What: Four Mile Ranger Guided History Hike from the Carousel in Glen Echo Park to the C&O Canal National Historical Park, Union Arch Bridge and the Clara Barton NHS

When: Saturday, November 9, 2024 at 9:30 a.m. and Saturday, November 16 at 9:30 a.m.

Starting Point: The Dentzel Carousel at Glen Echo Park, 7300 MacArthur Blvd. Glen Echo, MD 20812

This two hour, four mile guided hike starts at the Carousel in Glen Echo Park. We will walk through the park and uncover the story of what was once Washington’s premiere amusement park. Next, we will walk a downhill trail and cross over the C&O Canal where we will learn about African American canal worker, George Pointer. We will walk up-stream before crossing the canal again and ascending the hill to learn about the Union Arch Bridge, part of the Washington Aqueduct. Finally, we will stroll through the town of Glen Echo to Clara Barton National Historic Site where we will discover the history of the house and the story of its famous resident, the founder of the American Red Cross, Clara Barton. Clara Barton NHS is adjacent to Glen Echo Park where the hike started.

This four mile circuit hike is for the physically fit walker. There is elevation change between MacArthur Blvd. and the C&O Canal. Some sections of unpaved trail are uneven with rocks and tree roots. Please wear comfortable walking shoes. Ample parking is available in the main Glen Echo Park parking lot off Oxford Road. Please e-mail kevin_patti@nps.gov to register for this free program. You may also call, 301-320-1400, if you have any questions.

What: Four Mile Ranger Guided History Hike from the Carousel in Glen Echo Park to the C&O Canal National Historical Park, Union Arch Bridge and the Clara Barton NHS

When: Saturday, November 9, 2024 at 9:30 a.m. and Saturday, November 16 at 9:30 a.m.

Starting Point: The Dentzel Carousel at Glen Echo Park, 7300 MacArthur Blvd. Glen Echo, MD 20812

This two hour, four mile guided hike starts at the Carousel in Glen Echo Park. We will walk through the park and uncover the story of what was once Washington’s premiere amusement park. Next, we will walk a downhill trail and cross over the C&O Canal where we will learn about African American canal worker, George Pointer. We will walk up-stream before crossing the canal again and ascending the hill to learn about the Union Arch Bridge, part of the Washington Aqueduct. Finally, we will stroll through the town of Glen Echo to Clara Barton National Historic Site where we will discover the history of the house and the story of its famous resident, the founder of the American Red Cross, Clara Barton. Clara Barton NHS is adjacent to Glen Echo Park where the hike started.

This four mile circuit hike is for the physically fit walker. There is elevation change between MacArthur Blvd. and the C&O Canal. Some sections of unpaved trail are uneven with rocks and tree roots. Please wear comfortable walking shoes. Ample parking is available in the main Glen Echo Park parking lot off Oxford Road. Please e-mail kevin_patti@nps.gov to register for this free program. You may also call, 301-320-1400, if you have any questions.

Join the Glen Echo Park Partnership for Arts & Culture and the National Park Service’s George Washington Memorial Parkway as we honor the culture and history of Native Americans with the presentation of Tribal Voices: A Native American Heritage Celebration on Sunday, November 3, 2024 from 1pm to 4pm in the Park’s historic Bumper Car Pavilion.

Join us for some Halloween fun at Glen Echo Park! Activities include decorating a Trick-or-Treat bag and other crafts, a festive fall photo-op (say that 10 times!), a costume contest (will you win for "Most Spooky," "Most Creative," or "Best Group?"), and Trick-or-Treating at our resident art studios and galleries. We focus on the arts-y & crafts-y more than the scary, but we love to see all the costumes – even the scary ones!

Learn More >> | Park Map >>

Join us for an opening reception in the Stone Tower Studio/Stone Tower Gallery 2. Artist Susan O'Neill presents Arabesque: The Rhythm of Seeing. "My work is less about the figure and more about the rhythm that gives the figure life.” - Susan O'Neill

The dance of light and the rhythms of the human figure are the enduring inspiration for my work. Painting and drawing from life, I seek to capture those fleeting moments when light, movement, and form briefly align.

My work is an interpretation rather than a description, balancing careful observation with spontaneity. Through expressive line, luminous color, and the active presence of the white paper, I search for the essential rhythms that give a subject its life. By simplifying, selecting, and allowing the materials to speak, I hope to create work that invites viewers to pause, look deeply, and experience the beauty and vitality of a moment that might otherwise pass unnoticed.

Arabesque: The Rhythm of Seeing

On view August 7 - August 30, 2026
Opening Reception: during Art Walk: Friday, August 7, 6:00pm – 8:00pm
Stone Tower Studio (Stone Tower 2 Gallery), Glen Echo Park, Maryland

Galley Open Saturdays and Sundays, 12:00pm – 5:00pm and by appointment

Learn More >> | RSVP (Preferred, not required) >> | Park Map >>

Join us for an opening reception in the Stone Tower Studio/Stone Tower Gallery 2. Evelyn Johns creates and abstracted overview of her teenage years, painting the present though pieces that often appear as though they are already a memory, never truly reflecting what they are now. The exhibition hopes to hold on to moments in time for just a little longer with portraits painting from life, intersecting transitional places, and overarching symbols of nature and youth.

In Bloom
On view June 30 - July 26, 2026
Opening Reception: Sunday, July 5, 6:00pm – 8:00pm
Also open during Art Walk: Friday, July 3, 6:00pm – 8:00pm
Stone Tower Studio, Glen Echo Park, Maryland

Galley Open Saturdays and Sundays, 10:00pm – 5:00pm and by appointment

Learn More >> | Park Map >>

Join us for an opening reception in the Stone Tower Studio during Art Walk! The Tower of Babel has always been a story about human ambition, fragmentation, and the impossible reach toward something greater than ourselves. Apparently it's having a moment — but J. Jordan Bruns has been there for a while. 

Babel brings together drawings and paintings spanning from 2006 to the present, all built around this iconic image drawn in part from Pieter Bruegel the Elder's timeless renditions. Where most depictions look at the tower from the outside, Bruns turns the gaze inward — exploring its passages, its weight, and what it might feel like to inhabit a structure simultaneously magnificent and doomed. The tower has long served as a central symbol in Bruns's work, a stand-in for the body, for resilience, and for the very human instinct to build something that outlasts us. The exhibition features work from across those two decades, including pieces never before shown publicly.

Babel
On view June 5 – June 28, 2026
Opening Reception: Friday, June 5, 6:00 – 8:00 pm
Stone Tower Studio, Glen Echo Park, Maryland

Galley Open Saturdays and Sundays, 12:00pm – 5:00pm and by appointment

Learn More >> | Park Map >>

Join us for an opening reception in the Stone Tower Studio during Art Walk! Construction and Deconstruction brings together a selection of paintings by Elaine S. Wilson that explore construction sites and landscapes in flux. Focusing on spaces shaped by building, demolition, and renewal, Wilson attends closely to the formal rhythms of scaffolding, machinery, exposed structures, and shifting light. Her paintings move beyond simple documentation, finding nuance, order, and unexpected beauty in environments often seen as temporary or overlooked. Through sustained observation, Wilson transforms these sites of change into meditations on structure, instability, and the visual poetry of the built world. 

Construction and Deconstruction: Visiting Artist Exhibition
On view May 1 – May 31, 2026
Opening Reception: Friday, May 1, 6:00pm – 8:00pm
Stone Tower Studio, Glen Echo Park, Maryland

Learn More >> | Park Map >>

Photoworks is proud to announce their 2026 Juried Show AWAKENING, a celebration of Spring and renewal. An opening reception and gallery talk will take place Saturday, April 25, 4:00pm - 6:00pm​​

Juror: Sarah Hood Salomon

Featured Artists include Felix Alvarado, Edward Barrows, Susan Brown, Aaron Buxser, Didier Cayre, Meg Clarke, David Frey, Troy Hill, Sandra Kauffman, Bennett Lowenthal, Meredith Massey, Julie Miller, Ed Palaszynski, Kristin Regen, Toni Robinson, Juliet Schwab, Celia Slater, Tetiana Sulima, Kathrin Swodboda, Richard Weiblinger, and Adrian White.
 

Learn More >> | Park Map >>

In the summer of 1960, brave protestors brought about the end of segregation at the privately-owned Glen Echo Amusement Park. In honor of Black History Month, the Glen Echo Park Partnership for Arts and Culture presents two screenings of award-winning filmmaker Ilana Trachtman’s documentary telling this compelling story: “Ain’t No Back to a Merry-Go-Round.” These FREE screenings will be held in the Park's Ballroom Backroom, RSVPs required. Read the full film synopsis >>

Park visitors are also invited to attend a Glen Echo Park History & Civil Rights Tour with an NPS Ranger, meeting at the Dentzel carousel at 10:00am. Learn More >>

RSVP for the Film Screenings (Required) >> | Learn More about Black History Month Programming >> | Park Map >>