The Visual Arts Center of Richmond’s newest exhibition explores how contemporary artists are reinterpreting traditional quilt making processes in their own practices. At the Friday, Dec. 1 opening reception, two of the 13 selected American artists in the show are unveiling brand new work. Aaron McIntosh is the only Richmond-based artist among the 13 exhibitors. […]
read moreOver 6,000 attendees shopped the work of over 130 artists at the Visual Arts Center of Richmond’s 53rd annual Craft + Design show. It was a landmark year for the show, which moved to Main Street Station’s newly renovated train shed. Some highlights from the weekend include: A special appearance by Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney […]
read moreNorth Carolina-based jewelry artist Tara Locklear has been to two craft shows this month, but she’s energized and ready to get back on the road and head to Richmond. Locklear is gearing up to leave her Raleigh-based studio to travel to Craft + Design, where she’ll headline the event as the show’s featured artist. Between […]
read moreDianne Nordt began making and selling her handwoven wool blankets more than a decade ago, after she and her husband, William, moved their three children to a sprawling farm in Charles City, Virginia. Today, Nordt has a sleek website and has seen her blankets lauded in national magazines such as Garden & Gun and Martha […]
read moreRichmond-based progressive bluegrass band South Hill Banks won top honors at FloydFest, one of Virginia’s biggest music festivals, and the five-man group will kick off Craft + Design when they play the Patrons’ Preview Party on Friday, November 17. The party runs from 6-9 p.m. Winning FloydFest’s “On the Rise” award in July has opened doors […]
read moreTen years after taking his first sewing class at the Visual Arts Center of Richmond, fiber artist Paul Hansbarger is returning to Richmond to showcase his growing canvas and leather bag business, Lineage. Hansbarger got his start making bags in Catherine Southall’s introductory sewing class. He’d graduated from VCUarts in 2004 with a painting and […]
read moreFor 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 […]
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