§pectrum CT Public art installation honors African American community leaders

EMILY RICHARDSON Staff Writer

ommunity-activated art project RVA Community Makers will be unveiled Feb. 16, coinciding with the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts’ celebration of Black History Month.

The VMFA’s annual project, now in its fifth year, aims to highlight African American community leaders across a variety of fields. RVA Community Makers “showcases the Black history being made every day in RVA,” according to the VMFA. This year, the project will be presented through video storytelling.

Hamilton Glass, artist and creator of Community Makers, initially approached the VMFA with his idea four years ago to celebrate some of the work Black leaders in the community were doing.

“Public art is able to highlight people, but also bring people together,” Glass said. “Every single RVA Community Makers project has a community engagement aspect of it for people to learn who the honorees are but also to get people making art at the VMFA.”

The honorees this year are Janine Bell of Elegba Folklore Society, radio host Gary Flowers, and the three founders of Jackson Ward Collective: Rasheeda Creighton, Kelli Lemon and Melody Joy Short.

JANINE BELL, ELEGBA FOLKLORE SOCIETY

The Elegba Folklore Society has multiple ways of furthering its mission including a cultural center in the Arts District, performances of African dance and music and cultural history tours in the city, according to founder and president Bell.

“We provide programming that helps to reinstill cultural foundations among African Americans that are woefully missing based on societal conditioning,” Bell said.

Adults have looked reflectively on experiences they have had with the society, and said to Bell, “you were the first to show us who we were,” she said.

“When people of African descent reach back and find their culture, it’s amazing, because we have been so torn apart from our true self that when we find it again it’s a moment of thanksgiving,” Bell said. “It’s also a moment of really grounding humility because we know that the simplest things are the most powerful.”

GARY FLOWERS, ‘THE GARY FLOWERS SHOW’ AND ‘WALKING THE WARD WITH GARY FLOWERS’

Richmond native Flowers hosts his namesake radio show in the mornings, where he offers commentary on current events with his 35-year background in civil rights and public policy, Flowers said. In the afternoons, Flowers leads tours of historic Jackson Ward in his series titled “Walking the Ward with Gary Flowers.”

Through both endeavors, Flowers seeks to reveal Richmond’s centrality to America’s unfolding story, according to the VMFA’s website.

“In many ways, Richmond, Virginia is ground zero to the American empire,” Flowers said. “The politics of Virginia have always been critical to the national political platforms of candidates.”

Flowers feels motivated to “reposition Richmond in its rightful place in world history,” he said.

“As the world comes to Richmond, Virginia in 2026 for the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States of America, I’m proud to elevate Richmond as a central city to that evolution,” Floers said.

KELLI LEMON, JACKSON WARD COLLECTIVE

To Lemon, entrepreneur and co-founder of the JWC Foundation, there’s just “something special” about Richmond, she said.

Lemon, alongside fellow entrepreneurs Creighton and Short, established the JWC Foundation in August 2020 out of a need for Black business owners in Richmond to have resources to learn, grow and own their businesses, according to Lemon.

“After the murder of George Floyd, we were in a space where non-Black folks felt the need to know how they were supporting Black businesses, know about Black history and know how they were looking at Black lives,” Lemon said.

Lemon said it’s humbling to be recognized alongside community icons Bell and Flowers, and a reminder of the legacy of Black icons of Richmond’s past.

“We’re just standing on the shoulders of Maggie Walker, John Mitchell, the True Reformers, all of those in Jackson Ward that came before us,” Lemon said. “We know we’re leaving a mark. However, the legacy we’re building is for the future — we’re doing this for the next generation.”

RVA Community Makers 2023 begins with an unveiling and program Feb. 16 at 6 p.m. at the VMFA. Admission to the installation is free.