"We are just thrilled about the idea of increasing foot traffic, of being able to serve the local residents," McLean Project for the Arts Executive Director Lori Carbonneau told FFXnow in April, a few weeks before the nonprofit's new building opened on Fleetwood Road.
That goal of foot traffic explains how the MPA Berlage Arts & Education Center was built. For decades MPA worked out of two galleries inside the McLean Community Center at 1234 Ingleside Avenue. Its second home at 6910 Fleetwood Road is a different kind of space. It has its own entrance on the street and a full-service restaurant, Café Monet. Its gallery hours run until 9 p.m. most nights. The ribbon was cut on April 30, so this autumn is the first full exhibition season with both addresses running side by side. The two current runs of shows end a week apart in November.
A storefront that never had a tenant
The Berlage Center sits on the ground floor of The Signet, a residential condominium building. The space was a commercial condo meant for a restaurant or retail tenant, but no one ever moved in. To MPA it was a blank canvas, and it was more central to downtown McLean than the other site the group had explored.
That other site was Clemyjontri Park. The Fairfax County Park Authority revised its master plan in 2022 to allow an arts center there as a future option. According to Carbonneau, the board instead decided it was important to "invest significant capital in a space we own, ensuring long-term stability." MPA bought the Signet space on Sept. 13, 2024. That same year, Bruce L. Berlage made the naming gift. He is a longtime McLean resident and MPA board member.
Inside, the building is set up to do more than one job. It has three galleries. One is a black box space that can host digital and media work, film screenings and concerts. A folding screen separates it from the main gallery, which is roughly 900 square feet and designed for solo and two-artist shows, and the screen pulls back to join the two rooms. The building also has classrooms, a meeting room that can serve private dining, a ceramics studio, and the café.
Why a separate address mattered to MPA
MCC has been a close partner. Even so, Carbonneau told FFXnow that MPA has sometimes struggled to keep its own identity apart from the community center's. Some visitors assumed MPAartfest, the annual festival at McLean Central Park, was an MCC event.
Both organizations have since made the arrangement clearer. The festival is now called McLean Artfest, and MCC produces it in partnership with MPA. This year's edition was held Oct. 4 at McLean Central Park. Patch described it as a free festival with work by more than 30 Mid-Atlantic artists, along with live music, children's activities and food trucks. MPA keeps its Emerson and Atrium galleries inside MCC, while the year-round programs that carry its name now have a building of their own. With the three Berlage galleries added, MPA runs five galleries in total. Carbonneau called that "a magnificent statement" for showing work by Mid-Atlantic artists working today.
Gallery hours that run past dinner
The hours are where the second address differs most from the first. The Berlage galleries and café are open together Monday through Thursday and Sunday from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. On Friday and Saturday they stay open until 10 p.m. So you can see a show on a weeknight after dinner, which the gallery hours at Ingleside Avenue have not been built around.
Café Monet makes the late hours work. It is run by Knead Hospitality + Design, the James Beard-nominated D.C. group behind Mi Vida, Succotash and Bistro Du Jour, and it was pitched as pan-European. Pre-opening coverage set its debut for May 6, a week after the ribbon cutting. Executive Chef Mario Pineda leads the kitchen and Darlin Kulla is beverage director. The current menu reaches from Spanish-style jamón Ibérico croquettes and tuna crudo to French onion soup, a jambon beurre, steak frites, roasted branzino and beef bourguignon. Brunch includes lemon-ricotta pancakes and croissant sandwiches.
According to its own schedule, Café Monet serves:
- Breakfast on weekdays, 9 to 11 a.m.
- Brunch on weekends, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
- Lunch on weekdays, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.
- Happy hour on weekdays, 2 to 5 p.m.
- Dinner from 4 p.m. on weekdays and 3 p.m. on weekends. Closing times vary by day.
The café has a 1,700-square-foot patio, which also opens off the ceramics room. Seating counts differ by source. FFXnow's April preview gave 46 seats inside and 48 outside, and a May 2 WhatNow preview gave 54 inside and 50 outside on a seasonal basis. Local vendors supplied the build-out, from the chairs to the light sconces.
Five galleries, two closing dates
Between the two addresses, four exhibitions are on view right now. All of them close by mid-November. MPA says its galleries are free to visit.
- (Not) Strictly Painting 15, in the Emerson and Atrium Galleries at the McLean Community Center. This long-running survey of 48 artists runs Sept. 10 through Nov. 7. A Tea & Talk is set for Wednesday, Oct. 21, at 11 a.m.
- Sally Veach, Hubris and the Sublime, in the Sally & John Simms Gallery at Berlage, Sept. 17 through Nov. 14.
- Ian Husting, Afterlight, in Gallery Vivienne at Berlage, Sept. 17 through Nov. 14. An artist talk at Berlage is scheduled for Thursday, Oct. 29, at 7 p.m.
- Freya Grand, FOREST, in the Yasmine C. Iskander Gallery at Berlage, Sept. 17 through Nov. 14.
The two closing dates are what matter for planning. The MCC show comes down first, on Nov. 7, which is a Saturday. The three Berlage shows stay up one more week. If you only have one evening, the Oct. 29 artist talk falls on a Thursday. That is a 9 p.m. night at Berlage, so you could pair the talk with dinner at Café Monet.
Clay brings people in on ordinary weekdays
Exhibitions rotate. The ceramics studio is meant to keep people coming back. MPA Clay opens this month in the Natasha & Mai Iskander Studio at Berlage. It offers Clay Sampler experiences for beginners, plus classes, visiting-artist workshops and a juried studio membership. MPA describes the studio this way:
- Ten wheels and hand-building tables
- A glaze room
- Two large L&L electric kilns in the McLean Community Foundation Kiln Room
- For members, a personal shelf, 24/7 access, studio glazes and cone 6 firing
MPA has not yet posted a specific opening day or a dated class roster. Its online class calendar is the place to watch. MPA also runs drawing, painting, mixed-media and technology-based classes, along with drop-in Life Drawing: Open Studio sessions.
The rest of downtown's fall calendar
The MCC campus at Ingleside Avenue has a busy October and November of its own. Each of these dates can be paired with a stop at one of the two galleries:
- Oct. 9 to 11 and Oct. 16 to 18. McLean Community Players stage "The Addams Family" at the Alden.
- Oct. 10. McLean's 5K starts at 8 a.m. Afterward, the Old Firehouse hosts "IGNITE: Relax & Recover" from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.
- Oct. 31. The Old Firehouse holds its free Festival of Frights & Trunk or Treat from 5 to 8 p.m.
- Nov. 4, 8 and 22. The Alden's 2026–27 season includes "Be Kind, Rewind," Judy Carmichael, and the Duo Mosaic Piano Duo.
For the November Alden dates, plan around the gallery closings. On Nov. 8 and Nov. 22, the MCC show will already be down. The Berlage shows are still up for the first date and gone by the second.
Downtown is still changing around Fleetwood Road. In March, Fairfax County supervisors approved a seven-story, 56-unit mixed-use building at 1368 Beverly Road. Plans include ground-floor retail and a public plaza at Beverly Road and Elm Street. As of May, the project team expected to break ground in summer 2027, so that project will not affect this fall. For now, the newest place to spend an evening downtown is the storefront at The Signet that never had a tenant.
At Sarro Georgatsos Group, we keep up with how places like the Berlage Center change daily life in the neighborhoods we serve. That includes which blocks get busier, which storefronts finally fill, and how a new anchor changes downtown evenings. If you'd like to talk through what's changing near your McLean home, Contact Us.
