Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Summer Art Camp Day 1

Day 1 of Summer Art Camp was SO much fun. Jessie Boyland taught Kadinsky style painting for the "background" of the portrait painting class. Then a quick snack and Glenda took the class to the Clay & Kiln workroom for clay sculpting fun. We are building a village using the slab building method of clay-work. So far we have the base of each "house/dwelling" and the roof. Day 2 the roof and base will be attached and it's time to cut out the windows, doors and even add "ramps" for one young artist's "skateboard" centric building!





















Monday, July 4, 2011

Six new tapestries arrived for Maximo Laura's exhibit



July 1st the last 6 tapestries arrived. So if you can to the Maximo Laura PATH TO THE SUN AND MOON opening in June, you have another reason to come see this exhibit.



They are wonderful. Whether you want earthtones or brillant color, these have everything. The colors just jump off the tapestries.


Come see these! We are open Tuesday - Sunday 12-6pm. And we'll be having another reception! July 17th, Sunday at 2-5 pm.... and a special sale of these tapestries.






Sunday, January 23, 2011

25 Whimsical Works of Art Arrive Today

  • Arthur Jett and family are leaving Norfolk and are in route to Richmond with a collection of Vicki Bruner's work.

Saturday, January 22, 2011

Bucket List



We're 60 years old. Well, the building is 60 years old and the roof is 60 years old. The roof has seen some wear and tear. We've given it a few facelifts and some treatements but the time has come for major surgery.

We have a donation jar to help us out and this week a generous lady gave us $200 toward our roof fund.

Follow this benefactor's lead. Donate wherever you can if you like what we're doing in Manchester and greater Richmond for the arts. Oh, our bucket list? It's to have no buckets necessary to catch the rain inside the building!

Friday, January 21, 2011

Call for Entries January All Media Show


It's time for Call for Entries for the All Media Art Show. So far we have 45 entries and lots of new artists are dropping by and submitting their work. We'll be accepting entries Saturday and Sunday too since the juror doesn't come until Monday. The juror is Suzanna Fields. Read about her on our website www.artworksrichmond.com/Show2011-01.htm




See you Saturday or Sunday. Bring art!




Thursday, January 20, 2011

A.R.T. Easter Seals UCP Program at Art Works





Yesterday Easter Seals UCP completed the training for A.R.T. The Trackers worked with the Artists and some even completed their paintings.

What’s A.R.T ? It’s a program where physically challenged folks use technology to communicate to someone who has been trained to put their ideas down on canvas or other mediums. Scroll down to read about this amazing story and program.

For those of us who participated in the training or just watched the process and the interaction, it was a feel good day! At the end of the day, Sarah Hutchenson loaded up the materials and put them in A.R.T’s new studio 150 at Art Works. And in the next week or so, the studio will be organized and ready for the making of more art.

Some of the paintings completed this week will be on exhibit in the Skylight Gallery on FOURTH FRIDAY (January 28th) and the exhibit continues through February 20, 2011.

ABOUT A.R.T.In his book Flying Colors, Tim Lefen tells about his introduction 10 years ago to a group of severely challenged students. None of them could walk and all lacked the use of their hands. Only one of them could talk. Lefen was facing the gradual loss of his eyesight and knowing the power of art, set out to enable the students to paint despite their physical difficulties. He developed the A.R. T. (Artistic Realization Technologies) program that makes use of technologies (computers, laser pointers and more) as instruments with which the students (aka artists) use to instruct trained assistants (aka trackers) to be their arms and hands in painting, photographing and sculpting.

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Saturday, April 17, 2010

Art and Cultural Districts in Richmond


The buzz is that Richmond is looking at Art Districts. John Bryan from Cultural Works has facilitated discussions with the various artsy areas in Richmond. This started in January 2010 with a meeting at Quirk Gallery on Broad Street where 30+ people attended to hear Theresa Cameron discuss successful and unsuccessful art districts.

Just Build It! Not Really...
What I brought away from that meeting was you can't just "build one and then they'll come". Why not? Well, the entire community needs to be involved and included. All businesses and residents of an area should be represented, protected and have a voice. By protected, I mean - avoiding a Soho repeat, where the work of the art district increases the value of property to such an extent that the artists and businesses can't afford to stay and pay the taxes. So the city protects the business by virtue of tax control and the business bring revenue to the area by virtue of tourism, community commerce and so forth....

Artsy Areas Gather Concensus
The various artsy areas in Richmond: Broad Street, Court End, Valentine Richmond History Center, Church Hill, Robinson Community Theater Arts Center, Main Street, Manchester, Museums on the Boulevard, Maymont and Shockoe Bottom - went away and met with their communities to answer 15 questions. (The artsy areas are a little fuzzy to me, just because I might not have them all defined...but that's the best I can do...)

The 15 questions are listed below along with the comments from the folks in the Manchester area.

Manchester Answers the Questions
Paula and I at Art Works hosted the April 1st meeting to discuss Manchester. It was such a lovely day that it was really hard to not go home and enjoy the weather but thanks to those who did come sit in the gallery and spend the time to discuss Art Districts.

Talk and Action
On April 15th, John Bryan called a follow-up meeting to review findings of each area that met with the community at large. It was a great meeting with 30 participants.

An Ordinance Underway!
What I took away from this meeting is: There is an ordinance being drafted for art district specifications for the city. Each art area needs to review the ordinance and add to it, modify it to meet their specific needs. Then these various renditions compiled into a comprehensive ordinance that allows for implementation and growth by any art area in Richmond.

Branding - What's in a brand?
We also discussed marketing and branding. What is an art district? Branding is not so much a description of the components of an art district but rather the concept - its essence - what you want people to think about when they think - Richmond art and culture. Now that's a challenge! But fun.... Your thoughts?

The rest of this post is the answers to the 15 questions by Manchester...... FYI.

On April 1, 2010 representatives from Manchester met at Art Works to discuss the proposal for an art district. Here are the questions posed and ideas from the group. For clarification on these minutes, please contact Glenda Kotchish or Paula Demmert at Art Works (804 291.1400) or glenda@artworksrichmond.


The group would like a definition of Hub and Spokes. Is the city the hub and the spokes the districts? Is one particular area the hub and the other areas spokes. See #15 for ideas about names.

Thoughts for Individual Geographic Areas to Consider

1. What are the arts/culture entities in our geographic area?

Crittenden Gallery
Artspace
Art Works
Plant Zero
12 12 Gallery
Adorn Gallery
Russell Project
New Manchester Flats Art Studios
Bainbridge Art Center


2. What might be the arts/culture theme or title for our area?
· Manchester Arts District MAD
· Old and New MAD
The group enthusiastically came up with names for the other “spokes” such as VMAD for Virginia Museum Arts District and BAD for Broad Street Arts District!

3. What might be our precise geographic footprint?

We had a map that includes all of Manchester from Jeff Davis to the River.

4. What are the for-profit businesses in our area?

This list is not complete. A review of the Richmond City Tax Assessors records would provide a comprehensive list.

· SAVOR
· Legends
· Bankuet
· Croaker Spot
· 3 North Architects
· Grace Street Design
· Circle S Studio
· Plant Zero CafĂ©
· Plant Zero
· Papa Pizza
· Warehouse 201
· Scoot Richmond
· TIG (Tech Integration Group)
· Burger King
· Macdonalds
· CRT
· Manchester Pie Factor
· Manchester Flats
· Fountain Head
· Gregory Kaplan Law Firm
· W. M. Jorda
· Parachute Facotr
· Caravates
· Justin French Condos
· Southern States Building


5. Who are the property owners in our area?
This list is not complete. A review of the Richmond City Tax Assessors records would provide a comprehensive list.
· Fountain Head
· Justin French

6. Who are the potential financial partners for our area?

· Sun Trust Mortgage
· UPS
· Fountain Head LLC
· Lewis Plumbing
· CITGO
· Southern States Building owners

7. Who are the potential developers that ARE be interested in our area?
· Fountain Head LLC
· Justin French
· Sam Macdonald

8. What is the process to assure that all of the voices in our area are able to be heard?
· Meetings, forums, mailings
· Facebook usage
· Google mail list process
· Collective ear

9. What the process to engage our area’s Councilmember?

Ellen Robertson was invited to the meeting but did not attend. Perhaps a one-on-one meeting to engage her would be successful.


10. What “soft” incentives, amenities, stimuli might the City of Richmond provide to our area? (“Soft” means things that don’t affect the City’s budget.)
· Include MAD in newsletter
· Website links and calendars
· Include MAD in regular printing of brochures (e.g. Pine Camp brochures)
· Community TV

11. What other incentives/amenities/stimuli might the City of Richmond provide to our area? (Be practical given the current fiscal challenges and constraints. But also be creative and inventive!)

· Tax breaks
· Marketing support TV, radio etc.
· Marry history AND arts
· Bill boards, bus ads
· Public art expenditures by LOCAL artists
· Lights
· Sidewalks
· Implement Master Plan for Manchester
· Clean streets
· Allocate space for sculpture park and art park
· Funds for murals on unsightly structures
· Graffiti wall outlet
· Shuttle and Trolleys from downtown and back

12. What are other needs of your geographic district (needs that might be filled by resources other than the City)?

· NGO (non-government organizations)
· Enrichmond (Earth Day Festival continuance)
· Ampitheater – Mayo Island
· Picnic area

13. What is the process for our area to speak with a unified voice, to focus on common needs, to have a leadership person/committee?

· Coffee shop and morning meetings
· Connect with groups and associations that have memberships (e.g. Old Manchester Alliance and Cultural Works)

14. What are some collective needs/services that might simultaneously benefit the hub and all of the spokes? (Common ticket, brochure, banners, etc.?)

· Website development and general marketing

15. What’s a sexier name than “hub-and-spokes”?
· Web vs Hub (since the center of the hub is perceived as the most important component whereas in a web all parts connect and are important)
· Wheel, collective, grid
· RICH ART – description of all locations (RVA Art, ART CITY)
· Note that SCAT in Savannah encompasses the whole city successfully
· RAD – Richmond Arts District