artoberVA Spotlight: VISARTS on Celebrating 60 Years of Artmaking, Exhibitions and Community Programs
1. Briefly introduce yourself and your relationship to The Visual Arts Center. How did it all start for you there, and most importantly, what titles would you like me to use when I credit you in the post?
My name is Jordan Brown and I’m the executive director here at VisArts. I’ve only been in this position since this past June, but I’ve been with VisArts now for over 11 years. I actually started working as a part-time front desk associate, answering phones and registering students for classes and greeting folks who came into the building. A couple years in to working here I started a masters program in arts administration and I always say that VisArts was my homework and daily practice all through that program. I learned so much about nonprofits, community spaces and a ton about VisArts and the local arts community. During that same time, I started working on the education team, first with our community programs, then gradually our adult tuition programs and then as director of education before applying to become executive director this past spring.
2. Tell me a bit about VisArts! What is it & how does it fill a space in Richmond for the arts?
The Visual Arts Center of Richmond AKA VisArts is a nonprofit community art center that’s celebrating it’s 60th anniversary this year! Our mission is to celebrate and support the creative life of all people through artmaking, exhibitions and community programs. We do that through a lot of different programs, serving more than 40,000 people each year. We offer the community over 1,500 classes each year across a variety of media like clay, fiber, painting, drawing, printmaking, letterpress, glass, metals, wood, digital media and more. These classes are for kids and adults and can meet somebody wherever they are at in learning that media from beginner to advanced. Our grant-funded community programs reach more than 3,000 individuals through free-of-charge classes, workshops, and gallery tours and partner with organizations all over Richmond like Richmond Public Schools and the VA Hospital. We also offer 7 exhibitions throughout the year in our gallery, highlighting artists that are innovating the materials and processes we teach each day in our space. On top of this, throw in our artist residencies, studio access programs and major events like Craft + Design, and you’ll see we are always busy. Our aim is that we have a way for somebody who’s interested in pursuing their creativity or craft or finding community through art to engage with us, no matter where they’re at in their own creative life. You can be a person just starting to make art for the first time or a professional artist and we have a place for you here and resources to share.
VisArts fills a unique role in Richmond because we are the only space in Richmond, and honestly one of few nationally, that hold so many artistic media and studios under one roof. If you want to learn something or make something, we most likely have a way to do it and a way that’s accessible to you no matter who you are. We can reach so many different audiences in one place, from youth in public schools to local families, to emerging artists to educators. We’re able to be a place for artists to both make work and earn a living by teaching and working with us. A really beautiful thing about this place is that somebody could be with us throughout their entire life if they’d like, coming here for after school programs, volunteering in high school, learning to make art in our classes, applying to residencies and exhibiting in our gallery.
3. We are so excited to experience artoberVA at VisArts 2nd Fridays! How would you describe this monthly program, and what are you most looking forward to about the event on 10/13?
Artober is a great way to highlight the creative community in Richmond. Our city is special for how big, lively and diverse the arts and culture community is here, so I’m glad there’s a way for us to collectively call attention to this and celebrate together.
This Friday’s event is a regular for us and we’re so glad to have it highlighted by CultureWorks. Our Second Fridays workshops each month are an affordable, fun, and quick way to try your hand at something creative in one of our studios. Classes are just $15 and an hour and a half long, but you get to learn something like working with clay or printing in our letterpress shop or creating a print in our darkroom. We see a lot of folks use these as a great way to try something new, but also just a fun and creative way to spend time with a friend or partner.
4. How have you felt VisArts form connections amongst Richmond’s creative community? Have you discovered anything new over the years, and/or do you have a special memory in your experience?
Oh my gosh yes, I feel so lucky to be a part of not just the VisArts community but the larger Richmond creative community. There have been so many times that we have been able to work and partner with other organizations and times that I’ve learned from and leaned on other artists and leaders here. The biggest thing I’ve learned in my time here is that connecting with your community is the most meaningful and important part of our work. Taking the time to get to know folks, to attend each other’s events and performances, to learn about what others are doing – that’s what truly matters. And perhaps the other big things I’ve learned, especially recently, is that we are all interested in supporting each other. If you want to ask somebody how they did something, you should because this community is so incredibly supportive and willing to share resources. If you want to connect with an artist and ask about their work, you should because most likely they’d be thrilled to talk with you about it! It never hurts to ask or reach out, and it almost always leads to something new and exciting.
5. Have you collaborated with any specific artists/spaces/organizations recently that were meaningful for you?
We have had so many beautiful collaborations over the years I’ve been here. Two recent examples I’d love to call out are our recent partnership with Afrikana Film Festival and our still-new but growing partnership with Sheltering Arms Rehabilitation Center. This past spring we signed on as a partner with Afrikana Film Festival to support their first ever resident artist, who was a winner of their Script-to-Screen screenwriter competition last year. We are fortunate enough to have a residency house on our property where artists can come to stay in Richmond and work in our studios. We worked out an agreement to host Afrikana’s resident, revel, for two months as well as give them access to our studios and the opportunity to take classes while they worked and lived in Richmond and created their film. We were so glad to support this festival and this filmmaker and see their creation come to life last month at the festival! It felt meaningful to be able to share a resource we had available that perfectly matched the needs of a program that was doing exciting things for this community.