George Mason University has spread a veteran art project across three Northern Virginia venues, and it closes on November 11. The run started August 24, so readers who haven’t gone yet have about four weeks.

As You Were is at the Gillespie Gallery in Fairfax. It shows work by seventeen veteran artists, including a Gold Star spouse and a caregiver, and it centers on sacrifice, resilience, and life after service in Iraq and Afghanistan. The curator is CAP (Ret.) Moira McGuire, who used to direct healing arts at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center.

What Remains? is at Mason Exhibitions Arlington. Curator Chery Edwards pulled together intercultural artists who served during the Vietnam War, with pieces from public and private collections. The subject is memory and witness, and how service carries across generations.

In Her Image: Art by Women Veterans is at the Buchanan Partners Gallery in the Hylton Center in Manassas. Steven Luu curated it. It follows women in uniform over time and asks how service, access, and leadership shape how visible they are.

Read together, the three shows make a point none of them makes alone: veteran art isn’t one thing. A Vietnam-era artist, a post-9/11 caregiver, and a woman who served each have a different story to tell, and Mason gave each one a room.

One caution for anyone planning a trip. The exhibition page lists a single run of August 24 to November 11 for the whole trilogy and doesn’t give separate dates for each show. Call the venues before you drive.

SOURCES

Mason Exhibitions, A Trilogy of Exhibitions Featuring Veteran Artists: https://www.masonexhibitions.org/exhibitions/a-trilogy-of-exhibitions-featuring-veteran-artists