Within five minutes of talking to the new director of the VCU Institute for Contemporary Art, you understand why she is a perfect fit for a place being described as an “incubator” and a destination “where ideas percolate.”
Dr. Lisa Freiman, who started at VCU on July 1 (she’ll also be teaching there), has had plans on simmer since she began the interview process several months ago… and now they’re literally bub- bling out of her. But there’s a common thread throughout all of her ideas. “I want this to be a very open place for all walks of life—safe, welcoming, inspiring and also a place to have fun,” explains the new director, who comes from the Indianapolis Museum of Art, where she was senior curator and chair of the Department of Contemporary Art.
By virtue of its planned location at the intersection of Broad and Belvidere, this exciting venue for contemporary visual art, performing art, and design will indeed have accessibility going for it. In fact, the building doesn’t have a defined front or back, with entrances on both sides, to connect the University and the city. But also by virtue of its mission to showcase the work of some of the most creative minds around the world, the ICA will engage people in a way that no other museum, gallery or theater in this area has. “We could have artists actually building the work in the space; we could have artists working with students (with the city schools or programs across the campus) making installations,” says dean of the VCU School of the Arts, Joseph Seipel, of plans for this non-collecting institution. “The idea would be that we would bring in new and excit- ing—many times unseen—work, maybe even work made specifically for the ICA.”
Almost a decade in the making, the ICA is getting closer and closer to reality. The plans for the dramatic three-level, 38,000-square-foot building, designed by Steven Holl Architects, are complete, and more than 60 percent of the $35 million budget has been raised. But before the ICA opens in 2015, the new director has a big job ahead of her: mapping out the direction of the institution.
“I’m the kind of person who likes huge challenges and I love to rethink what’s been done before and figure out new ways to do it,” notes Freiman, who served as commissioner of the U.S. Pavilion at the 54th International Art Exhibition, la Biennale di Venezia in 2011. Obviously, the ICA will also give her plenty of opportuni- ties to think outside the box. Take co-existing in a town with an art museum that’s among the top 10 in the country, for example. Freiman doesn’t see this as a con- flict. Instead she predicts that the ICA’s “more cutting-edge, emer- gent types of projects” will provide the perfect complement for the work VMFA presents to the community. John B. Ravenal, Sydney and Frances Lewis Family Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at VMFA, agrees, “The new ICA will further raise Richmond’s national and international reputation in the arts and will offer an extraordinary resource for Richmonders.”
While the fundraising continues, Freiman plans to begin introducing the ICA—and testing out her ideas—in a temporary space in the old Richmond Glass building early next year. Says Freiman, “Many people have described it (ICA) as an incubator or an experimental lab and I want to make that real to people.”