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VCU Sculpture Department, ICA, & Art 180 Collaborate to Create ‘Future Studio’ Program for Local Teens

Sarah Honosky | January 12, 2018

Topics: art, Art 180, Future Studio, Richmond teens, RVA ARt, RVA First Fridays, vcu, VCU’s Department of Sculpture + Extended Media, VCU’s Institute for Contemporary Art (ICA), VCUarts, young artists

For the past 10 weeks, a group of Richmond high schoolers spent their Saturdays in VCU’s Sculpture Department doing everything from woodworking to welding. They are the first generation of Future Studio, a free semester-long program aimed at giving Richmond teens hands-on experience creating art with the department.

Future Studio is a partnership between VCU’s Department of Sculpture + Extended Media, VCU’s Institute for Contemporary Art (ICA) and Art 180, a Richmond based non-profit that provides art-related programs to young people living in challenging circumstances. The semester culminated in an art exhibition at Art 180’s gallery, a showcase made exclusively of student work.

Matt King, Chair of the VCU Sculpture Department, has been dreaming of this project for years. After receiving a grant from the VCU Division of Community Engagement, along with additional funding from the VCUart’s Dean’s Office, the project became a reality.

“This was conceived of as a way to reach out into the community and give back, to open our doors up to young artists who otherwise might not have a chance to work with the types of tools and materials we have here in the sculpture department,” King said.  

Some art programs in area high schools do not have many opportunities to experiment with sculpture, let alone resources as high-grade as the VCU facilities.

“Most high schools don’t offer any kind of strong program in three-dimensional art making, and this is true across the country,” King said. “Shop classes don’t exist so much in schools anymore, art classes rarely offer anything other than a perfunctory lesson on making something three-dimensional.”

Meanwhile, VCU has the number one ranked sculpture program in the country, and facilities that include a highly functioning woodshop, metal fabrication shop and a host of digital equipment.

The program is not limited exclusively to Richmond Public School students, instead, the applications are open to high school students from anywhere in the Richmond community. Ultimately, Future Studio accepted 15 students from 13 different high schools for this semester.

“It becomes this kind of melting pot for the city, for teens,” King said. “You have a student from St. Catherine’s working with a student from Meadowbrook and TJ. Having those students working together encourages a kind of dialogue that otherwise we wouldn’t be able to have.”

The Future Studio students do not require any prior experience, just a willingness to learn.

“We weren’t looking for students who had already studied sculpture or who had building skills or experience, we were really looking to hear their story, to find out who they were, with the idea that once they got here we would be starting from the ground up and they would learn together,” King said.

The students were given instruction on workshop safety and the intricacies of using hulking, intimidating equipment from the moving blades of a band saw to a plasma cutting torch. They watched demos in the wood shop with Leigh Cole, VCU instructor and shop technician, and were shown bending steel and welding by Abigail Lucien, adjunct VCU faculty, and metal tech.

Ian Gerson, a second-year MFA student in the VCU Sculpture Department, was the graduate TA for the program and spent his Saturdays these last few weeks with the students in the workshop.

“The kids got really excited about welding,” Gerson said. “Pretty much everybody’s project included some of the steel rod. They were just like lined up to weld, they were so hyped on that.”  

Without access to these resources and equipment at their high schools, its an exciting first-time opportunity for a lot of the students.

“There’s something exciting about the first time you build something that is stronger than you are,” King said.

But the program eclipses simply learning about tools and materials and physically making objects. The students participated in activities that helped to develop their sense of creative self.

“It goes much beyond building things. It really is a program that’s designed to inspire them to try to understand themselves and what’s important to them as young artists,” King said.

The head classroom instructor of the program and assistant professor in the VCU Sculpture + Extended Media department, Guadalupe Maravilla, brought in a variety of performance artists and undergraduate VCUarts students to teach activities to the high schoolers.

Gerson said these creative interludes were some of the most fun aspects of the program. One undergrad mentor entered the room on a skateboard. He left that way too, but not before leading the students in a raucous performance of a vocal symphony, where he played the conductor.

Mike Zetlan is the program manager for Atlas teen programs at Art 180, as well as the gallery manager. He calls the program a rousing success. “Trying to get that many kids to consistently show up on a Saturday is pretty hard,” he said.

Zetlan helped with the recruitment process, as well as eventually housing the exhibit in the Art 180 gallery space,  and said he was shocked at the turnout: 56 applicants for the 15 spot program.

He said that one of the most important aspects of the aptly named Future Studio is the way it looks to the future for its high school participants. It gave them a taste of the college experience, a chance to experience a renowned arts program and campus life. After the program, several of the eligible high schoolers applied to the VCU Arts program for the next year.  

The Future Studio art exhibition opened at RVA’s First Fridays last week, where the students showed up with family and friends despite the weekend’s ice and snow.  

“Even the staff has been really overwhelmed by how good this show is,” Zetlan said.  “I’ve gotten more feedback on the show than I have in a while…it feels a little bit more like a traditional gallery.”

King said that the program’s biggest criticism is that the students wished it would last longer. In fact, next semester the Saturday sessions have been increased from four hours to five. Applications for the spring semester of Future Studio are open now and will be closing on Jan. 18. The program is open to current sophomore, junior, and senior high school students. 

A closing reception for the exhibit is set for Jan. 26 from 6-8 p.m. at the Art 180 gallery.

Top Photo Credit: VCU Sculpture & Extended Media

RVA Mag First Fridays Picks January 2018

Amy David | January 5, 2018

Topics: 68 Home, ADA Gallery, art, Atlas gallery, Candela Books + Gallery, Dogtown Dance Theatre, Fresh Richmond, Future Studio, Gallery5, Guards and Flags, Maven Made, Page Bond Gallery, RVA ARt, RVA First Fridays, rva streetwear, Suin & Selene, Vagabond, vcu, VCU Sculpture Department, VCUarts

From the  Terracotta Army: Legacy of the First Emperor of China making its way to the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts this fall, to Pueblo artist Virgil Ortiz‘ figurative ceramic works retelling the story of his ancestors’ rebellion against Spanish colonizers in 1680 in the “Hear my Voice” exhibit, to VCU’s announcement of their forthcoming Insititute of Contemporary Art, and our ever-growing number of murals, Richmond’s arts scene was booming in 2017. To kick 2018 off to a great start, RVA First Fridays returns this month with a slew of emerging talented artists, new exhibits, fashion showcases, artisan markets, and more.

RVA Mag has rounded up a handful of our top picks for this month’s First Fridays Artwalk and there should be a little something in there for everyone this go around.

Dogtown Dance Theatre

Made by RVA’s RVA Creative Market

Opens Sat. Jan. 6

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In an effort to support Richmond entrepreneurs and local artisans, the Manchester dance theatre has partnered with events website Unlockingrva and Made by RVA to host a market for Richmonders to shop local products and support local shop makers, creators, artists, crafters, and bakers. 109 W. 15th St. 

Candela Books & Gallery

Science As Muse 

 Exhibit runs Jan. 5 – Feb. 17

Caleb Charland, “Fruit Battery Still Life (Citrus),” Archival Pigment Print, 32 x 40 inches Courtesy of Sasha Wolf Projects

For their first show of 2018, Candela Books & Gallery will feature eight artists in the photography exhibit, Science As Muse. The artists, which include,  Walter Chappell, Caleb Charland, Rose-Lynn Fisher, Pam Fox, Daniel Kariko, Michael Rauner, Robert Shults, and Susan Worsham, all use science as their inspiration to base their photographic works around. Some of the artists use equipment made possible by modern science while others have create work by applying the scientific method, and some have simply documented the worlds within scientists practice their craft, each telling a story with their photos. 214 W. Broad St. 

Pam Fox, “Windsock,” 1999-2002. Gelatin Silver Print, 20 x 16 inches

Art 180
Future Studio Opening
Opening reception Jan. 5

Photo Credit: Future Studio program

In partnership with the Institute for Contemporary Art at VCU and the VCuarts Department of Sculpture & Extended Media, Art180 will feature its first “Future Studio”, showcasing artwork by high-schoolers in the Future Studio program. The 10-week free program provides Richmond teens with hands-on experience creating art and other media in VCU’s Sculpture department. The Future Studio program also gives teens the opportunity to visit the ICA building, access to portfolio workshops, lectures, free materials, and a chance to have their work showcased in Art 180’s Atlas gallery.

Gallery5
Gold for A Silver Situation
Fri. Jan. 5-Jan. 25

This Friday, Gallery5’s “Gold For A Silver Situation” opens, featuring the work of 12 Richmond female artists. Curated by fellow local artist Katie McBride, the exhibit aims to break gender barriers, and highlight the many talented female illustrators and artists making significant contributions to their field, yet still, are too often seen or viewed as an afterthought to male artists in their field.

The show includes the art of Cathryn Virginia, Holly Camp, Melissa Duffy, Ally Hodges, Brooke Inman, Meena Khalili, and,  Mary Chiaramonte,  Victoria Borges,  Clara Cline, Kamille Jackson, Amelia Blair Langford, along with McBride, whose known for her design of the 2016 Richmond Folk Fest poster.

Art by Mary Chiarmonte

“Female illustrators are not an afterthought. Walk in and see 50 pieces of amazing art and understand that these people should be first in your mind for a big, crazy, stunning, dramatic oil painting, or super smart conceptual think-piece, or a portrait, or whatever it is,” said McBride, told RVA Mag in a recent interview about the new exhibit.

You can view a catalog of each of the artists’ work here. Gold For A Silver Situation opens tonight at 7 pm. Music kicks off at 8 pm with Elizabeth Owens, Slurry, Georgie Isaacs, and Deau Eyes. Other vendors will also be at Gallery5 so make sure you stop by Gallery’5 membership table, Belle Isle Moonshine, “Interconnection”, a series of Multimedia Collages, and Portraits of Richmond Icons by Courtney Lebow, and  Becky Whitson, who will be selling floral headpieces and fine art.

Page Bond Gallery
Glow Glimmer Sparkle Shine
Exhibit runs until Jan. 13

 Image result for page bond rva mag

You still have a few weeks left to check out Page Bond Gallery’s Glow Glimmer Sparkle Shine exhibit featuring 26 artists which range from paintings to ceramics to abstract work.

Sculptural ceramics artist Piero Fenci is among those showcasing his work, which resembles ancient architecture, armor, and industrial machinery. Fenci describes it as “loosely rendered reinventions of the past” that reveal “a heritage of [his] own passions.” The artist has been a professor at Stephen F. Austin State University in Texas since 1975 and he founded the first university program in contemporary ceramic art in northern Mexico at la Universidad Autonoma de Chihuahua in 2004.

Ross Browne, a Richmond native and figurative painter,  is displaying his dream-like portraits, which fuse together fact and  “imagined mythology” to challenge “preconceived notions of the shared human experience”. The artist also incorporates nature such as birds, land, and cityscapes into his artwork to convey “the struggles of identity, power, and self-actualization.”

You can see their work and the work of the following artists at Page Bond Gallery in this exhibit: Participating artists include: Isabelle Abbot, Will Berry, Karen Blair, Sanford Bond, Robin Braun, Amy Chan, Charlotte Culot, Clark Derbes, Sean Donlon, Isa Newby Gagarin, Sarah Irvin, Harris Johnson, Becky Joye, B. Millner, Sarah Mizer, Jaydan Moore, Matthew Langley, Tim O’Kane, Corey Pemberton, Curtis Ripley, Fiona Ross, Nancy Murphy Spicer, Leigh Suggs, and Julie Wolfe. 1625 W. Main St.

ADA Gallery
Bruce Wilhelm: Next
Exhibit runs Fri. Jan. 5-Jan. 28

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ADA Gallery presents Richmond-based artist Bruce Wilhelm’s solo exhibit, Next, featuring his abstract works. A VCU graduate, Wilhelm has received two Virginia Museum Fellowship Grants and has showcased his work at ADA Gallery since 2005. The artist is also the co-founder of Philly’s Grizzly Grizzly gallery. 228 W. Broad St. 7-9 PM.

Sediment Arts
GenderFail
Exhibit runs Fri. Jan 5-Jan. 21

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Opening tonight is Sediment Arts storefront exhibit, GenderFail, a publishing and program initiative founded by Brett Suemnicht. The exhibit will feature a multimedia installation of publications, prints, and select programming focused on perspectives of queer and transgender people as well as people of color. The aim is to “build up, reinforce and open opportunities for creative projects focusing on printed matter.”

The featured works are from the GenderFail Archive Project in the form of a reading room with select titles from the GenderFail library.  The selections will be archived on the site and presented at the gallery as installations on sculptures commissioned from Richmond-based artists. The collaborative sculptural displays were created by artists Hallie McNeill, Evan Galbicka and Colin Klockner. GenderFail will be open Saturdays and Sundays from 1-6 pm and tonight’s opening will run from 6-9 pm. 208 E. Grace St. 

68 Home
 The Zodiac Collections
Exhibit opens Fri. Jan. 5

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 68 Home, a used and locally made furniture and home decor store and art gallery, will open First Fridays this month with “The Zodiac Collections”, a complete astrology-inspired exhibit.

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There will be $5 card readings by @snakeoil, online jewelry boutique Sun and Selene will be there selling their products, along with Maven Made, a local company selling all natural, ethically-sourced beauty, home, and wellness products, and local custom-flag shop Guards and Flags. 5 W. Broad St.

Threat Count Shirts
Cotton to Canvas: Champ Era Street Calculus

This Friday, Thread Count Shirts, a local custom brand t-shirt and apparel business, will have a pop-up shop showcasing local designer Champ Era’s latest collection, Street Calculus. 6-10 PM. 209 E. Broad St. 

Fresh Richmond
Pop Up Shop
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Fresh Richmond is hosting a Pop-Up Shop for their First Fridays of the New Year. The shop will feature clothing from Sky Mission Clothing Co., artwork made using water, fire, and air by SABartStudio, jewelry and gemstones by The RAW Aura, homade lotions by Nature’s Booty, and a DJ set by DJ Lady Syren and Neili Neil. 5-8:30 PM. 213 E. Broad St.

 

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Artwork by featured artist Shaylen Amanda Broughton

Vagabond
 Smoochie Jankins 1st Fridays Party!

Vagabond will throw an artist pop-up in The Rabbit Hole tonight at 9 PM featuring art and design from Jessica Camilli, Kamala Bhagat, Liberatus Jewelry, with music by Smoochie Jankins. Led by Mark Ingraham on the trumpet, the band is rounded out with Garen Dorsey (Sax/ Keys), Macon Mann (Keys), Kelli Strawbridge (Drums), Nekoro Thabiti Williams (PBR, Drums) and Derek Goodall, (drums) which is bound to get you out of your house braving the cold weather to hear these awesome musicians play. 700 E. Broad St. 

Check out all the RVA First Fridays happenings here.

 

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