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For Richmond, 2018 is a time for us to come together to understand not only the present we live in, but the ways in which the past has influenced us. The Virginia Museum Of History & Culture is doing just that with their most recent installation, Fresh Paint: Murals Inspired By The Story Of Virginia. Armed with their creativity, ten Virginia artists used an item from the museum’s collection as inspiration to create their murals. The result is ten complex and very different works of art.

Speaking with several of the artists provided the opportunity to learn what their murals communicate.

Nico Cathcart is a native of Toronto, Ontario, but is currently, in her own words, “adventuring in the southern wilds of Virginia.” We spoke briefly about the three women who played a key role in Virginia’s past, who are pictured in her mural: author and abolitionist Elizabeth Keckley, who fought for freedom; suffragist Adele Clark, who fought for the vote, to have a voice; and activist Casey Dokoupil, who fights for those who are currently disenfranchised.

“These women guide our everyday life through their actions,” said Cathcart. “They made it okay to use our voices, and break away from the traditional role of women in the household. I hope my piece tells a story of hope to the women of today, and of tomorrow. That we have the power to enact real, positive change. I hope my piece speaks of the value of being strong, a leader, and a survivor.”

Muralist Mickael Broth is the founder of Welcoming Walls, a project which brings art to “the highways and gateways of Virginia.” His mural uses a powerful image of a mother mourning for her dead son in a wartorn landscape. His use of blue is reminiscent of Picasso’s blue phase, or Chet Baker’s melancholic jazz.

According to Broth, he had ”connected with the internal and external struggles of war — in this case, World War One — to depict the way in which decisions on paper have real world ramifications.“ Losses suffered in war “ripple out throughout society,” Broth said.

Modern-day renaissance man Noah Scalin explained his mural, The Readjusters, as “an attempt to show how much Virginia’s history hasn’t changed, both good and bad.” Scalin’s use of figures such as Janie Barret, who created a school in Hampton to help incarcerated African-American girls, and Samuel Tucker, who took part in the first civil rights sit-in in Virginia, demonstrate a response that modern-day activists may look to for inspiration.

“The issues we’re grappling with today about racism and intolerance are longstanding,” said Scalin. “But there have also been amazing models of civil rights activism and collaboration in support of social justice that have existed throughout our history as well.”

Scalin describes his mural as “a story about how even during our darkest times there have always been people who have risen up, spoken out, and worked tirelessly to make sure that this country truly lived up to the values it proclaims.” He compared today’s activists to the multiracial post-Civil War coalition known as the Readjuster Party, active in the 1870s following Reconstruction, which placed priority on African-American education. “[My mural is] a story of the ‘readjusters’ who exist today, who are fighting to tell a new story about our priorities as a state and a nation,” Scalin said.

Austin Miles is a graduate of VCUarts. Her piece, By Any Means, tells the story of Black women utilizing education as a tool to free themselves and others from physical and mental enslavement. It is inspired by two American women of African descent: Mary Smith Peake, a free black woman in Hampton, VA who educated slaves and former slaves both before and after the Civil War; and Barbara Johns, a black Farmville, VA high school student who led walkouts at her school in the early 1950s to speak out about how separate education was NOT equal. “These were two Black women who stressed the importance of education and actively worked towards change,” said Miles.

By Any Means features a woman moving in a forward motion, holding the bright burning “Torch of Knowledge” representing the passing of knowledge from one generation to the next, with an eager flame in her left hand, while she releases her right wrist from the shackles of slavery that once bound her. As the woman moves forward, she is guiding and lighting the way for others to follow. For us in the present, “this guiding light allows us to dig deeper into the psychological bondages that could be occurring within our present community,” said Miles.

The installation features a number of other highlights, including Hamilton Glass’s powerful mural (pictured at top) depicting a pair of black hands bound by a rope with both an American flag and a Confederate battle flag in the background. The most difficult mural to understand is that of Endeavor Gallery’s Wing Chow, whose mural seems to be a vegetal portal to another world; it arouses curiosity standing next to the other murals, and left me wondering what object from the museum inspired it.

You can ponder all ten of the murals for yourself at the Virginia Museum Of History & Culture, located at 428 N. Blvd in the (you guessed it) Museum District, where they will be on exhibition until April 21st 2019.

Images via Virginia Museum of History and Culture

A handful of Richmond artists will be creating murals inspired by the history of Virginia – and you’ll be able to see the mural-making process live and on-site.

“Fresh Paint: Murals Inspired by the Story of Virginia” intertwines Richmond history with street art, as muralists take inspiration from the Virginia Museum of History & Culture’s 9 million item collection. With artifacts ranging from photographs to World War I uniforms to stills for making alcohol, every piece is inspired by an item of their choice.

“This is an expression of [the] history happening outside of our museum,” said Andrew Talkov, Vice President for Exhibitions and Publications. “And so we wanted to bring that into our museum. [These] objects have a deeper, broader story to tell.”

For muralist Amelia Langford, “Fresh Paint” is right up her alley. As an avid storyteller through intricate, black-and-white illustrations, graphic designs, and murals, Langford is ready to infuse her unique artistry with the historical account of her artifact.

“I am a vessel of storytelling. There’s always a story that drives my work…every little piece that’s in there, is there for a reason,” Langford said. “And now, [I want to] tell the story of Virginia.”

The 28-year-old Richmond native draws much of her inspiration from ecosystems and 18th and 19th-century naturalists. Although she isn’t ready to reveal her historical object of inspiration yet, Langford said she is excited to see street art meld deeper with Richmond art history.

Triple Crossing Brewery Mural 2017, Amelia Langford

“I’ve been painting murals for 15 years,” Langford said. “Street art was, at one point, something that was frowned upon. But in today’s culture, it’s something very accepting and it brightens a community [like] Richmond. We have over 100 murals from artists all over the world and locally [becoming] a part of our community and our modern-day culture.”

“Fresh Paint” will feature 10 artists: Mickael Broth, Nico Cathcart, Wing Chow, Hamilton Glass, Chris Hulburt, Amelia Langford, Austin Miles, Toobz Muir, Noah Scalin, and Ed Trask. With distinct artistic styles, each muralist’s artifact will be displayed next to the finished mural for viewers to see where the inspiration came from. Some of the specific artifacts to be highlighted include a 1921 photograph of social reformer Janie Porter Barrett, an automobile made early in Virginia, a sword from a Civil War battlefield near Petersburg, and a hat worn at the 2017 Women’s March.

Abstract artist Wing Chow plans to connect her personal style with a historical photograph of the Natural Bridge, a geological formation in Rockbridge County that forms an arch. Chow’s art is characterized by amorphous, flowing forms and a cooler-toned palette – blues, greens, purples – and sometimes, the occasional pop of orange or pink. Talkov said the curators were particularly intrigued to see how her artistic style would marry with that of historical Virginia.

“[Chow] doesn’t have a lot of historical pieces in her portfolio,” Talkov said. “But we really thought seeing her art style applied to historical objects and stories would be interesting.”

“Spring on Jupiter,” mural for Tiny Victory, Wing Chow

Wing Chow was drawn to the photo by the scale of the story it tells. She said, “More so than just the history of Virginia, [the photograph] relates to the history of the world as a whole.” She added, “You see these giant, geological formations that took millions of years to form and there’s this sublime quality about it. It’s incredible to realize that [these structures were] formed so many years before we could even fathom…and you come to terms with the fact that our lifespans are so short.”

As a firm believer in creating through consciousness and infusing spirituality into her work, Chow plans to symbolically depict the Natural Bridge as a portal into the metaphysical. Or as she puts it, “portals into other ways of thinking.”

Alongside “Fresh Paint,” VMHC will launch the exhibit’s companion publication, called “The Story of Virginia: Highlights from the Virginia Museum of History and Culture,” compiling a survey of Virginia history into photographs.

The collaborative exhibition offers Richmonders the chance to watch these stories of Virginia history come to life as muralists paint their creations. As the artists create, their workspace will be open for people to observe and meet the artists. The featured artists will be working on their pieces between Sept. 10 and Oct. 12. A schedule can be found at virginiahistory.org.

“Fresh Paint” will officially open on Oct. 27 and will be on display through April 14, 2019.

“Fresh Paint” Offers Fresh Look At Virginia’s Complicated History

Fresh Paint: Richmond Muralists Tell the Story of Virginia, From Prehistory to Today