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Crossroads Arts Center Exhibit Pays Tribute to Our Immigrant Ancestors this Friday

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Crossroads Art Center wants to remind us that at one point in time, we were all immigrants.

This Friday, the gallery will host an open house for “Where We Come From: Honoring Our Immigrant Ancestors,” which will feature work from several of their 225 represented artists, as well as many individual exhibits in connection with the main project.

“It’s important right now because the issue in the news of immigration,” said Jenni Kirby, director, and owner of Crossroads Art Center. “We literally all are immigrants into this country. Immigrants actually help to build this country and help change this country.”

Martin Reed, Anguish

The exhibit will be an all-media show, inviting artists to use whatever medium is most relevant to their ancestors and the artists of their pasts. Woodwork, jewelry, pottery, and paintings are all accepted into the show. The artist reception includes exhibitions by the Tuckahoe Artists Association, Sandra Nardone, and Linda Hollett-Bazouzi.

“I am not just a product of my immigrant ancestors, but also defining moments of my life,” Hollett-Bazouzi said. “I think it’s very important to honor and recognize our cultural backgrounds, but I think we need to remember that there’s so much more than just that.”

Julie Matre, Trail of Tears

Using the concept that humans are a product of nature versus nurture, Hollett-Bazouzi’s work expands on “Where We Come From” by creating art that represents the important moments in her life that have defined who she is, rather than simply being defined by who her ancestors were. Through her exhibit, titled “Where We Come From: Defining Moments,” she wants to acknowledge that background doesn’t determine your destiny.

“We are so much more than our genes, our heritage,” Hollett-Bazouzi said. “We are also all those moments, events, and people that make a mark on our lives.”

Artist Sandra Nardone will also present her own accompanying exhibit, titled “Ellis Island: Faces of America,” (main image) focusing on the history of immigration and Ellis Island. Partially the inspiration for the all-media show, Nardone’s exhibit accompanies her new book featuring her work, original photographs from Ellis Island and a brief history, which will be available for signing at the exhibit opening. Other artists in the all-media show will present work representing multiple backgrounds and heritage, such as Native American, Greek, Polish and South American ancestry.

Sara O’Connor, Lights of Reministance

“I’m hoping that it will spur conversation about it as opposed to just hate speech,” Kirby said. “I hope it’s a conversation that can start between people with opposite minds and begin that as a conversation as opposed to a shouting match about it.”

In addition to the open house exhibit opening, artists will bring a variety of dishes that represent their heritage for the public to sample. The food could be anything from a well-known traditional dish to an old family recipe from the artists’ ancestors.

 “Where We Come From: Honoring Our Immigrant Ancestors” opens this Fri., Jan. 19, from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. at Crossroads Art Center. The exhibit will run until March 4.

 

CultureWorks’ artoberVA Returns to Celebrate Local Arts & Culture Scene

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For the second year in a row, CultureWorks Richmond is hosting artoberVA, a month-long celebration of arts and culture in Richmond and the Tri-Cities area every October. In an effort to embody its mission of inspiring and cultivating world-class arts and culture, CultureWorks established artoberVA to promote events, pop-ups, science, collaborations, exhibits, history, and any arts and cultural event happening in the metro region. The 2017 artoberVA celebration features over 200 local arts organizations and businesses and countless individual artists.

“Last year, artoberVA featured 1,400 arts and cultural events happening in and around Richmond,” CultureWorks Richmond’s Program Associate, Terry Gau, said. “Though that showed that they were people going out and attending these events, we would still get asked, ‘Well, what exactly is artober?’ So, this year, we dug deeper.”

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This year’s theme for artoberVA is “Dig In,” and it arose after the increased support of the Richmond community from last year’s event. “It’s been a good year for collaboration,” Gau said. “Businesses that have never done anything with art are expressing interest in collaborating for artober, which is really cool.”

“With the implementation of our new artober calendar, it really offers Richmond citizens access to these events. We want to dig deep locally and get the locals engaged in art. Richmond is known nationally for its arts and culture, bringing tourists, but if Richmond wants art to be celebrated year round, then local has got to support local,” Gau said.

Image may contain: 3 people, people smiling, people dancing, people on stage and shoes

There are four key areas in which CultureWorks Richmond likes to highlight for all artoberVA events: family-friendly; collaboration; pop-up; and new places. If art and cultural event especially highlights one or more of these areas, CultureWorks will provide extra promotion and outreach for the program. And in the spirit of ArtoberVA, collaboration is one of the main driving points here in the city.

“One of our biggest collaborators would be the Byrd Theatre in Carytown,” Gau said. “The Byrd will be teaming up with Bygones right next door and Carrera’s Jewelers for a free night of jewelry-themed events. Carrera’s has a jewel historian that will host a talk at the Byrd about the history of jewelry and jewelry as art, followed by a showing of ‘To Catch a Thief.’ All free and open to the public.”

Photo by Sin Phrakhansa

Gau said the month-long they are putting a huge emphasis on art in new places. Last year, they had a muralist who traveled to Carter Woods, a retirement and assisted living home in the area, to paint a mural for the residents and this year, she will be adding more to the mural.

“She’ll be adding extinct birds to the mural, and she’ll create a blank bird in the form of a paint-by-numbers so the residents can all attribute to the community mural,” Gau said.

Every Thursday, artoberVA will host events in Carytown.

“To coincide with First Fridays, Manchester Manifest, and other such events, these nights will feature live music and performers, and will also feature several collaborators from Crossroads Arts Center, Carytown Merchants Association, Richmond Urban Dance, and the Kings Dominion’s Gravewalkers band.”

Here are some noteworthy events happening throughout artoberVA:

The National Arts Program Group Exhibition

NOW – October 13

This exhibition currently on display at Pine Camp Arts & Community Center features artwork made solely by employees of the City of Richmond and Richmond Public Schools and their immediate families. It will feature over 200 works from some 170 artists. The National Arts Program Group Exhibition is made by possible by the National Arts Program Foundation, the City of Richmond Parks, Recreation, and Community Facilities, and local Richmond National Arts Program coordinators.

5th Annual “Ladies First” Show & Raffle

October 14 – November 18

This exhibition of all female artists is a benefit for Domestic Violence month. The opening reception will be Saturday, October 14, from 5 to 8pm, and there will be raffles for jewelry homemade by “Sibyil Collections” with all the proceeds going to Yeshua’s House. “Ladies First” will be on display at the Walton Gallery until November 18.

ThinkSmall 9!

October 27 – December 17

With this opening, ThinkSmall! celebrates its ninth installment of the fundraising event at Artspace. The exhibition will feature hundreds of artists from Richmond and farther away that have created miniature masterpieces. Some of the participating artists include: Gwen Parker, Alan D Entin, and Mary Anne Hensley. Everything on display will be for sale, ranging from $50-$400.

Art for the Journey Gala Art Exhibit – “The ART of Wellbeing”

Thursday, October 26 from 5:30 to 8:30

Local nonprofit Art for the Journey will be holding gallery event at the Independence Golf Club to benefit underrepresented communities like youth at risk, elders with dementia, and women in prison. The Virginia Commonwealth University Jazz Department and the Richmond Symphony Youth Orchestra will be providing live music and refreshments will be provided with the ticket. A silent auction will also take place for the featured works from Bon Air Artists Association, James River Art League, and some artists from Art for the Journey. Admission is $50.

VIRGINIA JAZZ: The Early Years

NOW – April 30, 2018

Richmond Jazz Society presents an in-depth look at 30 jazz artists from Richmond who made strides for classifying jazz as an American artform. This exhibition’s timeline follows the artists from the early 1900s to the mid-1960s. The exhibit will feature local legends like Pearl Bailey, Bill “Bojangles” Robinson, and Elle Fitzgerald.

The Story of Virginia

NOW – December 31, 2017

The newly renovated 10,500 square foot space at the Virginia Historical Society is currently featuring the exhibit “The Story of Virginia.” This exhibition renders a storytelling experience, interpreting 16,000 years of Virginia history. Some of these artifacts include Stone Age tools all the way to the homemade satellite from 2013.

Den of Fear at Dogtown Dance Theatre

October 20 – October 29

Located two miles away from VCU, the high-intensity thrills and scares are apparent from the national haunt artists that are taking over Dogtown to bring Richmond its only haunted house within the city limits. This event features movie-quality horror makeup and a theatrical and interactive experience. Warning: this is not for the faint of heart. No children under 10 and tickets are $15.

To check in with everything that’s already happening in artoberVA, search #artoberVA on all social media or check artoberVA’s calendar for a full schedule here.

 

*Cover photo by ArtoberVA

Crossroads Arts Center & The Forest Project Collaborate On Multi-Media Show, ‘Into The Woods’

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On display currently at Crossroads Arts Center, The Forest Project Exhibition is lead collaborator Dawn Flores long-standing conservation project designed to memorialize a medium-sized urban forest off Jahnke Road that was clear-cut for housing development. This exhibition is the result of hundreds of artists collaborating together going on four years. They first started working together for the common goal of commemorating an urban swath lost to development.

The Forest Project Exhibition is a part of the multi-media juried show, “Into the Woods,” a collaborative project between Crossroads and buyRVAart. “The idea was brought to Jenni Kirby by Sven Arenander, an artist who works primarily in wood, to have an art exhibition that highlighted the natural world and how it inspires artists,” the “Into the Woods” press release reads. “They decided to do a multi-media juried exhibition and pull in The Forest Project.”

“Represented in the Forest Project exhibition and woven throughout ‘Into the Woods’ are eight volumes of photographs, sixteen-framed photographs, sixteen quilts, five monotypes, fifty turned wood pieces, one handmade made piece of lacework, seven eco printed scarves, several salvaged wood pieces, one installation piece, one floorcloth, and one movie titled, Wild City Forest,” Flores said.

Flores first documented the harvesting of 60 acres behind her house in 2011, and spent the last three years collaborating with quiltmakers, woodturners, and other artists before the forest was destroyed. “Volunteers rescued 2,000 plants, collected millions of seeds, and salvaged parts of an 1865 farmhouse before it was demolished,” Flores said. “Salvaged plants were planted in gardens and at neighborhood schools. Poems were written by children and adults, about copperheads and bald-faced hornets.

She added they also had about 15  representatives from the Richmond Woodturners come onto the property and cut down several trees who then took the trees back to the other Woodturners and crafted the trees into pieces of art and produced 50 bowls and sculptures. 

“Photographs taken in the woods before it was cut were made into patterns, printed on fabric, and sewn into quilts,” Flores said on the rest of the displayed pieces in her exhibit. “Seeds were preserved in old bottles found along creek beds, the new lids were covered in gold leaf to designate them as treasures. Leaves were collected and eco printed onto silk. Prints were pulled from the harvested trees.”

“Twisted limbs of a sycamore tree were embalmed with beeswax and laid to rest on a Civil War-era embalming table, rescued from the attic of the house that once stood on the property.  All these things were made, then laid on the clear-cut earth and photographed. Each piece was offered as a thank you to the Earth, acknowledging what was passing and giving thanks for what will live on. In addition, an artist residency was completed at Collegiate Lower School, bringing the Forest Project to 600 students.”

The Forest Project’s sister performance was Twila Jane Sikorsky and Electric Nomad Dance Studio’s “Eternal Forest,” which premiered earlier this month at Dogtown Dance Theatre. Since Sikorsky began working on her theatrical dance performance about a year and a half ago, Flores has been a key contributor. “I saw the ways that Dawn transformed artifacts from her conservation work in the forest, and knew that it was time for us to get our creative ideas rolling down the same path,” Sikorsky said.

“Into the Woods” is on display until November 5 with an upcoming reception on October 15, which will feature live woodturning by the Richmond Woodturners and dancing performed by the members of “Eternal Forest.” The event will take place from noon until 4PM.

 

Art Sponsored by Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art