Dragons help Arlington rebound from COVID

A variety of dragons have just flown into downtown Arlington to be part of an interactive public art adventure with its own website, SuddenlyDragons.com, during the month of August.

Dragons are a symbol of strength and power for many cultures around the world. For the artists involved, they are also a small step toward recovery from the COVID pandemic.

“Dragons are a gateway between the natural world and our imagination,” said Monica Bretherton, originator of the project. “That’s obviously a significant relationship, because we have been creating art about them for at least ten thousand years.”

Dragons also have special appeal for young people, encouraging imagination, discovery and exploration, she said.

In this case, it is a chance to do a little socially-distanced exploration of downtown Arlington, where dragons have taken up residence in the windows of businesses during the month of August 2020. From the feed store to the florist, the bowling alley, clothing and knitting stores and even a muffler shop, local merchants got right on board with this art adventure.

"We all want to see our town come back to life," Bretherton said.

Created by local artists, each of Arlington's dragons is unique in style and materials.

Karen Lewis, a former knitter and spinner, who now works with found objects, said, “Suddenly Dragons has been a fun way to revisit needle arts and share in my love of whimsy.”

“It’s a fine line between dragons and the colorful lizards of the earth,” said Sarah Arney.

Her dragon is very easy to find as it is on a fence, right out in the open.

Others will require a bit more searching — but all are on or near the four block stretch of N. Olympic Avenue, that is Arlington's main street.

Most of the Hidden Dragons are in store windows marked with a sign. No need to go inside, if you don't want to, or go during store hours, although downtown is very much open for business (masks required, of course) and your patronage is welcome.

The Wind Dragons along Centennial Trail just north of the Depot, were created by Bretherton — originally intended to tie in to Arlington’s annual Fly-In Festival (sadly canceled this year due to the pandemic). The Dragon Fly-In also features small mailed-in dragons displayed in the windows of the Depot.

A chalk art dragon was created on the sidewalk at Legion Park Sunday on July 26 by Erika Bruss with the assistance of some young artists. As chalk is as ephemeral as a rainbow, you may have to experience this via the website suddenlydragons.com, where dragon hunters are encouraged to report sightings of dragons and assist in finding them middle names.

Each dragon has a sign with a link to its own webpage with more information about the host and the artist, and to help in finding them, a map is available at the information board outside of the Depot, next to the Burmashave-style signs that announce the project.

Arney, who serves as president of the Arlington Arts Council, said she is grateful to Bretherton for this fun, public art project for the community, and to the artists who participated, including AAC members Bretherton, Lewis, Bruss, Mike Nordine and Coe Blackwell, Jennifer Carol, Stuart Heddy and Niki Spencer, as well as to Aarene Storms, whose Suddenly Dragons role-playing game was an element of the project which had to be shelved for the moment due to social distancing requirements.

“Since we had to cancel our Art in Legion Park Festival and all our youth art events, it was lucky that Monica was able to reconceive Suddenly Dragons to function in this new environment,” Arney said. “Ironically, she proposed the project for city funding a year ago, before anyone even imagined such a thing as the COVID pandemic. To me, it represents the magic and power of art for recovery.”

Suddenly Dragons is a public art adventure funded by the city of Arlington’s Public Art Program. Ten percent of new construction sales tax goes to funding art, a new ordinance that was adopted by the city in 2019.

The Suddenly Dragons project is one of several projects funded in this first round of funding for art. Other projects include the painting of the skate park dome coming soon this summer and a stone sculpture, “Going with the Flow,” by Verena Schwippert to be installed on Airport Boulevard near Smokey Point.