 p.m.
Words Beats & Life—TDF's June 2026 Slamtastic grantee—invites participants to explore Washington's go-go music and graffiti traditions through bold, expressive lettering. This intermediate workshop recommends some previous graffiti experience; advance tickets are required.
Location: Words Beats & Life Headquarters, 1525 Newton Street NW, Washington, DC.
2. Creative Aging Clay
Art Works Now | Hyattsville, Maryland
Thursdays through November 12, 2026 | 10 a.m.–noon
Art Works Now, a November 2025 TDF grantee, invites adults 55 and older to explore ceramics with teaching artist Maria Soboleva. The ten-week course offers skills, company and sliding-scale fees, including a free option. Classes are already underway, so ask about joining the remaining sessions.
Location: Art Works Now, 4800 Rhode Island Avenue, Hyattsville, Maryland.
3. Grounding Our Dreams / Dreaming New Ground
Art Enables | Washington, DC
October 7, 2026 – January 18, 2027
Celebrating 25 years of supporting artists with disabilities, Art Enables presents Grounding Our Dreams / Dreaming New Ground at the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library. The exhibition brings lived experience and imagined futures together through artists' work.
This exhibition offers an opportunity to discover some of those perspectives in one of Washington's most accessible public cultural spaces.
SPECIAL REMEMBRANCE
Remembering Allen “Uzikee” Nelson (1938–2026)
An artist whose work became part of Washington's landscape
Washington lost sculptor Allen “Uzikee” Nelson on September 20, 2026, aged 88. An engineer, educator and artist, he brought steel, stained glass, African artistic traditions and Black cultural memory into the city's public spaces.
Born in Tupelo, Mississippi, Uzikee studied engineering technology at Southern Illinois University, worked in industry and later taught at the University of the District of Columbia. His technical knowledge became part of his artistic language.
In a small triangular park in Petworth, his 2000 sculpture Here I Stand: In the Spirit of Paul Robeson rises above the streets. Two differently rendered faces and panels of colored glass change with the daylight.
The sculpture honors Paul Robeson, the celebrated singer, actor and human-rights activist whose life was shaped by racial justice and African cultural identity.
Friends, family and Washington's cultural community gathered at Union Temple Baptist Church on September 30; TDF's Meg Clerc and Partners for Historical Justice's Mark Auslander attended. Tributes came from DC Councilmember Janeese Lewis George and Gamma Xi Phi, the fraternity for artists that welcomed Uzikee as an honorary member in 2015. Esther Iverem's On the Ground radio program remembered him on October 2.
Uzikee's work also lives on in TDF-supported Re-envisioning Blackness, a close-looking guide developed by Partners for Historical Justice. Its examination of Here I Stand invites readers to explore the sculpture's African ancestral references, imagery and setting.
His work is still there, inviting people to stop, look and think.
Explore Uzikee's work and legacy
FOR MAKERS AND EDUCATORS
What Would You Bring to the Table?
What do porches open to musicians, artists sharing studios and Fionnuala's family workshops have in common? They begin with people offering what they have.
TDF supports DMV artists and educators developing short-term projects with educational, hands-on or community-engagement components. Grants range from $500 to $2,000, and funded projects are generally completed within four months of the grant date.
Explore our FAQs to see what we support and how to plan a proposal.
GIVE
Help Make Room for Creativity
Creative invitations take time, knowledge, materials and behind-the-scenes care. Gifts through our fiscal sponsor, Fractured Atlas, help sustain TDF's operating work; our grant awards are funded separately.
JOIN THE CONVERSATION
What's Your Tour de Force?
What might happen if you opened a space, shared a skill or invited neighbors to make something together? A performance, a family workshop, an idea still searching for its home—we'd love to hear it. Tell us in the comments.
SHARE THE SPARK
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Tour de Force Foundation | Grants to Inspire
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