Torpedo Factory Art Center — Attraction in Alexandria

Really unhappy with how they handled a winter class that was disrupted. The disruption was through no fault of their own, and I appreciate that The Art League was communicative and offered a refund throughout the months of delays.

The Their HVAC unit was vandalized and classes were supposed to start the first week of January. They have been delayed until the first week of March and only run for 5 out of the 9 classes paid for.

But…

In order to get your money’s worth for the remaining 4 classes you need to sign up for a spring class. They are taking the cost of those 4 classes to use towards a spring class…but you need to pay for the other 5. So in order to get what you paid for you have to spend more.

That, or a full refund and no class at all are the only two options. They would not let me skip the winter class entirely and sign up for a spring class with the money I already paid. So I asked for a refund. I can try to register for a spring class on my own and just kind of start over, but this has left a bad taste in my mouth.

Now I doubt the HVAC will be vandalized again or that there would be any problems at all…but the options of nothing or “pay us more” REALLY makes me hesitate to sign up again. This is really unfortunate as I had been looking forward to this class for quite some time and means that a potential regular student is lost. Just a bummer all around and something that could have been handled...

My wife and I were offended and left the Torpedo Factory soon after our arrival. The mission statement of the Torpedo Factory fails to provide language endorsing: “friendly, welcoming and an equitable environment for all guests”.

Upon touring the Torpedo Factory, we stopped at the door of Sarah B. Studio #204. She illustrated a painting of President Trump as a “grim-reaper” with a paper note next to the painting with the words “Trump a convicted felon 46 and 47”. We felt her art and the haphazardly written note were offensive that resulted in a negative and unfriendly atmosphere for all guests.

Upon arriving home, we Googled Ms. B. and found her webpage had an image of “Elon Musk’s head and a guillotine”. The guillotine is a medieval device to remove one’s head thus making it a violent and vicious form of execution. A caption by the image said: “this is not a call to violence”. Really??? Then how could it be described?

We live in Virginia, often visit Alexandria and have decided to stay away from the Torpedo Factory. They allow artists the forum to display toxic art that illustrates an atmosphere quite opposite of providing: “friendly, welcoming and an equitable environmental for...

When my husband and I were engaged, we had a connection to the Torpedo Factory Art Center because we had already visited the studios together numerous times. After touring the venue with Deri Collingwood, we decided this location would be the site for our wedding reception. We had an amazing experience with all the TFAC staff and outside vendors. In particular, Deri (TFAC Senior Private Event Rental Manager) and Richard (TFAC Director of Facilities) were organized, courteous, and communicative. Richard helped direct our wedding party with loading in beverages/decorations the day before our event and loading out leftover materials the day afterwards. Deri was the keystone person on our wedding day, and we feel so fortunate to have worked with her. Deri's team handled everything including the timeline, décor installation/deinstallation, and management of all outside vendors. She had the best attitude and checked-in with us multiple times throughout the night to clarify or correct things that deviated from the original timeline. We have no plans to host another big event in the near future, but we will gladly promote our experience with the...