IX ART PARK Foundation

EMPOWERING COMMUNITY THROUGH CREATIVITY

To spark creativity and inspiration in people’s everyday lives.

the IX Arts Foundation is a non-profit arts organization dedicated to sparking imagination and creativity in people’s everyday lives. The Foundation manages IX Art Park – a free mural and sculpture community space; The Looking Glass - Virginia’s first permanent immersive art experience; as well as special events, festivals, and community driven partnerships such as the Farmers Market.

Through its diverse programming and community-focused initiatives, the IX Arts Foundation seeks to inspire creativity, foster collaboration, and make the arts accessible to everyone. The Ix Arts foundation seeks to empower our community through curating welcoming spaces that allow everyone a safe place to exist creatively. The Foundation believes that everyone can express themselves creatively and deserves an inspiring space to do so.

Our MIssion

Mission Statement

Directions

We are located at 522 2nd St. SE, Charlottesville, VA. Our outdoor Art Park is open daily throughout the year. Our indoor immersive art museum, The Looking Glass, is open on Thursdays, Saturdays, and Sundays and is located in the large building we share with the North American Sake Brewery & Restaurant and Three Notch'd Craft Kitchen & Brewery.

Founded in 1919, Frank Ix & Sons was originally based in Union City, New Jersey. In 1928, Frank Ix, Jr. moved to Charlottesville, Virginia to build the third and eventually largest of six mills. He’d only planned to stay a year but liked it so much, he stayed a lifetime.

Known around town as the silk mill, Ix & Sons produced “greige goods”, unfinished fabrics. During World War II, Ix & Sons shifted the emphasis of their output from bolts of fabric to nylon parachutes. Four times, the Undersecretary of War awarded Ix & Sons the Army-Navy Production Award, both for their industry and their contribution to the development of new fabrics such as rip-stop nylon, a true lifesaver for American paratroopers. For decades, Ix & Sons was Charlottesville’s largest employer, known for its fairness and warm family atmosphere. Most employees stayed with the mill at least twenty-five years. Many never worked anywhere else.

But in 1999, the grand old mill bowed to an enemy it could not see; a depressed domestic textile market. Their high of 1,400 employees shrank to only 150. After years of struggling, Ix & Sons finally succumbed to the pressure of foreign competition and closed its doors in 1999.