The Cultural Arts Center at Glen Allen is hosting Environment at Risk, a group show curated by Appalachian Voices’ Virginia field coordinator Jessica Sims. Installed in the Gumenick Family Gallery, the exhibition gathers paintings, prints, collage, sculpture, photography, and fiber works from more than 35 regional artists grappling with the places they love and the threats those places face. The show runs through Sept. 14th.
How it came together
Sims traces the show’s roots to 2019, when she began pairing her arts background with environmental work to create a space where artists and advocates could meet in the middle. Early editions took place at Plant Zero in Manchester; the project has since grown into an invitational roster of roughly 35 artists each cycle. This marks the exhibition’s second turn at the Glen Allen venue.
The exhibit is now a biennial fixture that uses visual language to make complicated issues legible to a broader public without the policy lead-up that can lose people at the door.
Why art (and why now)
For Sims, art isn’t just decoration, it’s an entry point. She recalls her own early activism against the Atlantic Coast Pipeline, where the signs and visuals at protests helped her feel less overwhelmed. Clear, simple imagery drew her in, made her curious, and gave her the confidence to ask questions and dig deeper. That experience shaped how she now frames Environment at Risk.
“I think it can take the intimidation factor about an issue away,” she explains. “At a protest or an event, that really clear, simple visual communication would get me interested in understanding even a piece of it, and then feeling more comfortable to learn more and to ask questions, and to do my own research.”
She calls art “a gateway drug to learn more about a topic” a way to spark curiosity without demanding prior knowledge. For her, the point is connection: you might simply enjoy looking at a painting, but in that moment, you’re also being invited into a larger dialogue. That can lead to self-reflection, inspiration, or even someone creating their own work in response. “It’s a really open, welcoming tool,” Sims says. “And that’s the hope with this exhibit: to spur conversation, to cause self-reflection, or to plant a seed of inspiration.”
Why artists show up
Sims also has a theory about why so many artists say “yes” to a project like this. Creativity, she argues, is rooted in curiosity. People who spend their lives making work are constantly trying to understand things better, and that instinct often draws them to urgent issues like climate change, land use, or pipeline development.
In Richmond especially, the creative density makes collaboration easy. “There’s such a great concentration of creative minds in Richmond,” Sims notes, “that there are a lot of folks very willing to participate.”
She also points out that environmental advocacy is, at its core, about communication. Art is simply another language. “It makes sense to me that [artists] would nurture multiple ways of communicating about an issue, and that art and the creative process would be one of those ways.”
What you’ll see
Expect breadth. The 2025 roster includes Genesis Chapman, Nikki Painter, Santa Sergio De Haven, Mary Anne Hensley, Tiffany Floyd, Paul Terrell, and others alongside community-driven work like the Water Quilt, a collaborative project from ARTivism Virginia that stitches together stories from watersheds threatened by pipeline build-out. Sims highlights pieces that make the stakes tangible, Patrick Gregory’s sound/video installation built around a felled tree, and Chapman’s new oval painting of a glacier, works that translate loss and fragility into something you can feel, not just read about.
Who’s behind it
Sims grew up in Central Virginia and studied fine art at VCU (undergrad) and UNC Greensboro (grad). Before joining Appalachian Voices, she volunteered with groups like the James River Association and served with Sierra Club Virginia. That mix, studio practice plus organizing, shapes how she builds this exhibition and how she approaches policy fights statewide.
The bigger picture
Outside the gallery, Sims’ day job is the unglamorous grind of holding polluters and utilities accountable. Her current docket ranges from pipeline safety (and the lack of required odorant in major transmission lines) to proposed gas plants pitched as “for data centers,” to sensible build-outs of solar and storage that don’t stick ratepayers with the bill.
She’s clear-eyed but not defeatist about Virginia’s trajectory: with the Virginia Clean Economy Act on the books and strong networks from the coast to the coalfields, she argues the Commonwealth is better positioned than most, if we keep pressure on decision-makers and resist “over-building” fossil fuel infrastructure.
Environment at Risk
Where: Gumenick Family Gallery, The Cultural Arts Center at Glen Allen, 2880 Mountain Rd., Glen Allen, VA 23060.
When: On view through Sept. 14. Gallery hours generally Mon–Thu 9am–9pm; Fri–Sat 9am–5pm; Sun 12–5pm. Free and open to the public.
Main image: Confluence by Ivy Walbert
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