Chuck Scalin arrived in Richmond just in time for the merger of Richmond Polytechnic Institute and the Medical College of Virginia in 1969. He was a young faculty member in the Art Department at the newly formed VCU, and new to living in a relatively quiet Southern city. The seeds of Richmond’s now-vibrant art scene were just being planted, though, and Scalin and his fellow faculty members were part of that nascent growth.

In need of a project, Scalin and Jeri Helfgott convinced 13 other faculty members and two of their wives to create a coloring book. They produced the black-and-white book of the artists’ drawings themselves. One hundred copies were available for sale at the VCU bookstore for $3 apiece. After that, Scalin, Helfgott, and others would continue to teach and build their careers, and as the story goes, the coloring book was largely forgotten.

Fast-forward 45 years.

Richmond has a burgeoning restaurant scene gaining national attention. The arts scene continues to explode. And VCU is the largest university in the Commonwealth and host to one of the top art schools in the country. Scalin, now a well-regarded artist and emeritus faculty member of VCU, stumbled across an online antiquarian book site with a copy of the book.

“Scrolling down the description of the book on this site, it listed the 15 artists included and indicated many of the awards they had received,” recalls Scalin. “Scrolling further down I saw the sale price, yes—it was listed at $750!”

The discovery piqued his interest and became the seed for a new project: an updated coloring book. A conversation with local artist Matt Lively pushed the project to the next level. How could they do it on a bigger scale? More artists. Archival production. Lively suggested that Art 180 might be a good partner.

Scalin had been involved with ART 180 for years. He reached out to executive director, Marlene Paul. “He basically asked permission to do it,” says Paul. Eleven of the original fifteen artists came aboard for the new project. Lively and Scalin recruited a veritable who’s who of younger up-and-comers, including a number of artists who have been mentors in Art 180’s programs, bringing the total of artists to 30. Ross Trimmer of Sure Hand Signs designed a cover in a “whimsical, but creepy style. We worked together to come up with squirrels for it,” Paul adds.

In the end, the book became a true community endeavor, one that Paul hopes will launch a number of Art 180’s other upcoming initiatives.

As long-time supporters of Art 180, Scalin and his wife, Mim (who was also a partner in the original 1969 book) saw this as an opportunity to continue to build and give back to the organization. With so much donated talent and the support of Worth Higgins & Associates printing the book as a pro-bono donation, they had a full community endeavor to create a collectible, unique fundraising tool for the organization.

“Without the support of Marlene Paul, who accepted this project and became our official sponsor, and without the local printer Worth Higgins, I could not have personally incurred the expense to produce this current edition,” says Scalin.

The book debuted on a recent First Friday at the Art 180 space on Marshall Street in Jackson Ward. Scalin was there, as were many of the other artists involved. People flowed through the gallery space, looking at the originals and in some cases purchasing them. The originals from the 1969 book were on a wall of their own and looked like a microcosm of those years, psychedelic and sexual elements layered upon each other.

Standing in that gallery between Richmond in 1969 and Richmond in 2004, it was a reminder of just how far the city has come in the past 45 years. We’ve gone from being a sleepy Southern city with a nascent university to a leader in culinary, artistic, and technological pursuits.

“A lot has changed since producing the first coloring book,” says Scalin. “Richmond has an amazing artistic community with a wealth of wonderful artists to choose from. In fact, when we began to compile the list of artists, the list overflowed with many more artists that we could have included. However, we kept to our decision of 30 artists for this edition, leaving many more for the next one.”

What Scalin started on a whim 45 years ago and revisited this year is in itself emblematic of the remarkable evolution of Richmond.

Who’s in the book?

The Artists Coloring Book features work from 30 artists—11 from the original 1969 edition with the addition of 19 noted Richmond artists, including:

Katie Baines

Andras Bality

Sally Bowring

Thea Duskin

Joan Gaustad

Mim Golub

Mary Holland

Kate Horne

Sterling Hundley

Ron Jackson

Richard Kevorkian

Matt Lively

Charles Magistro

Bernard Martin

Amie Oliver

Dale Quarterman

Maruta Racenis

Diego Sanchez

Chuck Scalin

Noah Scalin

Sidney Schatzky

Tom Silver

Tanja Softic

Jack Solomon

Ed Trask

Heide Trepanier

Thomas Van Auken

Lester Van Winkle

Ken Winebrenner