A white tent was erected on the Hands Inc. property for a sort of ground breaking where the Herndon Arts Center will one day be.
"We would like you to imagine this place as an art center sooner than later," said Ellen Kaminsky, interim secretary of the Herndon Foundation for the Cultural Arts. "We would like you to imagine this as an art center by 2006."
The foundation kicked off its fund-raising campaign for the future center with live entertainment, an art showing, food and beverages and mural painting Saturday on the site.
During a ceremony in between the entertainment, which ranged from dance studios, theater numbers, and all types of musical acts, the Council for the Arts of Herndon presented the foundation with a $1,000 donation. In addition, Pat Rhodes, the president-elect of the Herndon Rotary, expressed the organization's pledge to provide $50,000 to the center, payable upon completion. The funds, $10,000 for the next five years, will be placed in an account earmarked for the center. Rhodes symbolically gave the foundation two checks of $10,000 each representing the payments for 2002 and 2003.
Local artist Pat Macintyre also got the mural painting under way with the help of Jeffrey Wilhite, 7, who painted the first bit of color on to the "Imagine '06" mural. The image will be a community effort and once completed will feature people looking inside the windows of the Hands Inc. building as the arts burst outward.