Dream Nation Project
About 10 years ago, longtime friends Shane Patrick Crews and Sam Anderson started talking about their childhood dreams. Crews had wanted to be a magician and Anderson, who came from a blue-collar family, had dreamt of being able to wear a suit to work every day. Both had followed their dreams, with Crews working as […]
Hammer and Anvil
The art and tradition of good blacksmithing – shaping, pointing, bending, splitting, and joining. These are some of the topics you might hear discussed at the Central Virginia Blacksmith Guild. Forging metal to create everything from furniture and sculpture to light fixtures and tools, blacksmiths in our area represent the self-sufficiency and do-it-yourself nature of […]
Riverside Outpost on Brown’s Island Expands
By Andy Thompson Around the same time Outside Magazine named Richmond its “Best River Town” in September 2012, Matt Perry and his crew at Riverside Outfitters were wrapping up their first season operating the Brown’s Island Outpost. Rentals of kayaks, standup paddleboards, and mountain bikes from the island better known as a music venue had […]
An Instrument Built to Last
By Davy Jones Many would consider metal to be Richmond’s main musical export, but an instrument with a slightly more dulcet tone is bringing our city’s creativity and ingenuity to households all over the globe—the ukulele. From the Richmond office of Hohner, the storied German instrument manufacturing company, Leon Lewis heads up Lanikai, which has […]
Party Bike Comes to Richmond
By Corinne Cordasco What do you do when you want to spend a few hours exploring Richmond’s burgeoning food and beer scene without taking a car? Hop on a 14-seat, music-blasting, eco-friendly party bike and pedal your way through the city. Seating 14 passengers, Groovin’ Gears uses up to 10 pedaling passengers as its primary […]
A Town that Prints Together
Climbing into the driver’s seat of a bright-green steamroller, Ashley Hawkins starts the engine and engages the clutch. With a singlewide roll at the front, Hawkins moves the heavy equipment forward with a cheer from onlookers. This was the scene on September 13, 2013 as Hawkins hauled her first steamroller off the lot of Sunbelt […]
Art Happens Here
Change is constant at 2016 Staples Mill Road. It was once Colonial Grocery. Then it was a beauty school. And from there, a mixed-use building that peddled everything from mattresses to flooring. For the past 13 years, the property, however, has served one purpose: the home base for Crossroads Art Center, a growing clearinghouse for […]
Serious About Biscuits
“It’s weird, sometimes you just know if something’s right.” That’s how Tim Laxton describes the feeling he got when he first drove by 5411 Lakeside Avenue and spotted a “for rent” sign hanging in the cozy storefront that he would eventually occupy. The business he launched from the location six months later, which he named […]
Independent Bookstore Publishes Skull-A-Day
On day 241, Noah Scalin took a loaf of bread out of the oven, stared at it, and wondered would happen next. “That was one of those days when I had no idea if it would work,” says Scalin of his medium of choice on that particular day of his ambitious Skull-A-Day project. The year […]
Artists Coloring Book BenefitS Art 180
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 […]