Spencer Turner and his wife, Eva Rocha, spend a great deal of time on a bus. But it’s not just any bus. It is a mobile art gallery that is introducing people all across town to the contributions of Latino artists. “People love the bus,” says Turner.
The mobile art gallery is just one outreach program of the Virginia Center for Latin American Art, a non-profit organization started by the couple in January 2012. “They are a wonderful couple that decided to do something unique and exciting in Richmond by bringing art education to children.
They are doing good work,” says Cristina Ramirez, library com- munity services manager for the Broad Rock Library. The library works with the VCLAA on a program called Machinarte to help kids develop an interactive game that explores their community.Turner and his wife are no strangers to art or the Latino culture. Rocha is a Brazilian artist and Turner has always “loved the arts.”
The couple lived in Brazil and Peru before moving to Richmond. When they founded the VCLAA one of the first things they considered was a bus that could transport art around the city, taking it into various neighborhoods. “We thought it could meet our goals more effectively than a brick-and-mortar space at the time,” Turner says. The bus, part of the organization’s Galeria Movimiento outreach program, hit the road in October and has been a mobile art gallery ever since visiting places such as La Plaza Latin Market at Broad Rock, the Children’s Museum of Richmond, and various apartment complexes. “We want to bring art to people where they live, study, and work,” Turner says.
Turner hopes to increase the number of community art-based exhibitions on the bus. “That’s one of our objectives,” he says. “We want to bring together artists with non-profits that work with the Latino community.” Imaginarte, another VACLAA initiative, includes the North/South program where children at Chimborazo Elementary and G. H. Reid Elementary schools create individual book-bound autobiographies.
The schools, located on opposite sides of the river, will exchange books and illustrate each other’s autobiography. The books will be donated to the Valentine Museum, which partners with the VACLAA program. The VACLAA is also developing a program with city schools called Face Forward where high school students will run a media campaign to rebrand their communities through social media. “We want to focus on the positive,” according to Turner.
The Latino Art in Virginia Fellowship program represents a collaboration between the Library of Virginia, the Executive Mansion, and the VACLAA. The program awards a $500 fellowship to a Latino artist each year. The artist then donates a work of art to the Latino Art in Virginia collection at the Library of Virginia. Artist Sandra Cornejo was the first recipient of the fellowship. “We want to encourage art and careers in art,” Turner says. The organization is getting ready to take another step in its growth.
With the help of non-profit Storefront for Community Design, they are redesigning the lobby of Moore’s Auto Body & Paint Shop at 401 W. Broad St. The VACLAA will share the lobby space with Moore’s. Moore’s parking lot has served as a home for the organization’s mobile art gallery on First Fridays. “We want to be part of the city,” Turner says. “We want to bring a voice and different perspectives to the table.”