Tag: New City Arts Initiative

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In sharp relief: Supporting artists through COVID-19

Rapper LaQuinn is one of the local artists who has received aid from the Charlottesville Emergency Relief Fund for Artists, set up to help artists who have lost gigs, gallery shows, and more due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Photo by Amy and Jackson Smith

In an effort to help artists facing financial hardship because of venue closures and event cancellations due to COVID-19, The Bridge PAI and New City Arts Initiative launched the Charlottesville Emergency Relief Fund for Artists on March 20. Artists can apply to receive up to $300; all they need to show is “proof of practice,” says Bridge Director Alan Goffinski. “Proof of a canceled gig, book tour, art show, etc.,” he adds. “The quality of the work will not be judged. We just need to see proof that artists are artists.”

Andrew Stronge requested funds to recoup a fraction of the contract work he lost due to the cancellation of various regional comic-cons. A graphic designer and screen printer who creates posters, shirts, hats, and more, he relies on those events for a significant chunk of his income. He used his relief fund allocation to buy groceries for himself and his wife, who is pregnant with their first child.

Rapper LaQuinn Gilmore (you’ve seen his posters) will use his allotment to stay afloat, even if it’s for a short time—his live gigs were canceled and in-studio recording sessions are not social-distancing friendly, so he can’t record new stuff to sell. And his restaurant job’s gone to boot. Even before the pandemic, he says he was struggling to find affordable housing for himself and his daughter.  

As of March 25, 61 artists had applied for $15,700 in funding, says New City Arts Executive Director Maureen Brondyke. The initial $10,000 raised has already been dispersed, and they hope donations will continue to come in to cover new requests.

“Many of these artists carefully plan from month to month, juggling [multiple] jobs on top of their creative practice in order to pay the bills,” says Brondyke about the need for immediate help. “We’re all acutely aware right now of how difficult it is to not connect with others in person, and artists are often the ones either on stage or behind the scenes creating these opportunities—at performances, at markets or fairs, in restaurants, at school, in galleries and theaters—work that often goes undervalued until it’s gone.”

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Arts

‘Housing2Home’ connects through the power of art

Based on a request from a “Housing2Home” client, Brittany Fan painted a beach sunrise, and later discovered a deeper connection to the recipient’s past. Photo courtesy of Aaron McGinnis.

Sometimes art is so public—in galleries, in gardens, on exterior walls of buildings—that unless we purchase it ourselves, we forget that it may go on to live a private life inside a home, becoming part of the fabric of lived human experience. In the case of “Housing2Home,” this month’s exhibition at New City Arts Initiative’s Welcome Gallery, the art on display is guaranteed domestic bliss afterward, bringing light inside the houses of formerly homeless women and men in the Charlottesville area—which New City Arts Initiative notes has more than 700 homeless residents annually.

Personal Space

“Housing2Home” is on view at New City Arts Initiative’s Welcome Gallery through June 30. The exhibition includes the work of 19 local artists, spanning the mediums of quilting, painting, sculpting and light fixtures. Photographs by Andrea Hubbell document the spaces the residents now call home, newly christened with carefully created art.

The Haven has been meeting the basic needs and addressing the housing crises of area homeless since 2004, and all clients enrolled in its Housing First program are also invited to participate in Housing2Home. The Housing2Home initiative has served 56 clients to date, assisting in the process of making new living spaces feel more personal through art and furnishings.

“Housing2Home” is a collaboration between The Haven and NCAI that is funded by ArtPlace America. The project seeks to help formerly homeless residents outfit their new houses with furnishings and art that lend a sense of comfort and belonging, therefore creating a more stable home environment.

H2H-Connie-0002

Elly Roller, programs coordinator at New City Arts Initiative, is responsible for commissioning the artwork to meet her clients’ specifications. When someone requested a painting of a beach sunrise, she knew who to ask. Brittany Fan is a local painter, photographer and graphic designer. Her landscape paintings emit a warmth through their energetic brushstrokes and carefully selected light color palette.

Roller and Fan have known each other for years, and both graduated from the University of Virginia in 2015. “I was happy to do it,” Fan says of the painting, “and pretty much agreed on the spot.” In a serendipitous moment the week after she accepted the commission, Fan visited Virginia Beach for a previously scheduled engagement. “I decided to capture imagery while I was there,” she says, and awoke early each morning to take photos of the sunrise over the ocean.

Courtney Adrian
Photographs by Andrea Hubbell show “Housing2Home” pieces in places. One client, a big New York Giants fan, chose a piece in the shape of New York state with the Giants logo; another, who loves environmental artwork, selected a quilt made by local artist Maggie Stein for its blue and green color scheme (above.)

Once she had completed the painting, Roller asked Fan if she’d like to accompany her in delivering it to the client. Fan says, “When I went to meet him and give him his painting, I asked him why he wanted a painting of the beach in particular. He shared that while he was homeless, he drove to Virginia Beach and slept in his truck by the shore, and woke up each morning to watch the sunrise. Without knowing that he had been living in that area and seeing the same sunrise that I was inspired by, I ended up painting the very thing that became a special memory for him during that hard season of life.”

Fan was deeply struck by the connection. She says, “It was encouraging to see how this work of art and the nature behind it became a shared joy for us, despite the differences in our walks of life.” The client then told Fan that her painting made the room feel complete. “He told me he thought it was beautiful. And that it was exactly what he was hoping for,” she says.

H2H-Anthony-0011While Fan admits she’s always loved to create, the experience of making a painting for someone who might not otherwise be able to afford one for his home has had a particular impact on her. “I think that beauty is universally appreciated and belongs to everyone,” she says. “So creating a piece for someone who had been homeless was truly special because I was able to share something that I think all people deserve to share in.”

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Arts

Stories of how failures lead to successes

Explore The Art of Failure with Devon Sproule (pictured), Lulu Miller and David Zahl at Meade Hall on March 6. Photo by Amelia Schmid

As consumers, we’re inundated by success. Hit records, blockbuster movies, the latest app.

Creators, on the other hand, are surrounded by failures. They churn out ideas—some brilliant, some bad—and create until something sticks.

How do they find the guts to fail their way to success? Three accomplished local artists are opening up in The Art of Failure, from The Makers Series co-hosted by Christ Episcopal Church, The Garage and New City Arts Initiative.

For musician Devon Sproule, failure is an invitation to stop scrambling so quickly.

“Trying to be successful in the music business is like trying to climb a never-ending ladder,” she says an e-mail. “You’re so busy trying to get to the next rung that it’s really hard to remember to stop and appreciate the view. There are people ahead of you that you assume have a better view, and there are people behind you that want yours. And the whole dang ladder is really rickety.”

She describes the summer of 2007 as a turning point, when she got sick—right before her appearance on the English TV show Later… with Jools Holland. “So even though this show introduced my music to a shitload of people, for the next few years, I couldn’t help but wonder what would have happened if I’d been at 100 percent,” she says. “Who knows, maybe my ladder-climbing would have accelerated even more, like it did for those annoyingly cute guys in Vampire Weekend, who also played that night.”

Author, editor and preacher David Zahl sees failure as the gateway to grace.

“The first five years of my own serious creative endeavor was one massive lesson in the pointlessness of trying to ‘get it right,’” he writes. “Failure is seldom something you can go around—you have to go through, even when every fiber of your being is saying not to.”

He describes hosting a conference in Pensacola, Florida, in the early years of his organization, Mockingbird. “We had planned for 200 people to register but only 24 could be bothered. It was super embarrassing, and we almost canceled ahead of time. I wasn’t even there, ’cause my wife had just had a baby. I remember thinking, ‘Maybe it’s time to throw in the towel on this entire project.’”

But that single “failed” conference led to the start of Mockingbird’s quarterly magazine, ongoing video production and best-selling publication.

“Contrary to my default psychology and much to my relief, [failure] has never proved to be the end of the world,” he writes.

Writer, reporter and co-host of NPR’s “Invisibilia,” Lulu Miller’s commitment to art requires falling off that ladder—a lot.

“The first draft of my first radio story was such a mess it was met with the words, ‘You could never make it in a newsroom,’” she writes. “I still remember the tears falling onto the script.”

Now, she seeks to understand why things fail. She draws a parallel to parkour, the sport of running, jumping and climbing around obstacles. “I want to try to become that fluid, that artful, that beautiful as I recalibrate a story to the edits and life thrown my way,” says Miller. “I want to be that reactive, that responsive to failure. I’m not there yet, but, man, am I trying. Every day.”

The gifts of failure are not reserved exclusively for artists. “All of us will make mistakes,” Miller says. “In life. In craft. In policy. If we can open our ears to hear why people are angry, bored, confused, not moved, then we can hear the path to making ourselves, our town and our work better. As if the negative imprint of failure is the blueprint for how to succeed.”