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Professional Athletes and Art Collide at 1708 Gallery’s Latest Exhibit

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Last weekend, former and current professional athletes ranging from NFL, NBA, MLB, and US World Cup Soccer stars stood by their works of art inside of 1708 Gallery, addressing their pieces in the first exhibit of its kind for Richmond.

No helmets to sign, no signatures carved across spiraled canvas. At this exhibit, sweeping changes are in play; stigma the only opposition. Though many questions far and wide were answered that night, one question remains unattended, stagnant in the air: can one be more than an athlete?

Last Friday, The Abstract Athlete held its self-titled exhibit featuring works from a wide variety of artists, all professional athletes and associated acts rallying for various charitable causes.  The organization works to brings together artists and professional athletes and the exhibit aimed to showcase work centered on the collision of art, sports, and science.

Washington Redskins tight end Vernon Davis, Larry Sanders of the NBA’s Cleveland Cavaliers, U.S. soccer legend Jay DeMerit, and former MLB pitcher Brett Tomko to name a few were all involved in the weekend’s events. Most of these athletes also gave speeches at a symposium held at Washington Redskins Training Center early Friday afternoon, addressing the problems many athletes face outside of the limelight, as well as the stigma attached to sports in its polarizing distinction from art.

“The main thing we are trying to promote here tonight is that we are more than just athletes, the sports world is not as separate as many, I feel, believe it to be,” Davis said.    

Artist: Percy King

The exhibit is the brainchild of Ron Johnson and Chris Clemmer who have working on the exhibit for the last years. Clemmer is a toy designer and co-founder of Sprig toys and Beginagain Toys and Johnson is an Assistant Professor in the Painting and Printmaking Department at VCU.

“We want to break down this barrier of stereotypes where athletes sit on this side and artists sit on this side,” Johnson said. It amazing to hear stories from current athletes in a vulnerable state, something we’re not used to, and talk about these experiences- I mean it humanizes them.”

Artist: Percy King

The Vernon Davis Foundation, Glenn/Gwinn Foundation, and the Mission 22 Foundation encompassed the bulk of the donation list that would benefit from the purchase of the athletes’ works. VCU scholarships were also available upon purchase of some works, hoping to encourage further research into brain injury rehabilitation, a topic Johnson and Clemmer said still haunts the fields of organized sports today.

Johnson said he plans to showcase the exhibit in other locations in the future.

“This was practically the launch, we have several spots in the hopper, Ohio State, Tallahassee, University of Georgia, it’s wild how many athletes are reaching out with ideas for exhibition sites,” he said. 

The Abstract Athlete will be on display through March 16 at 1708 Gallery at 319 W. Broad St.

 

 

RVA Mag Exclusive: Q&A with Richmond wrestling sensation ‘Progressive Liberal’

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There are certain people who can proudly be labeled a national treasure, and Dan Harnsberger is just such a person. Raised in Richmond (Midlothian), Harnsberger is gaining recognition and hyping up wrestling fans as Appalachian Mountain Wrestling sensation, ‘Progressive Liberal Daniel Richards’. Making his mark as the match ‘heel’ or villain, Harnsberger’s routine is not just a clever ruse for the fans, but actually represents his real political views – making him an easy target for a demographic firmly in the Trump cabal.

This is a provocative move for a viewership that is 67 percent male with only a high school education, but Harnsberger doesn’t shy away from telling Trump supporters just what he thinks with his liberal battle-cry: “You people need to be reprogrammed. You continually vote against your own interests…”

Featured in the Washington Post, People, Huffington Post, and the UK’s Daily Mail, Harnsberger took some time out of the ring to chat with RVA Mag in his very first exclusive interview with a local rag. Given his fondness for theatrical violence linked to politics, we thought it only fair to fire a bunch of political questions his way.

RVA Mag: How does a real-estate agent from Richmond get involved with professional wrestling? Is this been something you’ve been doing your entire life?

Harnsberger: I was in wrestling long before I was in real-estate, I started wrestling in 2003. I got into real-estate during my hiatus from wrestling. All this started with the Dead Spin story. If it wasn’t for Dead Spin seeing a tweet about my match I am on my way to this Friday, if they had not done some digging, done some research, brought this to the spotlight, then we wouldn’t be talking today. VICE News from HBO News is following us right now, CNN is going to be here, local CBS affiliate, BBC America is here and Dead Spin.

RVA Mag: Your character ‘Progressive Liberal’ represents a nuanced political theme, how did you come up with that idea and how do you translate that into an actual character?

Harnsberger: I am a left leaning liberal. Before I ever did this, I conceptualized this and how I thought it would work. At the time, I was doing a lot of shows in West Virginia and they always vote right, its a red-state, and I just knew it would get a lot of heat. Finally I had an opportunity to test market it and the reaction was palpable and what I expected it to be or dreamed it would be. So I ran with it and it’s been a slow evolution that has got better over time, but is still a work in progress.

Again, its not like I am being a character. Just because I am working on nuance that’s me as a performer its not me trying to figure out what things to say. I don’t rely on catch phrases or anything like that, its just figuring out the balance between politics and wrestling.

RVA Mag: In more rural spaces, like where you perform out in Kentucky, do the crowds and audiences take it at face value or is it more in good fun?

Photo by The Progressive Liberal Daniel Richards

Harnsberger: No, they take it pretty personal. I think the reactions are pretty genuine. They don’t like outsiders and they especially don’t like outsiders telling them what to do, so.

RVA Mag: Do you ever feel threatened with any kind of personal hostility?

Harnsberger: There have been threats of gun violence, so far. I don’t think that is going to get any better.

RVA Mag: So you’re actually a progressive liberal. What are the politics like right now on the wrestling circuit, is the national mood reflected in the audiences who attend the matches?

Harnsberger: So the Trump supporters, I think they are more emboldened right now because they won, along with losing the special elections – I don’t think that helped. I think if Hillary would have won, I don’t think you would be doing this story. I’ve had smaller local stories done before and radio, but the attention I am getting is 100 percent a by-product of Trump winning. Which is funny because in retrospect it makes all the sense in the world, but at the time when Hillary lost, I thought that would end my shelf life – I was like ‘what do I do now, I found something that works’.  But now its like…I’m not glad Donald Trump won, but it is actually helping me for once.

RVA Mag: Which progressive catch phrases get people fired up the most?

Harnsberger: Again, I don’t use a lot of catch phrases. I close my interviews by saying: ‘you will be liberated’. My finishing move is a variation of the neck breaker, I call it ‘the liberal agenda’. So the announcer can say: ‘he hit him with his liberal agenda’.

I have to use broad talking points because Trump’s fans and audience and supporters, as a whole, especially in this part of the country don’t really get into specifics. I tried saying something about charter schools and it just went over their heads. But if you say something about Trump and the Russians or Trump is ruining America or something extremely general that gets a reaction.

Photo by The Progressive Liberal Daniel Richards

RVA Mag: What’s the worst thing someone has yelled back at you?

Harnsberger: Um, I think the worst think thing was something along the lines of ‘fucking liberal comes to town, I’m going to shoot him’.

RVA Mag: That’s pretty serious. Do you take any personal safety precautions when you perform?

Harnsberger: Maybe I should start because, man, I’m telling you. The hate mail is starting to come in now. It was all love, but now the hate messages are…I just read one to my buddy and all we can do is laugh, but is there somebody plotting – looking at my event calendar and deciding if they are going to kill me? I don’t know? But I can’t live my life in fear, I won’t.

RVA Mag: In your Washington Post article you said, ‘I wish Democrats would be as unapologetic as Republicans are.’ Seeing how Democrats keep losing special elections, do you have any tips or ideas that could help the Party out?

Harnsberger: Yeah, they need to find ways to make sure people know what their plan is and how it will help them. They don’t do the best job of that. I think our specifics are better than their rhetoric, but we don’t do enough to reach out and on top of that, be bold and unapologetic. Don’t compromise, that’s what the Republicans are using and its working and they’re kicking our ass to the detriment of the country.

RVA Mag: That’s all we got, but when you’re home pop around the magazine’s office and let’s have a beer and catch up in person. Best of luck on the road and congratulations on your success.

Harnsberger: I would ask, ‘where oh where’ are the local news networks? Not one TV studio has called me.

RVA Mag: I’ll tell you where they’re at. They’re covering the next craft beer release or farm to table restaurant that has opened.

Harnsberger: Oh, good for them. Head of the league, right?

 

North Carolina rock climbing facility headed for RVA

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“It was a rush in more ways than one,” said Joel Graybeal, Managing Partner of Triangle Rock Club, on his first time climbing.

Graybeal’s passion for rock climbing began during opening week of their first indoor rock climbing gym, when he read an article on the new facility in Raleigh and came to see it for himself.

“I was in the very first Intro to Rock Climbing class they ever offered that year,” Graybeal said. “I fell in love with it.”

He went on to become more than a student at Triangle Rock Club. Now, as a managing partner alongside founders Andrew Kratz and Luis Jauregui, Graybeal is proud to report the climbing, fitness, and yoga facility will open a location in Richmond later this year.

TRC RVA’s initial 24,000 square-foot space will be located minutes from Willow Lawn and Scott’s Addition in the former Richmond Athletic Club at 4700 Thalbro St. The gym is set to offer its members a fitness facility, yoga classes, and bouldering walls followed by a 2018 15,000 square-foot expansion with belay climbing walls. It will mark the fourth location for Triangle Rock Club, and the first outside of North of Carolina.

For Graybeal, the draw to rock climbing goes beyond the wall.

“You’re so focused in the moment because there are both physical problem solving and mental resolve aspects,” he said. “When you have technique, coordination, balance and combine it with those aspects it pulls all those things together.”

Triangle Rock Club’s aim is to share their passion for climbing with others. Since joining, Graybeal has continuously seen lives change at the club.

Their “number one employee” will celebrate his 10 year anniversary this year. He showed up to the original gym while it was still under construction, getting involved from the beginning and now running one of their three locations.

Several young climbers have grown to become some of the gym’s best employees, while others have built confidence and improved in school. Four of their past or present employees met their spouses through the club. Graybeal credits the sport’s collaborative nature, as climbers communicate often and come together for the shared passion.

“Seeing people’s lives transform as a result of coming to our business is really an amazing feeling,” he said. “It’s really cool to get first hand validation, particularly from parents, that you’ve changed the trajectory of their kid’s life.”

This year’s winner of the Dominion Riverrock climbing competition in Richmond has been training with Triangle Rock Club for eight years. As it stands, he is one of the top Olympic prospects for the United States team when the Olympics come to Tokyo in 2020.

On the other end of the spectrum, the club’s oldest member is 72.

For new climbers, the club doesn’t want their successes to discourage anyone interested in beginning the sport.

“If you can climb a ladder, you can rock climb with us,” Graybeal said.

 

 

I Got Rained On (And Had A Great Time) At The Richmond Kickers Game Last Friday

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I’m hardly well-versed in the ins and outs of soccer. Aside from playing the sport as a kid, in a youth league with greatly simplified rules, I’ve never really paid much attention to it. The American version of football was always my favorite sport, and very few others managed to gain much mental real estate. But when the Richmond Kickers invited me to come out and see what attending their games was like, I couldn’t resist. Sports are always more fun live, even if you’re fuzzy on what’s going on.
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