RVA MAG | Richmond, VA

VCU’s Institute of Contemporary Art, known as the ICA, has released details on its inaugural stretch of programming, including its opening exhibition, “Declaration”. The ICA partnered with several contemporary artists, faculty and students from VCU as well as local talent to build relevant and far-reaching projects leading up to the October 28 opening.

Johanna Plummer, Curator of Engagement and Education, spoke at length on the ICA’s focus on lifelong learning for all curious-minded individuals and groups interested in the ongoing pursuit of knowledge, from teens or students at VCU, to members of the general public.

“Our galleries, public spaces and auditoriums will be used for educational purposes making the ICA in its entirety a dynamic classroom,” she said Tuesday morning. “To create programming that is relevant to our future visitors, we are hosting a series of radical listening sessions for VCU audiences and people across Richmond. We held three meetings here at VCU for students, faculty and staff.”

There will be additional sessions on May 11th, 18th and 25th for the Greater Richmond community hosted by the Richmond Library Main Branch and Plummer said by the end of June they will share the details of the sessions.

These programs and projects span ICA internships for high school and VCU students to a Student Advisory Council.

Photo credit: Chris Utley. Gilbane Building Company

This coming fall, the ICA and VCU will offer a course on Contemporary Art Museums and Interpretation where. upon completion, students can apply to the Student Guide Program.

“Student Guides will receive ongoing training in ICA exhibitions and tour strategies and will be paid to lead interactive tours for the public,” said Plummer.

The ICA will continue to provide programming incorporating feedback the VCU community, Richmond community and contemporary artists by erecting an interdisciplinary group of VCU faculty advisors to provide insight and feedback that will strengthen exhibitions and programs.

“The ICA will be launching a Faculty-in-Residence program this fall bringing diverse perspectives to our galleries and partnership with the university,” said Plummer. “Here through art, we can connect the knowledge of research at VCU to a wider community.

The faculty-in-residence will give talks in the building as well within the community.

Photo credit: Gallery Four in progress, February 2017. ©Institute for Contemporary Art at VCU

The Department of African American Studies, Arts Research Institute at VCUarts and iCubed (or Institutional Inclusion, inquiry and Innovation) at VCU round out the other mentioned collaborators for upcoming projects and programs with the ICA.

“Two visiting artists in residence and a scholar in residence [along with iCubed] will work across disciplines and with key community partners to examine and advance racial equity in and through arts and culture,” said Plummer. “We will develop curriculum, teach courses and initiate special collaborations that address racial equity- a key issue facing the museum field nationally.”

Many of these partners in the community and at the university have already shared dutiful insight that will undoubtedly add to the message behind “Declaration”, the inaugural exhibition.

The opening of both the ICA and “Declaration” will kick off in a free block party at the intersection of Broad and Belvidere which will include music, interactive art projects, including food trucks, breweries and more.

The “Declaration” exhibition will embody ICA’s belief of the transformative power of art and artists. The name of the exhibition is purposeful in that the actual show will serve as a declaration from the ICA and the university on the importance of contemporary art and ideas here at VCU and in Richmond.

“Declarations mark beginnings,” said Stephanie Smith, one of the lead curators of “Declaration”. “Think of the show as a statement of intention; it’s a promissory note of the kind of institution we want to be: welcoming, experimental, challenging, dynamic and relevant. We hope that audiences will find all of those qualities in our opening show as well as in our future work as an institution.”

Themes of protest and resistance, speech and multiple voices, choice and agency, attention and reflection and the power of diverse creative communities will manifest in the work and exhibition in many different ways.

“Performance will also be part of the program because it’s a vital part of today’s art,” said Smith. “I want to reinforce that for the opening show, we’re really thinking about performance as part of the exhibition, not an event that is separate from the core show. It’s just work that happens to be temporary.”

These temporary installations of performance art will happen in and outside of the building.

“Declaration” will take over the entire building, from all four gallery spaces to the less conspicuous spots in the building. All spaces will be filled with pieces from over 35 artists that include a select group of VCU faculty, alums, Richmond-based artists and emerging and established global artists.

Credit: Peter Burr and Porpentine Charity Heartscape, Still from Aria End, a work in progress. Image courtesy of the artists

“Some [artists] are frequent starts and some are new-comers that we’re really proud to be introducing,” said Smith. “Some of the works have never been seen before. We’re going to present some older work that feels relevant right now but the work in the exhibition really focuses on recent work, as well as a number of new commissions and works created specifically for the ICA to help launch our institute.”

Marinella Senatore and Amos Paul Kennedy Jr, a wet-press printmaker based in Detroit are working on collaborative projects with the Richmond community that will be shown in “Declaration”.

“[Amos Paul Kennedy Jr.] proposed a beautiful project to us which involves working with barbershop and salon owners around the city,” said Smith. “He and Amber Sevalle, our fabulous curatorial assistant, are talking with [barbershop and salon] clients and people in their communities about topics, collecting phrases and sayings then conveying those back to Amos who will incorporate them into some prints.”

Credit: Amos Paul Kennedy, Jr., Letterpress prints, installation view Kennedy Museum of Art, Ohio, 2015, Image courtesy of the artist

Paul Rucker, a multimedia artist and musician who was recently awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship, will also have work displayed in “Declaration”. His work will be one of the largest works that will be presented in the show. In his work, he is addresses questions of structural racism and repeating patterns of history.

Following the first exhibition, “Declaration”, the ICA plans to create a long-term program that will be expanded on closer to the ICA public opening with 46 changing exhibitions or major projects each year.

“The mix will include bringing some exhibitions from other institutions, big-idea exhibitions that really connect to the most pressing issues of our time and provide a breadth of contemporary art practices, focused looks at individual artists and major commissioned work,” said Smith.

If you’ve driven through the Broad and Belvidere intersection at any point in the last year and a few months, you’ve noticed the construction of a hulking glass and steel building that will soon house VCU’s new Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA). In a press conference held today, VCU teamed up with BCWH Architects to offer some insight into the mysterious structure designed by NYC-based Steven Holl Architects.

“The site is a gateway to the city, and through the evolution of the Monroe Park campus, its also a gateway between the campus itself and the city of Richmond,” said Charles Piper, Principal at BCWH. His group has been working with Steve Holl locally to help facilitate the creation of the structure.

Holl, whose works are recognized internationally for their beauty and ability to transform spaces, started designing the ICA building in 2011. The $41 million (and 41,000 square ft.) structure it is set to open this October, just in time for November’s First Fridays art walk.

Piper said the Broad and Belvidere intersection itself helped inspire the ICA’s design – specifically the heavy traffic flow and the area’s many turning movements. All these features helped form the “torsion” of the building, its circular motion, both in the planning and vertically in its section.

“It’s as if the energy of the intersection threw itself up into the forms of the twisting shapes of the building,” said Piper. “All the energy drawn from the intersection twists and rises into the rectangular tower”

The ICA hopes to serve many purposes – gallery space, public forum, entertainment and event venue, as well as a meeting space for students and the community. Upon completion, the center of the building will be transparent through from the street to “invite entry and free exploration and connection” according to Piper.

Piper also pointed out the obvious: “the building is unlike anything else in Richmond,” but he hopes the intersection’s influence will help the building to “respond contextually” as a gateway to Broad st and Belvedere as an urban entrance. The “double front” of the structure will offer human entry from either the city-side, or the rear where a sculpture garden will guide folks from campus.

Piper said contemporary art has the “catalyzing power” to pose questions about perspective about experience, values and memories and the ICA building hopes to embody that potential “every time you drive by or come inside.”

The building’s dramatic curves and surfaces will also act to alter our impression depending on the time of day, weather and season – from roof top gardens to how light will play off and reflect from its zinc walls. Add to that the asymmetrical nature of the structure and it promises to be a truly unique end cap to RVA’s Broad St. Arts District.

“It’s not the same building from any two points of view,” Piper said, specifically referring to the building as a piece of “functional Sculpture” that is animated by its occupants and the items placed in it.

As with any modern building, there’s also a stress on sustainability with most of the structure’s guts – steel, glass, concrete and zinc – being made from recyclable materials.

Heating a cooling will be handled by 43 geothermal vents that will further reduce the electrical demands while walls will be made of dual layers of insulated glass that act as natural vents for excess heat.

“These design elements, as well as the sustainable features, will support the curatorial and educational mission of the ICA,” said Piper in closing – you’re chance to see the structure complete happens October 28th, 2017.

Renderings via Steven Holl Architects, construction photos via Institute for Contemporary Art at VC

A detailed look at VCU Institute for Contemporary Art’s upcoming programming & inaugural exhibit ‘Declaration’

An architectural breakdown of VCU’s new Institute for Contemporary Art