Fairfax artist Barbara Januszkiewicz bent, heated and twisted colored plexiglass into four unique sculptures for the 2026 ArtsFairfax Awards. The honorees will receive them Friday, Oct. 30, at the Hyatt Regency Reston.

Each piece rises from a glass column on a clear base, with ribbons of translucent red, blue, yellow, violet and green that shift as light passes through them, according to the Fairfax County Times. No two are identical.

ArtsFairfax, Fairfax County's designated local arts agency, commissioned Januszkiewicz to design the awards for its annual celebration of contributions to the arts. The four honorees, announced by ArtsFairfax:

  • Bruce L. Berlage: Jinx Hazel Award, the agency's top honor for shaping the county's cultural life. Berlage helped build the McLean Project for the Arts Berlage Arts & Education Center, a 6,100-square-foot facility that opened with a ribbon-cutting on April 30.
  • Karen and Jim Cleveland: Philanthropy Award. Jim was a founding director of the Greater Reston Arts Center, now Tephra Institute of Contemporary Art (Tephra ICA). As president of the Reston Land Corporation, he guided the first phase of Reston Town Center in the early 1990s. Karen served as CEO of the Greater Reston Chamber of Commerce and created the Best of Reston Awards for Community Service.
  • Southeast Fairfax Development Corporation: Innovation Award, for using public art as an economic development tool along the Richmond Highway corridor, including five commissioned murals and the "Faces of One" sculpture project.
  • Thomas Beveridge: Achievement Award, for a career as a soloist, composer and conductor. Beveridge founded the New Dominion Chorale in 1991 as the area's first major non-audition community chorus and has composed more than 700 works.

The project carried personal weight for Januszkiewicz. She first took art classes at McLean Project for the Arts as a child and later spent 12 years teaching watercolor there. One of the honorees, Berlage, played a key role in creating the center that bears his name.

"Making something that celebrates the artists, organizations and arts supporters of Fairfax County has meant a great deal to me," Januszkiewicz told the Fairfax County Times.

Januszkiewicz maintains a studio in Fairfax and is known for color-field paintings and light-responsive plexiglass installations inspired by the Washington Color School movement. Her work has been displayed at Capital Crossing in Washington, the CIA headquarters in Langley and the Sandy Spring Museum.

The Reston Community Center (RCC) is the event's Visionary Sponsor. BeBe Nguyen, RCC's executive director, said the awards highlight people and organizations advancing the arts across the region. McGuireWoods is the lead sponsor.

Stuart Holt, ArtsFairfax president and CEO, said the honorees are committed to the local arts scene through leadership and public service, dedicating time and expertise to arts experiences that affect Fairfax residents' daily lives.

The luncheon is expected to draw more than 400 business, government and arts leaders. Proceeds support ArtsFairfax programs, including about $820,000 distributed annually in grants to more than 60 local arts nonprofits.

If you go: The ArtsFairfax Awards luncheon runs 11:15 a.m. to 2 p.m. Friday, Oct. 30, at the Hyatt Regency Reston, 1800 Presidents Street. Peggy Fox, an ArtsFairfax board member and four-time Emmy Award-winning television journalist, will emcee. Members of the New Dominion Chorale and the Woodbridge Flute Choir will perform. Guests can view additional works by Januszkiewicz during the reception.