Visual Arts Center of Richmond

Visual Arts Center of Richmond
Founded 1963
Founder Elisabeth Scott Bocock
Type Non-profit Organization
54-0721433
Focus Arts Learning
Location
Area served
Central Virginia
Product Arts Education
Key people
 Ava Spece, President and CEO; Carter Reid, Board Chair
Slogan Art for Everyone. Creativity for Life.
Mission The Visual Arts Center of Richmond engages the community in the creative process through the visual arts.
Website http://www.visarts.org
Formerly called
 Hand Work-Shop

Visual Arts Center of Richmond, also known as VisArts or Visual Arts Center, (formerly called, The Hand Workshop) is a not-for-profit, 501(c)(3) arts center in Richmond, VA.[1] [2] It is located at 1812 West Main Street in Richmond, VA, and was founded in 1963.[3] The organization serves 28,000 people annually and its core programming includes art classes for adults and children, a free admission gallery (True F. Luck Gallery) with at least 6 exhibitions annually, and multiple outreach programs providing arts learning to children and seniors in need. The Visual Arts Center of Richmond places a high priority on making sure that arts learning is accessible to all residents in the Richmond region through free programming, low cost options, and scholarship funds. Approximately 42% of the organization's revenue is dependent upon the donations and contributions of individuals, corporations, foundations, and sponsors in the Richmond region, the State of Virginia, and the United States.[3] In 2012, the Visual Arts Center of Richmond was awarded funding from the National Endowment for the Arts.[4] The organization is also supported by The Virginia Commission for the Arts.[5]

History

The organization was founded by Elisabeth Scott Bocock and first operated out of a house in Church Hill in Richmond, VA, in The Whitlock House. In 1985, the Center moved to the historic Virginia Dairy building on Main Street. The organization completed renovations to the 30,000 square foot space in 2008, tripling the size of the facility. The Visual Arts Center is one of the largest nongovernmental arts education organizations in Virginia.[6]

Visual Arts Center of Richmond (Hand Workshop) was housed at 316 N. 24th Street in the Church Hill neighborhood of Richmond Virginia from 1963 until 1978.[7]

Directors

Director Dates
Elizabeth Cochran 1963-1964
Conway Thompson 1964-1967
Vernell Yates 1968-1971
Ruth Summers 1971-1979
Cynthia Schaal 1979-1980
Jan Detter 1980-1985
Paula Owen 1985-1996
Tom Kendall 1996-1997
Susan Glasser 1997-2000
Jo Kennedy 2000-2010
Sam Davis 2010-2011
Ava Spece 2012–present

Programs

Classes and Education

The Visual Arts Center of Richmond teaches a broad range of studio classes and workshops. Approximately 5,000 adults and children take classes each year. The center provides opportunities for people to express themselves through clay, wood, fiber, painting, photography, printmaking, glass, metal, drawing, writing and the decorative arts. The Visual Arts Center maintains a teaching roster of over 120 teaching artists. Through other educational workshops, experiences, and gallery exhibitions, the Visual Arts Center serves more than 28,000 individuals annually.

Outreach and Free Programming

The Visual Arts Center of Richmond provides multiple opportunities for the general public to participate in art learning and art making at free events including open houses, First Friday (public event) activities and workshops, and art exhibitions.

The organization has extensive outreach programming, in addition to regular tuition-based offerings. 2012-13 outreach partnerships include: Boys & Girls Clubs of Metro Richmond, Richmond Public Schools & Communities in Schools, Richmond Public Library, William Byrd Community House, Podium Foundation, Big Brothers Big Sisters, YMCA Growing Younger, The Senior Center, Peter Paul Development Center, Anna Julia Cooper School, Friends Association for Children, Weinstein JCC, School of the Performing Arts in the Richmond Community (SPARC), and The Virginia Home.

Outreach programs providing arts learning opportunities include Space of Her Own (SOHO), Art After School, ArtVenture, ENGAGE: Field Trips and Side-By-Side, and Studio S (for seniors).[9]

Art After School

Art After School is an outreach program that engages over 600 young people annually in multi-week classes in visual and literary arts. More than 70 classes are offered throughout the school year (September–May) at the center and off-site partnership facilities. Current partnerships include: the Richmond City Public Schools, Boys & Girls Clubs of Metro Richmond, Binford Middle School, Albert Hill Middle School, William Byrd Community House, Podium Foundation, and School of the Performing Arts in the Richmond Community (SPARC).[9]

Space of Her Own (SOHO)

SOHO is a partnership between VisArts and Anna Julia Cooper School that brings together 12 pre-teen girls and 12 volunteer professional women from the Richmond region who serve as mentors throughout the school-year program (September – May). Weekly, teaching artists lead activities and workshops that allow young women to create a “space of her own”. SOHO is sited as a powerful program in increasing awareness and the strength of both the young girls who participate as well as the professional women who volunteer. SOHO culminates in a bedroom makeover for each girl in the program, utilizing the art and craft items created by the paired teams. SOHO utilizes a leadership and life-skills curricula designed by BOUNCE and follows the National Mentoring Partnerhship’s model program guidelines.[9]

Studio S

Studio S morning classes provide seniors in need with the opportunity to explore and share ideas in a creative and supportive environment. Participating students are ages 65 and up. Studio S program offers a series of visual and literary arts classes designed to enrich minds, bodies, and spirits of seniors in the Richmond community.[9]

Scholarships

The Visual Arts Center of Richmond regularly solicits and collects donations to support scholarships for students in need. This is supported primarily through individual contributions. The West Cary Group developed a scholarship fund called Scholarship for Creativity in 2012.[10] The VisArts Clay Guild also initiated a fund (Richard McCord Scholarship Fund for Emerging Artists - of all ages) in 2013. The development of scholarship opportunities for students directly ties to the organization's mission to make arts learning accessible for everyone in the region.

ENGAGE

VisArts provides free ENGAGE: Field Trips to students/teachers from throughout the region, that encourage interaction with the concurrent art exhibit through a hands-on station, a written youth education guide, a docent-led tour, and a relevant studio project. Engage workshops are available to the general public monthly. ENGAGE: Side by Side offers a variety of two-hour workshops related to the concurrent gallery exhibition. Participants are teams of children and adults. There is a small fee to participate for the general public. Big Brothers Big Sisters teams (Bigs and Littles) participate for free as part of the outreach programming of the center. Materials provided and docent tours are written to Virginia state and U.S. national learning standards in the visual arts (Standards of Learning, or SOLs).[11]

Craft + Design Show

Each fall in November, the Visual Arts Center of Richmond holds Richmond's annual Craft and Design Show, a show of high-quality craft artisans from throughout the country. The event has been held annually since 1964.[12] The main priority of the Saturday/Sunday show is to present high-quality artisans and craftsmen to the Richmond Community. There are approximately 60 booths and the event is currently held at the Science Museum of Virginia.[13]

Exhibitions

The Visual Arts Center of Richmond houses an 1800 square foot gallery space, the True F. Luck Gallery, which offers at least 5 exhibits annually. The gallery program also includes an extensive field trip program called ENGAGE, which serves hundreds of children each year. In addition, the ENGAGE program includes a Side-By-Side experience/program that brings adults and children together in teams to create art based on the concurrent exhibit on display. Artists of national and local reputation as well as up-and-coming artists are featured, with a focus on exhibiting media which can be learned in the center's studios and classes. In 2012-13, the artist roster has included Oscar Munoz, Megan Marlatt, Aggie Zed, and Harvey Littleton.[14]

Engage:Field Trips

VisArts provides free field trips to students/teachers from throughout the region, that encourage interaction with the concurrent art exhibit through a hands-on station, a written youth education guide, a docent-led tour, and a relevant studio project.[11]

Engage:Side-By-Side

Engage workshops are available to the general public monthly. ENGAGE: Side by Side offers a variety of two-hour workshops related to the concurrent gallery exhibition. Participants are teams of children and adults. There is a small fee to participate for the general public. Big Brothers Big Sisters teams (Bigs and Littles) participate for free as part of the outreach programming of the center. Materials provided and docent tours are written to Virginia state and U.S. national learning standards in the visual arts (Standards of Learning, or SOL).[11]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Better Business Bureau
  2. ↑ Virginia is for Lovers website
  3. 1 2 GuideStar website
  4. ↑ NEA grant recipient list
  5. ↑ Virginia Commission for the Arts
  6. ↑ Visual Arts Center website
  7. ↑ Old House Diaries website
  8. ↑ Giorello, Sibella G. (September 23, 1997). "Guiding Richmond's artistic force: Hand Workshop director finds right fit". Richmond Times-Dispatch. pp. D1, D3.
  9. 1 2 3 4 VisArts outreach programming webpage
  10. ↑ West Cary Group website
  11. 1 2 3 VisArts webpage for Engage activities
  12. ↑ WTVR Antoinette Essa
  13. ↑ VisArts webpage for C+D
  14. ↑ VisArts webpage for Gallery programming
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 8/25/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.