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The Pressure to Mean Something: Inside the VCUarts’ MFA Exhibition

If you walk into the 2025 VCUarts MFA Thesis Exhibition expecting a finale or a big conclusion, prepare to encounter something else—something quieter and less resolved. A residue. A gesture mid-motion. An echo. When I walked into the opening reception on April 11, I...

The Big Dipper Summit | Where Business and Culture Actually Collide

The Big Dipper Innovation Summit kicked off today, and if you’re not here yet, well, you’re already behind. This isn’t your run-of-the-mill business event—it’s where culture and business smash together in ways that actually mean something. Skeptical? We get it. But...

A Richmond Beginning, a Typographic Legacy: Teddy Blanks In Focus

In the Richmond of 2005, Teddy Blanks was everywhere—playing packed shows with Ross Harman as the pop duo The Gaskets, writing sharp film reviews and interviews for the early issues of RVA Magazine, and even acting in a short film that, for me, still holds personal...

The Richmond 34 Sat Down. What Are We Standing Up For?

Sixty-five years ago, a group of brave young Black Richmonders walked into a department store, sat down at a lunch counter, and refused to leave. That’s what they did. That’s what got them arrested. They just sat in a segregated space where their presence alone was considered a crime.  https://vimeo.com/9827740?share=copy That moment—the...

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Detroit 67 Is Ablaze at the Firehouse

I’ve given up on trying to write reviews of plays I see at the Firehouse Theatre immediately after leaving the show. Maybe I’m slow, but there is always so much to process that “sleeping on it” is the only way I’m going to unpack the turmoil they’ve left me with as I walk out the door.Detroit '67, currently showing, is no exception. The Firehouse...

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Letter To The Editor | Art Thrives in a Free and Open Society

Merenda Cecelia, a Richmond-based artist and instructor, was recently dismissed from her teaching position at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (VMFA) after reading a statement aloud in class. She describes the statement as a personal expression of artistic and academic freedom, which led to the termination of her contract just three days later....

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Who Removed Richmond’s Iconic “Greetings from Richmond” Mural?

As reported by Axios Richmond yesterday, the sudden removal of the “Greetings from Richmond, Virginia” mural on Broad Street has sparked confusion and concern among residents and business owners, with no clear explanation from city officials or property owners. Photo courtesy of Richmond Region Tourism The mural by Ross Trimmer and Mickael Broth,...

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Prism Aura | Inside the Mind of Eli McMullen

7:00 PMWestlake Hills33°F and FrostyPlaylist: Gradients on Spotify Photo by Mike Avey of Penrose Projex "It's honestly a bit of my own therapy to just be by myself on my bike—no music or distractions. Really allowing everything around me to pass through my mind, but also going through cycles of thinking about my life and this reverberation...

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