Vendor Spotlight: Stone Branch Center for the Arts
Across from Royal Cinemas on East Main Street in Front Royal, VA, there is a storefront where something is always being made. A painting class. A drum circle. An open mic where first-timers get the warmest welcome in the room. That is Stone Branch Center for the Arts, and it exists because Terre Jenkins looked around her new hometown and saw exactly what it needed.
Terre was born in Tidewater and grew up in Manassas, back when it had one gas station and a handful of small shops. She went on to spend more than three decades as an art and humanities educator, including 15 years running her own art school in Rockville, Maryland, where she helped middle and high school students build the portfolios that got them where they wanted to go. She is a printmaker and sculptor who also teaches drawing and painting.
When she moved to Warren County, VA, she kept running into artists, musicians, and performers, and she kept arriving at the same thought: "we need a hub." Then the space at 114 East Main Street opened up, and she met Joe and Suzi Gillette, who had formed a nonprofit arts group called Marigold and wanted to see that space become something. Terre signed the lease in April 2024, closed her Rockville studio, and moved her equipment to Main Street.
At the ribbon cutting with the Front Royal-Warren County Chamber of Commerce in February 2025, she got so excited that she cut the ribbon before the countdown finished. "Artists move to their own beat," she told the crowd.
That beat now fills the building. Stone Branch runs three galleries with curated, juried, and invitational exhibitions open to local, regional, and national artists. Now showing is Russ Bailey, with recent acrylic-on-canvas work from his series Adventures in Isotopy, Primitives, and Superposition. November brings Divinations: Seeking Meaning in the Unseen, a show of art drawn from tarot, astrology, runes, dreams, and folklore. The 10x10 show, where every piece measures ten inches square, returns in December. In September the center welcomed its first Artist-in-Residence, Linda L. Anderson.
The classrooms are just as busy. Little Dabblers ages 6 to 8, Young Artists ages 9 to 12, and teens each have their own studio class. Adults are drawing the still life, binding their own books, and working through a full survey of printmaking. The center also offers writing workshops, dance and movement classes, family events, lectures, and film screenings. Local makers sell their work in the gallery shops, and during Front Royal's festivals, vendors set up tables right inside the gallery.
Coming up at 114 East Main Street:
🎤 Sounds of Hope Live Open Mic, Sunday, October 18, 1:30 to 4:30 PM. Third Sunday of every month. A safe, supportive space for all ages and experience levels, with first-timers especially welcome. Musicians, writers, poets, and storytellers.
🥁 Community Drum Circle, first Sunday of every month, 11 AM to 1 PM. Next up is Sunday, November 1.
🔮 Divinations gallery opening and artists' reception with live music, Saturday, November 7. The show runs through November 29.
What sets Terre apart is how she listens. Having watched her own hometown change, she set out to build what Front Royal wants for itself. This fall alone, Stone Branch hosted a paint party fundraiser for Warren Heritage Society and a fashion show for Bridge of Hope. The center has also partnered with the Phoenix Project and the Hike Kids Foundation.
Here is the part we are most excited about. Terre is partnering with Headwaters on our ready-made retreats, and she is working with us to design several of her own. For an offsite meeting or retreat, Stone Branch is also a beautiful space to hold meetings and events, surrounded by gallery walls that do what no conference room can. More on those retreats soon.
Stone Branch Center for the Arts is open Wednesday through Saturday, 11 AM to 5 PM, and Sunday, noon to 5 PM.
Visit stonebranchartscenter.com to learn more about Stone Branch Center for the Arts.
When you are ready to build an offsite meeting or retreat with creativity at the center, make Headwaters your first call.
Headwaters — The Passage | headwatersretreats.com
