The first Fairfax Fiesta, held on Saturday, September 23rd at The PARC in Tysons includes several amazing artistic components for the entire community to enjoy. Fairfax Fiesta is designed to bring the Fairfax County community together to recognize and celebrate National Hispanic Heritage Month.

First, the Lorton based nonprofit organization Workhouse Arts Center presents a special pop-up gallery inside The PARC, across from the artisan market and next to the Connect with Countries booths. This gallery features three Workhouse artists, Marisela Rumberg, Fernando Osorio, and Jose Caicedo.
Marisela Rumberg was born and raised in Mexico. She holds a degree in International Economics and is a certified Spanish-English interpreter and translator. Marisela’s early instincts in art were shaped by her chef and painter grandfather. Although her mother used to design her and her sister’s clothes, she didn’t become interested in fiber arts until she married and moved to the United States. Marisela began taking a few quilting classes and then she really took flight – teaching herself free-motion-quilting and other art quilting techniques.
Since joining the Workhouse Arts Center in 2015 and The Torpedo Factory Arts Center a year later, Marisela has become a Certified Zentangle Teacher (CZT25) and has developed her signature style of incorporating sophisticated fiber arts and mixed media techniques such as eco-printing, wet cyanotype, thread painting, fiber sculpting, abstract drawing and more recently abstract painting, into her work.
The next featured artist, Fernando Osorio was born in Peru in 1949. As a child, he grew up next to the Andes and later on close to the Pacific Ocean. He started exhibiting his artwork in 1981 and has had twelve solo exhibitions and several group shows. In 1988 he moved to the United States where he lives and works in the Washington DC metropolitan area.
His life experience has driven him from the fields of science to the realms of art and spirituality. His interest and thirst of knowledge and experiences have been broad. His first career was engineering and planning. He worked as a Math professor and wrote five books. In addition to the visual arts, he has been involved in music and poetry. He released two musical albums with his own compositions, and has published three books of poetry.
The final Workhouse Arts Center artist is Jose Caicedo. He aims to explore his emotions, particular those he fears, those that lurk in the shadows and haunt his ego. In his pursuit of making sense of his emotions, he has closed and opened gaps in his life that have shown him the doors to courage, empathy, and tolerance.
Often, using the written or spoken word to share with others what and how he feels is difficult, but Jose has found in art the voice and courage to connect with the world, to share his life’s journey with strangers. Through a silent and visual dialog, draw closer to feel, connect, and share our human experience. Jose is an Ecuadorian born visual artist; he holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. He currently resides and works in Alexandria, Virginia.
In addition to the Workhouse Arts Center pop-up gallery, another local nonprofit, Community Art for Everyone, will host and interactive art activity out in The PARC plaza.
Finally, attendees will enjoy two murals installed at The PARC- the full building mural and inside mural by Chilean artist Rodrigo Pradel. Commissioned in 2021, the mural explores energy through colors growing across the canvas.
Art is a vibrant part of the Hispanic culture and we are excited to connect attendees with this opportunity to experience local Latinx artists. Learn more about art and National Hispanic Heritage Month here.