NO BS! Brass Band
They’ve won over national audiences with their dynamic, New Orleans-flavored sound and their lively performance style, but NO BS! Brass Band never really leaves its hometown behind. “The way the city moves and the people of the city influence every single note that I write,” remarks trombonist/percussionist Reggie Pace, who with drummer/vocalist Lance Koehler founded […]
Celebrating Visual Arts Center of Richmond
RVA recently celebrated the Visual Arts Center of Richmond’s 50th anniversary with a Lewis Carroll themed party, “Through the Looking-Glass: A Very Merry Birthday to VisArts.” The annual Collectors Night Auction is the nonprofit art center’s largest fundraiser of the year. This year’s shindig was the most successful in the history of the organization, exceeding […]
An Open Stage to Grow
Students and supporters alike are dancing at The School of Performing Arts in the Richmond Community (SPARC), which recently received $2 million in gifts to help raise the curtain on their future. The largest commitment in the Richmond nonprofit’s 32-year history, the donations came partly from long-time SPARC supporter the Steven and Katherine Markel Foundation, […]
Making Things Happen
By R. Anthony Harris I have always admired someone that backs his or her rhetoric with action. Actually, the less you talk, the better. Let your work speak for you and grab my attention. Enter Shane Pomajambo, the owner of Art Whino Gallery in D.C. He talks a giant game and to his credit, […]
Hamilton Glass: Making Walls Beautiful
By Kate Manegold Artist Hamilton Glass sees Greater Richmond a little differently than most. A crumbling brick wall is a pristine empty canvas. A hulking cement slab begs to be transformed into a delicate array of lines and color. A long-abandoned parking lot brims with future potential. He’s leading the charge to bring Greater […]
Making RVA
By Jim Johns RVA banners hang from lampposts. Stickers are on bikes, cars, and garbage trucks. “RVA” is etched on wine glasses and printed on cycling jerseys, t-shirts, and hoodies. And there are RVA logos recreated on tote bags and handcrafted signs. The sheer volume of RVA branded gear everywhere you look says it […]
Make Something
By Noah Scalin One of the questions I get asked most frequently when I give talks about Skull-A-Day (www.SkullADay.com), the project in which I made a different piece of skull art every single day for a year is, “what happened when you ran out of ideas?” It’s an interesting question, since from an outside […]
Take A Minute Exercise: Make Stuff with Your Hands
By Ed Trask I turned the corner and there it was – a beautiful Camille Pissarro painting. I had never experienced anything quite like it. Layers and layers of paint blended roughly to capture the perfect essence of pure beauty and color. This was physical; I mean this in the sense that I could […]
In Charge of the Tunes
Constantine Giavos grew up to a soundtrack meant to please a diverse crowd. As a child, the DJ and drummer absorbed the eclectic song library his parents compiled for their popular Fan restaurant, The Sidewalk Café, enjoying artists as varied as Aaliyah, Timbaland and Magoo, The Police, and Thin Lizzy.
Melena: Musical Journey Into Afro-Cuban Roots
When Afro-Cuban percussionist Melena took the stage at this year’s Richmond Folk Festival, she reached a personal and historical milestone. “It was a tremendous honor to have been the first female instrumentalist to be invited to perform with the Septeto Nacional de Ignacio Piñ eiro since 1927,” the musician says of her experience accompanying the renowned Afro-Cuban ensemble on congas.