For illustrator Amelia Langford, it’s all in the details. She’s the Visual Arts Center of Richmond’s newest illustrator-in-residence and the artist behind the winter 2018 catalog, which arrives in members’ mailboxes this week. Langford’s cover illustration depicts a cardinal on a wintry branch. Look closely and you’ll notice the bird is made up of paintbrushes, […]
read moreOn September 29, the Visual Arts Center of Richmond lost a longtime friend and teacher, Jim Valentine. Valentine was a former public school teacher who taught art for both Richmond Public Schools and Hanover County Public Schools. When he retired, he found he missed teaching, so he began to teach ceramics classes at VisArts. Nancy […]
read moreWhen CURRENT Art Fair opens on Thursday evening, visitors will get the chance to see how Grace Kubilius spent her summer. Kubilius is the third VCUArts craft/material studies graduate to spend a summer at Quirk Gallery and Hotel’s residency space, located in Richmond’s Downtown Broad Street Arts District. The Visual Arts Center of Richmond and […]
read moreRichmond-based illustrator Katie McBride is the Visual Arts Center of Richmond’s newest illustrator-in-residence, but illustrating the fall course catalog is far from her first contact with the 54-year-old community arts center. Almost a decade ago, when McBride was a new VCUarts grad trying to launch a career as an illustrator, she paid her bills teaching […]
read moreLast summer, Alicia Dietz’s Woodworking on Wheels class was one of the first ArtVenture Summer Camp classes to fill. Kids spent a week building go-carts in the Visual Arts Center of Richmond’s woodshop, and on the final day of class, Dietz let them race the finished products. This summer Dietz is back with two more […]
read moreElizabeth Graeber has a thing for patterns. “I taught myself how to make patterns,” says the Washington, D.C.-based illustrator. “I like fun imagery, faces or animals, and love the [patterns] where you can’t see the repeat.” Graeber is the Visual Arts Center of Richmond’s newest illustrator-in-residence. In addition to illustrating VisArts’ summer catalog, which features […]
read moreTommy Van Auken will receive the 2016 Shelly Shepherd Master Teacher Award at the Visual Arts Center of Richmond’s Collectors’ Night gala on Saturday night. Van Auken has been an instructor at the Visual Arts Center of Richmond since 2003. During most sessions, he teaches five classes—drawing fundamentals, introduction to oil painting, introduction to figure […]
read moreThe Visual Arts Center of Richmond will recognize Carter Reid with its Distinguished Service Award at Collectors’ Night on Saturday, March 18. The Distinguished Service Award honors a longtime friend of the Visual Arts Center of Richmond who has demonstrated a sustained and extraordinary commitment to the organization. Reid is the senior vice president, chief […]
read moreNatasha Bowdoin grew up in rural West Kennebunk, Maine, and when she wasn’t playing in the woods, she was out on the water. The year before she moved to Philadelphia to earn her MFA at the Tyler School of Art, she worked on her uncle’s lobster boat. Those early connections to nature have never left […]
read moreBump in the Night will perform at Young + Artful on January 28. The all-female, all-vinyl DJ group is made up of Mary Silcox, Eliza Childress and Sara Gossett, who go by DJ Mixie, Area Woman and Sister Goldenhaze respectively. Style Weekly arts editor Brent Baldwin wrote of the trio, back in 2013, “it just […]
read moreVACA board member and artist Julz Suder sat down with artist Carli Holcomb to discuss the results of her Quirk+VisArts Artist Residency. Holcomb will open a solo exhibition of her work at the Visual Arts Center of Richmond in September of 2017 and is donating a piece to Young + Artful’s silent auction. You were […]
read moreIt all began with an illustration of the pope’s mitre, hanging on a hat rack. Pope Benedict had just resigned and news outlets the world over were reporting on the historic event. Fabrizio, who considers herself to be a news junkie, was moved to create an illustration that captured the nature of the day. When […]
read moreWarner Whitfield’s glass sculptures are reminiscent of flying herons seen while kayaking in Florida’s rivers and the coral gardens that bloom in clear Caribbean waters. Each sculpture is created without the use of molds or castings and is formed by first melting glass into a taffy-like texture. With the aid of heat and gravity, the […]
read moreConfident. Beautiful. Quietly badass. It’s how Tennessee-based jewelry artist Ashley Buchanan hopes you feel when you wear one of her pieces. She is the featured artist at this year’s Craft + Design Show, which will take place Nov. 18-20, 2016. Working primarily in brass, Buchanan hand cuts all of her designs, which include rings, earrings, […]
read moreWhat do adult coloring books, infertility support greeting cards and the Visual Arts Center of Richmond’s winter catalog have in common? They’re all illustrated by Richmonder Holly Camp. Camp has worked as a graphic designer and illustrator ever since she graduated from Virginia Commonwealth University’s School of the Arts in 2004. “Illustration was always my […]
read moreJared Boggess was raised in Hanover County where he grew up copying Sonic the Hedgehog and Star Wars characters. He’d fill oversized sheets of paper with hundreds of tiny characters that were neither man nor alien but something in between. Boggess is the second of four illustrators the Visual Arts Center of Richmond has commissioned […]
read moreSilk, while beautiful, isn’t an easy material to work with. It snags and stains, marks and puckers. Images, once drawn on silk, aren’t easily erased or edited. And dyes that are applied to the material frequently bleed together with unexpected results. Artist Emily Erb forgives the material all these qualities. Silk is affordable, portable and—most […]
read morePainter Tommy Van Auken is passionate about creating a place where self-described “art nerds” feel like they belong. “We designed Art League to be the program I wish I could have participated in in high school,” says Van Auken, who has been a longtime instructor at the Visual Arts Center of Richmond. “I was this […]
read moreThe Visual Arts Center of Richmond’s summer camp program, ArtVenture, launched nine years ago. In less than a decade, ArtVenture has established itself as one of the most popular day camps in the region, winning honors from publications like Richmond Magazine and Style Weekly and garnering rave reviews from both kids and parents who keep […]
read moreIn her early twenties, Michelle Erickson took two jobs that influenced the trajectory of her career as a ceramics artist. After graduating from the College of William and Mary, she spent a year working as a potter in the French-Canadian section of the Busch Gardens theme park. Tourists could watch her throw pots on the […]
read moreFive years ago, Anna Hepler gave up a career in academia and moved with her family to Eastport, Maine to work as a full-time artist in the tiny coastal community. Her commitment to both her work and pursuing a path less taken comes across in “Push Me Pull You,” Hepler’s new exhibition, which opens at […]
read moreVictoria Borges grew up with a pencil in her hand, but until she began her first year as a student in VCU’s School of the Arts, where she majored in communications arts, she had never considered illustration as a viable career path. “I thought of people as artists, but I didn’t think of being an […]
read moreLongtime volunteer Priscilla Burbank receives Distinguished Service Award
read moreMost graduate students attending health professional schools don’t get enough time to sleep, let alone make art. That is, unless they’re lucky enough to get into a program called PALETTE, which is run in partnership with the VCU School of Allied Health Professions’ Department of Gerontology and always has a waiting list. PALETTE, which is […]
read moreThere’s a waiting list to get into Jeff Vick’s ceramics classes and it’s no wonder. Students call him “patient,” “committed” and “kind,” and he’s described as the type of instructor who is always teaching. This Friday, the Visual Arts Center’s clay studio manager will be honored with the 2015 Shelly Shepherd Master Teacher Award at […]
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