summer 2011 newsletter
Riverviews CREATES COMMUNITY
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Riverviews is helping to create the type of arts environment that makes the region a better place to live, work, and play.
Riverviews Artspace emerged in 2003 as a small but ambitious effort to enrich civic life through artists and art. Our growth since then reflects a spreading awareness of the benefits that exhibitions and programs can bring to a broader community. Riverviews Artspace partners with individuals, community groups, other arts organizations, and city agencies to accomplish this work. Art programs created in this spirit generate participation that manifests through the creation of the programs themselves, and by inspiring people to engage one another throughout their experience with the work.
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For the past seven years, Riverviews has hosted groups of ”at risk” eighth-graders for Picture my World, a literacy through photography program. By taking cameras out into the community and recording their daily life, students are allowing the viewers a glimpse into their world. The program encourages students to express their emotions and articulate their thoughts on the subject of “community.” Picture My World 2007–11 has been made possible by Lynchburg College’s Center for Community Development and Social Justice. In 2011, this program was held at the Fort Hill Community School. In 2010, Riverviews was able to extend the program to the Jubilee Family Development Center thanks to a grant from the Greater Lynchburg Community Trust. Erin recently sat down with three students (Jasmine, Raven, and Dejaun) from Riverviews’ Picture My World program at Jubilee. The photographers arrived to the interview ready to discuss their work.
ERIN: Seriously, I wanted to talk to you about the photography class we did together. What was your favorite part of the program? RAVEN: I liked when we had the (photo) scavenger hunt. It was fun to go all around the building and look at different stuff. JASMINE: I liked all the days when we took pictures of things at Jubilee and outside the building. DEJAUN: My favorite part was getting to take the cameras home. I liked taking pictures of my family and my friends. ERIN: Do you remember any of the photos you took? Did you have a favorite that you were really proud of? DEJAUN: I took a cool photo of a basketball going through the hoop. ERIN: I remember. You had to be really patient for that one. I think you probably waited about 20 minutes to get the perfect shot. ERIN: So, please tell me you actually learned something in all of this… RAVEN: Yeah, I learned a lot about how to work the camera. DEJAUN: Me too.
UPCOMING EXHIBITIONS
MASQUERADE V by David Eakin
PICTURE MY WORLD
THE ART MART: Fall Fundraiser: September 2–3, 2011 “Gently used” art and jewelry at small prices can be yours! Generous area collectors are donating art and jewelry from their own collections for this Art Mart that benefits the public programs at Riverviews. For more information or if you have some “gently used” art and jewelry you would like to donate, please call 847-7277 or email: maryann@riverviews.net.
n Riverviews Community Show Riverviews is a vibrant community overflowing with great work by our building artists and residents, co-op artists, board, and staff. We will celebrate these works with an exhibition in the Craddock-Terry Gallery. July 1–August 21. n Willie Shouse Willie Shouse was a prolific outsider artist from Lynchburg. This is the most comprehensive exhibit of his work to date. September 2– October 23. n 3rd Annual Juried Art Show The art represents the variety and breadth of work throughout the state. Past shows have consisted of painting, sculpture, drawing, photography, and video. November 4–December 18.
FILM PROGRAMS n On Screen/In Person Riverviews Artspace was chosen by Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation as a site for On Screen/In Person, a program designed to bring the best in new independent American films and their respective filmmakers to communities across the midAtlantic region. Film screenings, workshops, and programs will run from September–April. n CINEviews 7th Annual Film Festival. October 2011. TBA.
FIRST FRIDAYS n Lynchburg’s monthly progressive art parties take place at Riverviews and many other venues throughout the Arts and Cultural District and beyond. Live music, children’s activities, art and more art! Every first Friday 5:30–8pm.
Riverviews is proud to support the activities of the JAMES RIVER COUNCIL OF THE ARTS AND HUMANITIES by providing office and meeting space. Riverviews encourages everyone to join the arts council as an artist, organization, or supporter.
LITERARY EVENTS n Third Thursday Literary Programs will resume in September and continue until May. Check our website for updates.
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Riverviews supports arts activity by providing studio and living spaces for artists. THERE ARE 49 ARTISTS IN 55 UNITS!
LARRY BOWDEN
RIVERVIEWS TENANT ARTIST SPOTLIGHT
BUHLER
RIVERVIEWS WELCOMES TWO NEW BOARD MEMBERS Ellen Schall Agnew. B.A. and M.A. degrees in art history, specializing in American art and museum studies. Worked for 23 years at the Maier Museum of Art at Randolph-Macon Woman’s College, full-time as curator and director, and then part-time as associate director. Previously worked at the Chrysler Museum of Art in Norfolk, Virginia. Served statewide arts organizations including on the Executive Council of and as Directorat-Large for the Virginia Association of Museums, on the Advisory Panel of the Virginia Commission of the Arts, and as a juror for the Visual Arts Fellowship Program at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. Dede Buhler. Born in Montana and raised in VA. She graduated from VA Tech with a bachelor’s degree in art then moved to the Washington DC area where she was involved in real estate as a Realtor, as well as an investor and renovator of residential property. While there she also was involved in the start up of a chain of indoor rock climbing gyms and was a personal fitness trainer. Upon moving to Lynchburg, Dede created a landscape design and installation business where she worked until becoming enamored with painting and now is a full time working artist. She is passionate about her family, the well being of animals, and art. She also serves on the board of the Lynchburg Art Club
interviewed by Erin Stover, Exhibitions and Program Manager
What do like most about working at RV? Riverviews is the amalgamation of community, idea, and physical place. It’s the people I enjoy sharing my work with, having a weekly lunch with, laughing with, and getting critique from. What’s exciting for me is to participate in the idea of introducing something new, or a little bit unconventional, to the Lynchburg area. There is a kind of aesthetic conservatism that can be quite suffocating and timid. But I just love the physical space of my studio... the old wood flooring, the exposed brick, the old glass in the windows...a kind of rough-hewn feel that invites you to make something in the space. What originally drew you to the space? My plans to return to Hawaii for a sabbatical fell through and I wondered, do I need to go somewhere else or go no where at all? “Nowhere” in Zen is “now/here” so I realized I could do something new by “being here now.” My wife, Karen (who’s quite an accomplished Lynchburg artist) had just joined a studio at Riverviews, and I began wondering, what might it be like to work in a setting where I was around a lot of artists? I guess the rest is history.
Your work was recently accepted in the Roanoke College Biennial (juried by Carter Foster, curator for the Whitney Museum). Can you tell me more about that show? Another Lynchburg artist, Jill Jensen, who does some stunning quilted, textured pieces, was also in the show. It’s really diverse with respect to medium, approach, and “style.” It’s 99.9% unconventional. Everything from the edgy to the edifying, from playful to provocative, from the delightful to the disturbing... It’s just what you’d expect I guess from a curator at the Whitney.
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Your art has changed from your Zen painting to your more recent art-deco inspired paintings. I had been doing Zen brushwork for almost a decade. The work I’m doing now is only different in its appearance. The things in good Zen brush work I hope are expressed on my canvasses: simplicity, directness, and a focus on form, design, and the play of planes and color. People often ask me, “What do you call your style?” I’ve called what I do “Abstract Realism.” I take
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some recognizable thing (like a bridge) then reduce it to essential elements of form, color plane, and dimension that renders the image abstract and yet vaguely familiar. Then you’re seeing not just a picture of some thing, but qualities of experience that are somehow universal and yet highly personal.
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AGNEW
What’s the first thing you did when you got to your space today? I fired up my iTunes. Music is an important part of my studio time and I nearly always have my favorite jazz playing while I work...kind of a modernist thing too, isn’t it?
Riverviews is the amalgamation of community, idea, and physical place.
RIVERVIEWS RESIDENT GREG BOYD has been a painter, print-maker, and writer for the past thirty years. As a visual artist he has had one-man shows of both his relief prints and his paintings, and his prints and surrealist-inspired photomontages have appeared on book and magazine covers, record albums, and fashion apparel. Boyd has published a dozen books of fiction, poetry, and criticism, A short film based on his story “Three-Cornered Hat” has been aired on PBS. Visit Greg’s web site (gregboydcaveart.com) to see more of his current paintings, inspired by the prehistoric cave art of France and Spain.
NONPROFIT ORG. U.S. POSTAGE PAID LYNCHBURG, VA PERMIT #841
901 Jefferson Street, #113 Lynchburg, VA 24504
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Without these things and many more Lynchburg wouldn’t enjoy the benefits of an arts environment that makes this a great place to live and an attractive destination for visitors. PLEASE GIVE GENEROUSLY TO RIVERVIEWS TODAY! Online at www.riverviews.net/giving/ or mail a check to Riverviews, 901 Jefferson St., #113, Lynchburg, VA 24504.
CONNOISSEUR $1000-4999 Anonymous Lynchburg Retail Merchants Foundation Virginia Commission for the Arts Virginia Film Office AFICIONADO $400-999 Mr. and Mrs. Paul Boothby The Greater Lynchburg Community Trust Ms. Margie Lippard Dr. Cecilia and Mr. Andrew MacCallum Mr. and Mrs. Robert MacCallum Mr. Sackett Moore & Giles Northwestern Mutual Matthew L. Lloyd Pathology Consultants of Central Virginia Mr. and Mrs. Elliot Schewel Ms. Linda Edwards and Mr. Jim Sikkema Spaces by A Little French Travelbugs Dr. and Mrs. Michael Valentine Wiley & Wilson DEVOTEE $250-499 Areva, N.P., Inc. Mr. Shann Arrington Bank of the James Mr. and Mrs. William Harris Mrs. Joan Jones Mr. and Mrs. R. Gregory Porter III Dr. Cary and Mr. Robert Roberts Mr. Mort Sajadian Mr. Marc Schewel Mr. John Shepard Schewel’s Furniture Company ENTHUSIAST $100-249 Mr. and Mrs. Lloyd Agnew Mr. Bill Bodine Mr. and Mrs. John Bower Mr. and Mrs. Frank Britt Campbell Insurance Mr. and Mrs. Robert Clarke Dr. and Mrs. Robert Cook Dr. and Mrs. John Cook Dr. and Mrs. Drake Covey Mr. Steve Crank Mr. and Mrs. Gordon Echols Mr. and Mrs. Rodger Fauber Dr. and Mrs. Michael Gillette
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Ms. Lou Gregory and Mr. Tom Seaman Mrs. Frances Harriss Dr. Laura Brooks and Dr. Joseph Khoury Mr. and Mrs. James Muehlemann Ms. Beth Packert Mr. and Mrs. Rogers Vaden Mr. and Mrs. Kent Van Allen FRIEND $25-99 Mr. and Mrs. Russell Ball Mr. Larry Bassett Dr. and Mrs. Robert Chase Ms. Annette Chenault Mr. and Mrs. William Coursey Mr. and Mrs. John D. Doyle Ms. Laura Dupuy Mr. and Mrs. John Farnandez Mrs. Yvonne T. Ferguson Dr. Jennifer Gauthier Dr. and Mrs. Bill Goodman Dr. and Mrs. John Halpin Dr. and Mrs. Carl Hester Mr. and Mrs. Adeel Khan Mr. and Mrs. Parker Lee III Ms. Annie Clendenon and Mr. Tim Miles Mr. Tom Morris Mr. and Mrs. Charles Pryor Mr. and Mrs. Richard Royer Mr. and Mrs. Kent A. Smack Mr. and Mrs. Steve Vessels Ms. Peggy Whitaker Mr. Robert White
2010
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A thriving arts organization doesn’t happen by accident. In addition to vision and hard work, it takes money. Exhibition costs need to be off-set, gallery heating and light bills need to be paid, administrative and curatorial staff needs to be paid, artists, writers and film makers need to earn a living, equipment needs updates and repairs, postcards need to be mailed, and educational materials need to be printed.
Riverviews Artspace thanks our 2010 supporters
CINEVIEWS IN KIND SPONSORS Alliance Francaise Avenue Foods Bedford Avenue Meat Shop Bull Branch Dish Fainting Goat Catering Company Isabella’s Italian Trattoria Lorraine Bakery Mangia Sweet Violet Cake Company
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