First Friday Dupont: Art Walk

The Church of Scientology National Affairs Office is hosting a special exhibition to celebrate Human Rights and Juneteenth Freedom Day! This is being presented by United for Human Rights, Youth for Human Rights DC Chapter, and Art Impact® International.

The show features seven artists with a variety of styles who will be at the exhibition in person to discuss their art. Come and meet the artists: Brenda D. Chandler, Mia Delorès, Carolyn Goodridge, Jackson Margolis, Laya Monarez, Floyd Roberts, and Patrick Smith!

The Dupont Underground is open for First Friday and is displaying Berlin Underground. Berlin has long stood as a beacon of subversion and avant-garde spirit—a city where underground movements have shaped culture and challenged convention. Berlin Underground embraces this identity, presenting powerful video works that explore the urgency of change and the radical acceptance of diverse identities in a city that draws artists from around the world. The Dupont Underground is located at 19 Dupont Circle, NW.

The Heurich House Museum will be open on First Friday, June 6^th! You are invited to bring an item that best represents your feelings, experiences, and perceptions of the world over the last six months. People who bring their artifacts will create a museum exhibit label telling their story, and those who do not bring anything can still participate by making a drawing reflecting their own perspectives. Learn about the museum exhibit curation process and how community archives are created and utilized. Come together in conversation with fellow attendees through stories, art, and objects. The Heurich House Museum is located at 1307 New Hampshire Avenue, NW.

IA&A at Hillyer presents 3 new exhibitions in June: First is From Fabric to Paint: Funk, Soul, and the Art of Avis Robinson curated by Tim Brown and Katie Larson, PhD, You Are Here? by Eszter Bornemisza, and finally retreat by Lou Haney. I&A at Hillyer is located at 9 Hillyer Ct. NW and is free to the public with a suggested donation of $10.

The MEI Art Gallery presents “Maximal Miniatures,” which showcases 13 leading contemporary Iranian artists who draw from the classical genre of Persian miniature painting to create new interpretations of this rich visual tradition in color, scale, and form. Curated by Donna Honarpisheh, associate curator at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami, the exhibition references Persian history, poetry, and stories from the Book of Kings (Shahnameh) to explore questions of identity, gender, diaspora, and the mythologies that form past and present lives. The MEI Art Gallery is located at 1763 N Street, NW.

The Museum of the Palestinian People is displaying “Gaza Remains the Story” is an exhibition that centers Gaza’s cultural heritage, resilience, and lived experience amid genocide, war, and ethnic cleansing. Curated in partnership with the Palestinian Museum in the West Bank, this adaptation includes expanded research by curator Wafa Ghnaim and raises urgent questions around cultural preservation, exile, and memory. One painting on view, The Return to Palestine (2020) by Fayez Hasany, transforms cultural motifs of music, movement, and embroidery into a shared vision of return. The Museum of the Palestinian People is located at 1900 18th Street.

Join The National League of American Pen Women (NLAPW) for a vibrant and joyful First Friday in Dupont as we celebrate World Pride 2025 with art, poetry, music, and community! NLAPW proudly opens its historic headquarters for an evening of creativity and connection, spotlighting voices and honoring the legacy of artists and writers who have shaped our culture. Their art exhibit features powerful works from women. Explore stories of identity, resistance, and love through painting, photography, and mixed media. The NLAPW is located at 1300 17^th St. NW.

Barbara Bennett and Q Street Fine Art Gallery are pleased to show the paintings of Rafael Gallardo, as well as paintings from the archived collection not seen in a while on the walls. There will be a showing and reception on First Friday, June 6, 2025 from 6:00 PM until 8:00 PM. This hidden gallery gem is in a Carriage House behind Saint Matthews Cathedral at 1 Saint Matthew’s Court NW.  Please call us if further directions are needed: 202 255 2893.

Studio Gallery presents “Retrospecting” by Gordon Binder. A longtime resident of Washington’s Dupont Circle neighborhood, Gordon is a big fan of urban life.  He studied architecture and urban planning and devoted his career to conservation and the environment. This urban interest is expressed in his paintings and drawings of skylines, cityscapes, streetscapes, urban landscapes, people out and about in urban settings. In their lower gallery, “Real and Surreal” is on display, which presents photographs by Studio Gallery members Judy Bonderman and Jo Levine that explore the thin line between the factual and the imaginary. While photographing separately, the two artists collaborated on the show’s theme and production. Studio Gallery is an arts cooperative located at 2108 R Street, NW.

The Washington Center of ADA University, ADA Art Gallery, presents its June-August 2025 exhibition: ECHOES OF LIGHT, by Anice Hoachlander, a noted DC architectural photographer whose work is widely published. She is now creating fine art photography and showing her work in DC area galleries. Driven by a desire to observe the natural world more closely, Anice explores the intricate patterns found in trees, fungi, flowers, vegetables, leaves, and even building materials. Her fascination with the miniature complex her to magnify overlooked objects, allowing viewers to experience their hidden complexity. You can learn more about the artist at EdithGraves.com. You can find the Washington Center of ADA University, ADA Art Gallery at 1627 21st Street, NW on Gallery Row. @washingtoncenteradau

Join the Washington Studio School in our gallery for First Friday ArtWalk, as we celebrate A Matter of Pride, an exhibition dedicated to the beauty, complexity, and strength of queer existence. Stop by our gallery to experience this powerful show, which honors the vibrant spectrum of LGBTQIA+ and queer identity through visual stories rooted in resilience, defiance, love, and becoming. A Matter of Pride creates space for joy, resistance, softness, strength, solidarity, and celebration, centering voices that are bold, tender, personal, and political. We are also excited to announce the Inglenook Gallery installation opening featuring work by the prolific local artist Ashley Jaye Williams! Washington Studio School is located at 2129 S Street, NW.

The Arts and Museum Affairs Committee of the Woman’s National Democratic Club is thrilled to present “Moments of the Color of Life” by Iza Thomas. Thomas says the title of her exhibition aims to convey the importance of color in experiencing joy. Her paintings contrast or combine colors–for example, showing a red tanager bird on a blue sofa or a vivid bird of paradise against a brown wooden floor. They also juxtapose the magical with the ordinary; one might say the paintings are surrealist in style, exhibiting familiar objects in an unfamiliar context. A cash bar will be available from 6:00 p.m. The Woman’s National Democratic Club is located at 1526 New Hampshire Avenue NW.