The ground floor of The Signet, the condominium building at 6910 Fleetwood Road, was built for a restaurant or a shop. No tenant ever moved in. McLean Project for the Arts bought the space on Sept. 13, 2024, for $6.25 million and opened it on April 30, 2026, as the MPA Berlage Arts & Education Center. This is its first holiday season.

The new building changes the shape of the season. For years, McLean's November and December calendar has run through the McLean Community Center at 1234 Ingleside Avenue, home of the Antiques Show, the crafts festival, and the Alden Theatre. That still holds. Now there is a second stop on Fleetwood Road, and on Sunday, Dec. 6, the Winterfest parade steps off from the corner of Fleetwood and Old Chain Bridge Road. This year the season has two centers, and that Sunday is the day that ties them together.

An arts group that lived inside the community center

MPA hasn't left Ingleside Avenue. Its two existing galleries and its offices are still in the McLean Community Center, and the Berlage Center adds to them. The reason for the move was partly about identity. As FFXnow reported in April, Executive Director Lori Carbonneau said the nonprofit had sometimes struggled to separate itself from the community center. Visitors would assume, for example, that the annual MPAartfest at McLean Central Park was an MCC event.

The group first looked at Clemyjontri Park. The Fairfax County Park Authority even revised its master plan in 2022 to allow an arts center there as a future option. The empty Signet storefront won out. It was a blank space MPA could own and build to its own specifications, and it sat closer to the center of downtown, across the road from Elm Street Park. Carbonneau described the scale of the change to FFXnow this way:

"It's a magnificent statement to be able to make that we will have five contemporary galleries showing the work of Mid-Atlantic artists working today."

Three of those five galleries are on Fleetwood Road, and the other two are still on Ingleside. Downtown McLean's arts calendar now runs across both addresses.

What the Fleetwood Road building holds on a December evening

The Berlage Center has about 6,100 square feet. It holds three galleries: the Yasmine C. Iskander Gallery, the Sally & John Simms Gallery, and Gallery Vivienne, a black-box room built for installation and digital work. A folding screen separates the black box from the main gallery of roughly 900 square feet. Pulling it back makes one larger room, which can host screenings and even concerts. The building also has classrooms and the Natasha & Mai Iskander Ceramics Studio.

Gallery admission is free. The building keeps long hours: 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sunday through Thursday, and 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. on Friday and Saturday. Some classes, workshops, and special events require registration or tickets. Those hours make it a place to stop on a weeknight, not only a weekend outing.

The fall clay sessions in the ceramics studio run deep into the holiday season. Each one is a wheel and hand-building series:

The building also has a restaurant. Café Monet is an all-day European café run in partnership with MPA and KNEAD Hospitality + Design. It serves breakfast, brunch, lunch, dinner, and happy hour. Weekend brunch runs 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday. On weekdays, lunch runs 11:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. and happy hour 2 to 5 p.m. The menu includes gambas al ajillo, burrata, a Niçoise salad, steak frites, pan-roasted salmon, and Viennese chicken schnitzel. Before Café Monet, the downtown arts calendar had nowhere to eat inside it. Now a gallery visit and a meal can happen in the same building.

Ingleside Avenue still holds the big dates

The longest-running traditions are still at the community center, and this year one of them reaches a milestone. The McLean Antiques Show & Sale turns 50 on Saturday, Nov. 14, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Dozens of dealers will bring furniture, silver, jewelry, paintings, prints, vintage clothing, and mid-century pieces, some dating to the 18th century. Admission is $11, and children 17 and younger get in free. Bring a canned food item for SHARE of McLean or a show postcard and you get $1 off.

For the anniversary, interior designer Josh Hildreth gives a free lecture at 10 a.m. in the Alden Theatre on working antiques into modern home décor. A $20 Muffins & Mimosas ticket, 9 to 10 a.m., includes early access and reserved seating for the talk. It requires pre-registration, and you must be 21 or older to drink. The show and the Berlage galleries make a natural pairing that day. Fifty years of antique dealing is on Ingleside, and Mid-Atlantic artists working today are on Fleetwood.

The rest of the community center's season, as scheduled:

Tickets for the 11 a.m. Jamboree show cost $30, $26, or $22. They include a photo with Santa from noon to 1 p.m., and the performance is ASL interpreted. The Holiday Art & Crafts Festival is a juried indoor show with 80 regional artisans, run by the Northern Virginia Handcrafters Guild, a nonprofit founded in 1972. Admission is $5 and covers all three days. Children 12 and younger get in free.

December 6 is the day both centers are busy

On the first Sunday in December, the crafts festival's final day and the McLean Revitalization Corporation's Winterfest Parade & Block Party overlap. Both sides of downtown are active at once. The day as scheduled:

1. 10 a.m. The Holiday Art & Crafts Festival opens its last day at the McLean Community Center. It runs until 4 p.m.
2. 10 a.m. Weekend brunch begins at Café Monet on Fleetwood Road.
3. 12:30 p.m. The Winterfest Block Party and pre-parade entertainment start at Langley Shopping Center, alongside the parade route.
4. 1:30 p.m. The parade begins at Fleetwood Road and Old Chain Bridge Road. It ends at 2:45.
5. 3 p.m. The Santa Claus station opens at the block party, which runs until 4:30.

The block party will have food from more than 54 vendors, along with performances by local dance troupes, marching bands, and floats. New this year is an online pet photo contest. Entries open Nov. 6, and winners are announced at the block party. Organizations can still sign up for a parade spot or a block party table on the MRC's Winterfest page.

Because the parade starts on Fleetwood Road, the building that opened in April sits on the same street where Winterfest begins. Last year, downtown's December arts and holiday events were mostly under one roof on Ingleside. This year a December 6 outing can take in the crafts festival on Ingleside, the parade on Fleetwood, and the block party at Langley Shopping Center.

The season's last stretch moves to the houses

After the parade, the McLean Community Center turns its holiday programming toward homes and storefronts. Light Up McLean, the holiday decorating contest, is open to residents and businesses in the MCC tax district. Businesses can take part for the first time this year, though only residential entries are eligible for prizes, and the public picks a Best Overall business. Registration closes Friday, Dec. 11. Public voting runs from Dec. 21, 2026, through Jan. 3, 2027, in three categories: Best Overall, Most Creative/Original, and Best Holiday Theme.

There is also a new food stop on the other side of town. Surfside, a beach-themed taco stand, opened Oct. 22 in Chesterbrook Shopping Center at 6218 Old Dominion Drive, Northern Virginia Magazine reported. It opens at 10:30 a.m. daily and stays open until 2 a.m. on Fridays and Saturdays, which gives anyone coming home late from a December concert at the Alden somewhere to eat.

Our family has spent many holiday seasons in these neighborhoods, and the Berlage Center's first December is the kind of local change we enjoy watching. If you're thinking about how downtown McLean's growth around Fleetwood Road and Elm Street might fit your own plans, Graciela Haim & Heinen Group would be glad to talk it through. Schedule a Free Consultation whenever the timing feels right.