While we eagerly await an update on what the new-ish team behind the Arts Council of Richmond/CultureWorks has been up to, we had a thought...
Why not produce a Richmond art book?
Richmond is crawling with artists, and what would be a better way to showcase local talent than to put out a call for entries for a Richmond-as-subject art book? The deadline for entries could be in about the next 3 months or so in order to give artists who were interested time to get their entries together or even to create new works specifically for the book. Artists would not have to be from or living in Richmond, as long as their work depicted Richmond: the possibilities for this could be endless- photography, prints, drawings, paintings, digital collages of all things Richmond. From the back alleys of the Fan to the battlefields of Petersburg, surely artists could find a scene to sink their teeth into!
Grab some graphic design and painting/drawing professors from VCU to jury the entries, tap none-other-than local history/arts guru Harry Kollatz Jr or Edwin Slipek Jr. to write the forward and voilà: Richmond culture and fundraiser all wrapped up in one neat little package.
Since CultureWorks director John Bryan has had success in the past with creating a book-for-profit/nonprofit, this could be a project to put the re-worked organization on the map.
Sure, there would be a lot of specifics to hash out, but we think it could be done, and we'd love to show our support for our city by purchasing the final product!
