Mark Strandquist (BFA ’13) is showing in the 106th Annual Exhibition of Contemporary Art: “Carceral States” at The Maier Museum of Art at Randolph College.

The smallest work is a series of 4×6 photos, from Virginia Commonwealth University graduate Mark Strandquist’s “Windows from Prison Project,” for which he asked prison inmates the same question: If you could have a window in your cell, what place from your past would it look out to? Then he and a team of photographers went out, made those pictures, and sent them to the inmates — who could only have 4×6 photos, hence the size.

Since the project began in 2012, it has grown into a national postcard-exchange program, interactive exhibits and a high school curriculum that connected incarcerated teens and high school students.

Read the full article in The News & Advance.

Photo: Debbie and John Spanich hang photographs for the Maier Museum of Art at Randolph College’s new exhibit, “Carceral States,” which opens Friday. Credit via Jay Westcott for The News & Advance.

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Ahnalisa Reavis (BFA ’11) discusses how VCUarts helped her begin a career in ceramics after Art Foundation.

“At VCU, they make you do one year of foundation art, where you do everything and then apply to the different schools within the school of arts,” Mrs. Reavis explains. “My first choice was photography and the second was ceramics.”

The school plugged the freshman into the ceramics track.

“I was very disappointed,” recalls Mrs. Reavis, who grew up in the Southern Fauquier village of Sumerduck. “I planned to transfer out (of the ceramics school) after the first semester into” the photography program.

But, she soon learned that sometimes things unexpectedly work out for the best.

“I took my first wheel class, and I was exactly where I needed to be. And I’ve never looked back.”

Read the full story in Fauquier Now.

Photo: Ahnalisa Reavis has a kiln and two potting wheels in her studio — half the garage of her family’s Bealeton home. Credit via Don Del Rosso for Fauquier Now.

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Affordability is important at VCUarts. Here are some ways to save money throughout your college journey.

10. Find a part-time job on campus

Many VCU departments and programs offer student worker positions. Be paid to assist in the Graphics Lab, give tours of the School of the Arts, or work in the Institute for Contemporary Art – your on-campus job can be the first step to gaining profession experience in the arts! 

9. Scout out student discounts

Your student ID can get you deals at art supply stores, restaurants, theaters, and even salons and auto parts stores! With a campus in the heart of a bustling city, you’ll have no shortage of places to bargain hunt.

8. Thrift!

There are so many great thrift shops in Richmond – perfect for your college budget and your unique style. See some of our favorites on RVA All Day.

7. Shop for tech on campus

Purchase your laptop from RAMTech, where they offer discounted tech for VCU students – and you can even trade in your old device for cash.

6. Use apps like Groupon, Ibotta, and Pocket Points

Get more for your buck with Groupon, cash back for purchases with Ibotta, and coupons/free stuff with Pocket Points.

5. Skip the movie debut and head to the Byrd Theatre

You can enjoy a film for $4 in this historic and beautiful theatre – plus there are no previews! Bonus if you attend on Saturday nights and catch the infamous live organ show before the movie.

4. Study Abroad with ISEP 

The International Student Exchange Program is a network of over 300 universities in 50 countries. Participate in this exchange program and the fee is equivalent to VCU’s in-state costs, even if you’re an out-of-state student.

3. Don’t buy new

Let’s be honest. You’re not going to crack open that textbook again after finals. Rent or buy used textbooks and save up to 80% at Barnes and Noble at VCU.

2. Fill out the FAFSA now

The FAFSA is the Free Application for Federal Student Aid. The form is available now, and filling it out is the way to find out if you are eligible for grants, loans, and work-study awards.

1. Apply by the scholarship deadline: November 15

All students who apply by November 15 will be automatically considered for VCU’s merit-based scholarships! Apply now.

VCUarts has the lowest annual tuition among the top 10 schools of art and design. Join us.

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Steven Casanova (BFA ’15) is teaming up with The Anderson to host “Richmond Potluck” on Friday, Oct. 6, from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m.

Casanova is one of six recent alumni featured in the “Reach Out and Touch” exhibition, on view at the Anderson through Oct. 8.

Casanova had always planned a community potluck — “the physical embodiment of this sharing, with people eating and sharing across the city,” he said — as part of the exhibition. But in the wake of Hurricane Maria, he realized community is formed by more than just physical proximity. He has friends and family on the island that he still is unable to contact.

“There are many people who want to help but don’t know how or don’t feel like they are able to,” he said. “If you don’t have money, bring art. If you don’t make art, bring food. It will all encourage donations and end up benefiting people who really need it.”

Read the full article in VCU News.

Photo: Steven Casanova’s exhibit, “The Richmond Cookbook,” at the Anderson. Credit via VCU News.

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Congratulations to Communication Arts student Lee Biggs on winning VCU’s annual Burnside Watstein Award. The Burnside Watstein Award is now in its 12th year of honoring the contributions of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, asexual people and our allies here at Virginia Commonwealth University.  The award is named for the first two LGBT subcommittee chairs,...

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Hassan Hajjaj will be one of many speakers at the 7th Biennial Hamad bin Khalifa Symposium on Islamic Art entitled Islamic Art: Past, Present and Future on Nov. 2-4.

Born in Larache, Morocco in 1961, Hassan Hajjaj left Morocco for London at an early age. Heavily influence by the club, hip-hop, and reggae scenes of London as well as by his North African heritage, Hajjaj is a self-taught and versatile artist whose work combines the visual vocabulary of contemporary fashion photography and pop art, as well as the studio photography of African artists. His work is in the collections of the Brooklyn Museum, the Nasher Museum of Art, the Newark Museum, Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art, the Victoria & Albert Museum, the Farjam Collection, Dubai; Institut des Cultures d’Islam and the VMFA.

See the entire list of speakers on the Islamic Art Symposium website.

Attending the symposium? Don’t forget to use the tag #IslamicArt2017 on social.

Photo: Hassan Hajjaj, Joe Casely-Hayford, 2013. Color photography. Courtesy of the artist.

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Linda Komaroff will be one of many speakers at the 7th Biennial Hamad bin Khalifa Symposium on Islamic Art entitled Islamic Art: Past, Present and Future on Nov. 2-4.

Linda Komaroff has served as LACMA’s curator of Islamic art since 1995. She is the author or editor of several books and exhibition catalogues, and has written numerous articles and book chapters on various aspects of Islamic art. She was closely involved with LACMA’s acquisition of the Madina Collection of Islamic Art in 2002, which in combination with the museum’s already existing collection of Islamic art, gives Los Angeles one of the most significant collections worldwide; in 2006 she began to acquire and exhibit contemporary art of the Middle East, placing LACMA’s collection at the forefront of American museums.

See the entire list of speakers on the Islamic Art Symposium website.

Attending the symposium? Don’t forget to use the tag #IslamicArt2017 on social.

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Congratulations to Samantha Speis (BFA ’05) and Ligia Lewis (BFA ’05) on receiving 2017 BESSIE awards.

Speis received an Outstanding Performer award for being a part of the ensemble of the skeleton architecture, or the future of our worlds performed at for Danspace Project’s Platform 2016: Lost and Found. Lewis received an Outstanding Production award for her piece minor matter performed at American Realness with Lumberyard Contemporary Performing Arts at Abrons Arts Center.

Niall Jones (BFA ’07) was nominated for the BESSIE award for Outstanding Emerging Choreographer.

Photo: Samantha Speis. Courtesy VCUarts.
Video: Ligia Lewis clip of minor matter from Ligia Lewis Vimeo. 

Read more about the BESSIE Awards on their website.

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Shahzia Sikander will be one of many speakers at the 7th Biennial Hamad bin Khalifa Symposium on Islamic Art entitled Islamic Art: Past, Present and Future on Nov. 2-4.

Sikander is a Pakistani-­American artist best known for contemporizing the traditional Indo­-Persian discipline of miniature painting. Her work includes digital animation, video, performance, large­-scale murals, installation, projection, and works on paper. Her work is among the permanent collections of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the Whitney Museum, The Museum of Modern Art, the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, Palazzo Grassi in Venice, the Kiran­Nader Museum in India, MAXXI National Museum of 21st­ Century Arts in Rome, the Walker Art Center, the Princeton Art Museum and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art among others. Sikander is the recipient of Asia Society’s award for significant contribution to contemporary art, the Medal of Art from the US State Department, the DAAD Berliner, the Medal of Excellence from Government and State of Pakistan, the Louis Comfort Tiffany award, the Joan Mitchell award and the MacArthur “genius” grant.

See the entire list of speakers on the Islamic Art Symposium website.

Attending the symposium? Don’t forget to use the tag #IslamicArt2017 on social.

Photo: Shahzia Sikander, Still from Parallax, 2013 – 2015. Multi-Media work with original score. Courtesy of the artist.

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Mohammad al-Asad will be one of many speakers at the 7th Biennial Hamad bin Khalifa Symposium on Islamic Art entitled Islamic Art: Past, Present and Future on Nov. 2-4.

Mohammad al-Asad is an architect and architectural historian. He is the director of the Center for the Study of the Built Environment in Amman (CSBE; www.csbe.org), a private, non-profit think and do tank that he established in 1999. Al-Asad studied architecture at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and the history of architecture at Harvard University before taking on post-doctoral research positions at Harvard and at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton.

Al-Asad has published extensively in both Arabic and English on the architecture of the Islamic world. His most recent book is Shaping Cities: Emerging Models of Planning Practice (2016), which he co-edited with Rahul Mehrotra. He is also the author of Contemporary Architecture and Urbanism in the Middle East (2012), and the editor of Workplaces: The Transformation of Places of Production: Industrial Buildings in the Islamic World (2010). He is currently co-editing (with Rahul Mehrotra) Towards New Models of Planning Practice, which is scheduled to come out by the end of 2016. 

See the entire list of speakers on the Islamic Art Symposium website.

Attending the symposium? Don’t forget to use the tag #IslamicArt2017 on social.

Photo: Courtesy of Mohammad al-Asad.

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Will Flynn (BFA ’81) has transformed his business, Franklin Street Marketing, into an employee-owned company when he retires.

Faced with winding down his 30-plus-year career with the company he founded, Will Flynn thought briefly about trying to sell the business.

His company, Chesterfield County-based Franklin Street Marketing, has a solid reputation in the health care marketing and branding realm.

Flynn said he and the company’s leadership team evaluated their options.

“Our leadership did not want to sell to any outside buyer. They did not want to go to a bank necessarily and borrow money,” Flynn said.

What did appeal to them was establishing an ESOP, short for employee stock ownership plan.

Flynn’s majority interest in the company, 67 percent, is now in a retirement trust that the company will contribute to and that benefits the company’s 22 employees.

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VCUarts Distinguished Research Fellow Sonya Clark is scheduled to perform “Unraveling” at PAFA on Nov. 4.

To create “Unraveling,” Clark starts with an intact Confederate flag and deconstructs a portion of the cloth. Her performance is Nov. 4 at PAFA. The action is part of A Forum on Art and the Election, a weekend of events hosted by the museum. The organizers are posing the following question: “In our current political climate, what is the role and responsibility of artists in responding to a nation divided?”

The performance is a slow, thoughtful, and deliberative community action. “In an hour we don’t even get through half an inch of unraveling. It takes a long time,” Clark says in the podcast.

Read the full article in Culture Type.

Photo: In September, PAFA acquired “Unraveling” (2015-ongoing) by Sonya Clark. The artist is deconstructing (or “unraveling”) the Confederate flag on Nov. 4. Credit via Sonya Clark for Culture Type. 

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Lalla Essaydi will be one of many speakers at the 7th Biennial Hamad bin Khalifa Symposium on Islamic Art,  Nov. 2-4 in Richmond, Virginia.

Lalla Essaydi’s work, which often combines Islamic calligraphy with representations of the female form, addresses the complex reality of Arab female identity from the unique perspective of personal experience. In much of her work, she returns to her Moroccan girlhood, looking back on it as an adult woman caught somewhere between past and present, exploring the language in which to “speak” from this uncertain space.

Her work often appropriates Orientalist imagery from the Western painting tradition, thereby inviting viewers to reconsider the Orientalist mythology. She has worked in numerous media, including painting, video, film, installation, and analog photography. “In my art, I wish to present myself through multiple lenses — as artist, as Moroccan, as traditionalist, as Liberal, as Muslim. In short, I invite viewers to resist stereotypes.”

See the entire list of speakers on the Islamic Art Symposium website.

Attending the symposium? Don’t forget to use the tag #IslamicArt2017 on social.

The symposium is a collaboration between VCUarts, VCUarts Qatar and the Qatar Foundation.

Photo: Lalla Essaydi, Harem #2, 2010.Chromogenic Print. Courtesy of the artist and Edwynn Houk Gallery, NY.

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Her Excellency Sheikha Al Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani will be one of many speakers at the 7th Biennial Hamad bin Khalifa Symposium on Islamic Art, Nov. 2-4 in Richmond, Virginia.

Her Excellency Sheikha Al Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani is the Chairperson of Qatar Museums, the Qatar Leadership Center, the Doha Film Institute and is recognized as a leader in the fields of informal and formal education in Qatar. Serving her country in these capacities, she continues to initiate conversations about culture, leadership, philanthropy and education across borders and fields.

See the entire list of speakers on the Islamic Art Symposium website.

Attending the symposium? Don’t forget to use the tag #IslamicArt2017 on social.

The symposium is a collaboration between VCUarts, VCUarts Qatar and the Qatar Foundation.

Photo: Courtesy of Her Excellency Sheikha Al Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani.

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VCUarts Qatar is collaborating with Texas A&M University at Qatar and Weill Cornell Medicine – Qatar to design a new course that is set to launch in January and will be open to any Education City student in their junior year.

Omran Hamad Al-Kuwari, executive director of the Qatar Foundation, the principal funder of the Education City site that houses the campuses, said that the course has a working title of “happy society” and will “investigate important themes of happiness and wellness from the design, medical and technological lens”. It will be taught by academics at the three institutions.

In an interview with Times Higher Education, Mr Al-Kuwari cited the new joint programme, which will contribute credits to students’ degrees, as just one example of the way in which Education City is improving the integration between the hub’s branch campuses.

Read the full article in The World University Rankings.

Photo by Ellie Bothwell for The World University Rankings. 

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Qatar Day is an annual event at VCU that features art and design projects from the VCUarts campus in Doha, Qatar. It also features traditional aspects of Qatari and Arab culture, such as henna, Arabic calligraphy and traditional Qatari clothing. The event was developed by students to strengthen the relationship between the Richmond and Qatar campuses, and provides Richmond students, faculty and staff with an opportunity to learn more about the VCUarts Qatar campus.

The event is co-sponsored by VCU School of the Arts, the Division of Student Affairs, VCU Student Government Association, University Student Commons & Activities and the Global Education Office.

Date:
November 1

Time:
11:30 AM – 2:30 PM

Location:
University Student Commons
907 Floyd Avenue
Richmond, VA

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A VCUarts degree can lead you to many unexpected and exciting destinations. Alumnus Emerson Hughes (BME ’65), included among this year’s Alumni Stars, transitioned from music education to owning a luxury pet boarding company.

Ancillary lessons learned through music education training helped prepare Hughes for starting a business and holding top civic leadership positions. Performing all over Virginia in a group of 12 madrigalists at Richmond Professional Institute (a predecessor to VCU) put Hughes in front of audiences for 20 to 30 concerts a year. The four-year experience schooled him in stage presence, public presentation, relating to people and maintaining poise.

“Musicians are creative and can be wonderful leaders in the community because of their understanding of harmony and balance, whether board members or operating small businesses,” Hughes says. “Music majors listen to their surroundings and work toward solid harmony. As a musician, you had to learn how to make others successful in order for you to be successful, always a part of a chord or social structure.”

After graduation, Hughes taught vocal music at Highland Springs and Henrico high schools in Virginia, served as a church musician and performed in numerous musical productions in Richmond. In 1972, Hughes and his wife, Kathy Hughes (BME ’65), opened Holiday Barn Kennels, now known as Holiday Barn Pet Resorts, a venture based on their love for dogs and cats. RPI, and later VCU, was a major source of employees. “We hired [alumni] until they were able to get their music careers launched,” he says.

Holiday Barn began simply as a boarding operation in Glen Allen and Midlothian, Virginia. Its facilities and offerings grew to meet an increasing demand for luxury pet services with amenities ranging from an in-ground swimming pool for pups to cat condominiums. In 2004, Emerson turned the day-to-day operations over to his son, Michael.

Hughes and his wife have supported the VCU music department as a singer and an accompanist, respectively, and with philanthropic support throughout their lives. Their daughter, Bekah Hughes Davis (BM ’95), is a graduate of the department’s voice program. In addition, Hughes has served on the Essex Bank board of directors, is chairman emeritus of the Richmond SPCA, was president of the James River Opera Association and served as president of the Tappahannock Chamber of Commerce.

“Education and experience in music will lead to paths that you do not expect,” he says. “Musicians never perform alone.” Hughes has learned that you can apply harmony to any walk of life—even a pet resort: “If there is harmony, all employees and customers will be successful.”

Virginia Commonwealth University confers the title of Alumni Star upon graduates who have attained notable achievements.

Photo courtesy of Alumni Relations.

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VCU Qatar Day was November 1 in the University Student Commons in Richmond, Virginia.

Hundreds of students, faculty and staff attended the eighth annual Qatar Day at Virginia Commonwealth University’s Monroe Park Campus Nov. 1, an event that brings VCUarts Qatar to Richmond.

The annual event strengthens the relationship between the Qatar and Richmond campuses while providing each campus’ students and faculty with an opportunity to learn more about each other.

This year, organizers held a special preview event, Majlis, on the MCV Campus the day before the flagship celebration.

Majlis is an arabic word that means “lounge,” said Sarah Faheem, student activities and engagement officer at VCUarts Qatar.

“This is our way of integrating the Qatar culture into the MCV Campus so that people here know about the sister campus in Qatar,” she said. “We usually have a big Qatar Day at the Student Commons and everyone knows about it, but Majlis is a bit of a smaller event. This is the first time we’re doing it at the MCV Campus in the hopes that our medical students feel a little more included.”

Read the full article in VCU News.

Photo: A VCU Richmond student holds up a card with her name written in Arabic calligraphy. Credit via Kevin Morley of University Marketing for VCU News.

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Denzel Boyd (BFA ’17) co-directed the Adobe Award-winning film “Hell You Talmbout.” The film was created in collaboration with the VCUarts Dance + Choreography department and was supported through a 2016-17 Undergraduate Research Grant.

Forgotten News, Forgotten Namesboldly presents a short film “Hell You Talmbout,” (co-directed by Denzel Boyd, VCUarts Graphic Design 17’) that artfully addresses police violence, racial injustice, the Black Lives Matter movement through spoken word, and a tap dance performance from the perspective of our youth. In partnership with Studio 23 and the VCUarts Dance Department, the team proposed a series of events to follow the initial public screening–a screen printing session and a social dance workshop–engaging the community with the themes of the film.

Read more about the project on the Adobe Awards site.

Photo from “Hell You Talmbout” for Adobe Design.

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In the studio, VCUarts senior Naya Moore already looks like a professional. And this year, she’s being treated like one. As one of a select few students awarded a spot in the Painting + Printmaking department’s Merit Studio course, Moore has access to the solitude and professional guidance afforded to distinguished artists.

Merit Studio is both a seminar and a shared workspace in the Fine Arts Building where select students can create in a private, personal environment. In order for students to secure their spot, they must submit a portfolio and artist’s statement to a jury of full-time PAPR faculty members.

“There’s usually quite a bit of people that apply,” says Moore. “I know I was very nervous and intimidated by the process. Only 12 to 15 people get selected.”

Taught by a different professor each time, Merit Studio allowed her to share one-on-one sessions with Associate Professor and Graduate Program Director of PAPR Hilary Wilder, in addition to critiquing her peers’ work and discussing readings on contemporary art.

“It’s a great opportunity to be given your own space in the department where you can create,” she says, “but it’s still a shared space where you have a community of other artists that really get to know you and the work you’re creating.”

Before Art Foundation, Moore had an interest in Communication Arts, which still influences her work today. “I find that the majority of my work starts from my illustrations,” she says, “and then I take those into my paintings and prints.”

Moore’s paintings draw the viewer in; her figures sink into their backdrops and peek through curtained foregrounds. In her 2016 piece Abuela, streaks of paint cross over and shade the subject like wild foliage. Her bold choices of color and elusive, playful figures seem to reflect her own determination and the variety of people in her life.

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