Arts on the Block

You’ve probably walked past our work without knowing it. 🎨

For more than 20 years, Arts on the Block has partnered with communities, businesses, and local governments to bring mosaics and murals to shared public spaces. Many of those pieces were designed and built with help from our youth apprentices.

A few favorites in this album:
🕰️ Wheaton Tower Makeover, downtown Wheaton
🚌 Transit Out of this World, Lake Forest Transit Center
🛣️ Sidewalk insets at 11 FLASH stations along US 29
🏦 Murals at Chase’s Cabin John and Minnesota Ave (Anacostia) branches
🌅 Season of Sunrises, Black Hill in Germantown

Thank you to MCDOTNow, Wheaton Urban District, Arts and Humanities Council of Montgomery County, and Chase for helping bring this work to life. 💜

See the full portfolio here: https://www.artsontheblock.com/portfolio/

Have a wall, a space, or an idea? Let’s talk!

This week we went to Spur Local's GivingTuesday Preview Party in DC, and during the Power Hour challenge, YOU helped us bring in 20 donors in just one hour! That made us the winner of an extra $500 for our GivingTuesday campaign.

Thank you to everyone who gave, shared, and cheered us on, and a big thank you to Spur Local for hosting such a fun evening and for the $500 boost. We met so many great nonprofits doing amazing work around the region.

This is just the beginning of our end-of-year giving season, and we can do this together! 👉 https://www.givelocaltogether.org/o/artsontheblock

We had some special visitors at the studio! 👋

The crew from Montgomery Community Media stopped by Arts on the Block for a tour. They checked out the mosaics our apprentices are piecing together (seriously, scroll through to see the detail on those butterflies 🦋), saw the designs our young artists created, and heard all about our program for local high schoolers.

It’s always a good day when two Montgomery County creative spaces get together. Thanks for coming by, MCM! 💜

Want to see the studio for yourself or support our young artists? Visit artsontheblock.com.

What does it take to grow as an artist? Our apprentices answered with a wall of art. 🎨

Each piece takes one step of the creative process (envisioning, observing, reflecting, experimenting, persisting) and makes it their own. Together, they show what happens when young artists have a space to create and the skills to build on it.

This National Arts & Humanities Month, we’re celebrating them 💜

Support the next generation of creatives at the link in bio.

October is National Arts & Humanities Month, and we've been thinking about what our apprentices really take with them when they leave the studio. 🎨

Yes, they learn to make beautiful art. But they also learn to sketch and revise until a design is right, to stand up and pitch their ideas to real clients, to lead a project when their design gets picked, and to build something together that's too big for any one person.

Some of them walk in too shy to speak up in a room. They walk out presenting to clients and funders. That's the Artpreneurs Apprenticeship, right here in downtown Silver Spring.

Click through the photos to see the process, and learn more about the program at artsontheblock.com.

Thank you to the teaching artists and volunteers who show up. 💛

This summer, our teaching artists and volunteers gave our apprentices so much more than technique. They gave them mentorship, encouragement, and a studio that felt like home. Some of our students started the summer barely speaking above a whisper and ended it presenting their work with confidence. That growth happened because of the people who showed up for them every day.

Thank you to our summer 2026 teaching artists and volunteers. We couldn't do this without you.

FROM ACORN TO OAK 🌰🌳

Last Monday, we joined Friends of White Oak to dedicate "From Acorn to Oak," a vibrant new mural at the White Oak Community Recreation Center celebrating the neighborhood's roots, creativity, and continued growth.

We're especially proud that the mural was created by local artists Mars Belacheu, our own Workshops & Events Coordinator, and Edwin H. 💜

Commissioned and donated by Friends of White Oak, the project grew out of a placemaking effort that began in 2022, created in partnership with Montgomery County Dept of Rec , Springbrook High School - An IB World School , and Arts on the Block. It's a beautiful example of what happens when a community comes together to tell its own story through art.

Thank you to everyone who helped bring this vision to life, including Councilmember Kristin Mink, Montgomery County Recreation Director Gabe Albornoz, Tenisha Reid of the White Oak Community Recreation Center, Friends of White Oak board members June Henderson and Bill Bentley, former board member Kim Jones, and our Executive Director Chris Barclay.

Swing by 1700 April Lane and see it for yourself!

📸 Photos courtesy of the Montgomery County Council

Made by teenage hands. Built to last. 🧩

This summer, our Artpreneurs apprentices took on a real public art commission: mosaics for the Montgomery County Department of Transportation. Thousands of hand-set tiles went into them, and each one was cut, sorted, and placed by young artists in our Silver Spring studio.

These pieces will be part of the community for years to come, and so will the skills our apprentices built making them. Thank you to everyone who helps make this work possible. ❤️