A three-story Virginia Tech building in Old Town may soon be repurposed into a community center through the work of a Del Ray entrepreneur and creative.
Ashley R. Wood, the founder and author behind the arts-focused workspace Soulo Studios at 2417 Mount Vernon Avenue, is working to bring her next endeavor to life: Lily’s Garden Creative and Cultural Community Center. The prospective center, named after Wood’s 4-year-old daughter, would open at 1021 Prince Street, which is currently part of Virginia Tech’s Washington-Alexandria Architecture Center.
Wood told ALXnow she is in the process of acquiring the nearly 28,000-square-foot building, which Virginia Tech is planning to vacate before consolidating into its nearby property at 1001 Prince Street.
In the Old Town building, Wood hopes to relocate Soulo Studios and expand upon her existing offerings, including artist-focused programs, the Lily’s Corners immersive play groups and the Momma’s Closet donation boutique.
The building’s other floors would provide space for community partnerships, cultural programming, youth employment opportunities and workforce development.
“The mission of 1021 Prince Street is to steward a cross-generational creative and cultural community center rooted in care, education, restoration and creative expression,” an outline document reads. “We exist to support youth and families, honor Black and cultural history and artistry, and provide accessible pathways for learning, healing, and entrepreneurship.”
A former 14-year employee of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, Wood said she believes nonprofit work and social services in Alexandria could be more streamlined and personal. Through Lily’s Garden, Wood envisions a space where representatives from local organizations, city departments and schools could gather, communicate and combine resources under one roof.
“Even when I’m moving through this city sometimes and I’m doing my community partnership work, we care more about checking the box and taking the picture to say that we did it, than actually being present at the table with the right people to make sure that we are providing a solution,” Wood said. “Lily’s Garden and the framework of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs is in response to the injustice of the people. That’s what it is. And if we keep avoiding the fact that there’s actually injustice, then we are never getting to the promised land.”
Plans for the basement and three floors are each modeled after Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, which theorizes that humans need safety and security, love and belonging, self-esteem and self-actualization, in addition to physiological necessities.
Wood said her plans for Lily’s Garden are also informed by her experiences being raised by her single mother in Aliquippa, Pa. In search of stability, her family moved 16 times before she turned 20 — and the bulk of those moves, she said, happened before her ninth birthday.
“Everything that I create, I created from that space of that little girl remembering what it felt like to navigate these systems with her mom,” Wood said. “To navigate heartache with her mom, to navigate feeling unsupported, and kind of like the black sheep.”
Wood added, “I’ve seen [social services] as Ashley, the owner of Soulo Studios, the director of Lily’s Corners … But then I also see it as Ashley, the single mother. Ashley the Black woman. Ashley, the daughter who needs rental assistance, who needs help with food.”
Today, Wood said she is raising her daughter, Lily, with support from her family, church and neighbors. Her biggest dream and “fairy tale” is “to have a happy, healthy, whole family,” and it is a dream she wants to help others achieve in Alexandria.
Wood is currently leading an effort to acquire the property and participated in a buyer’s interview last week. She is aiming to secure $5 million in capital to move forward. A funding plan shared with ALXnow calls for at least $1 million from community faith-based institutions, with “conversations in [the] exploratory phase” as of this week.
Wood also hopes to initially raise at least $1 million through an engraved brick fundraising campaign, with bricks that will be used to make garden beds around the future center. Tiers in the ongoing campaign range from $25 to $5,000.
Photo 3 via Google Maps.
