Richmond Artists Association (RAA)

Richmond Artists Association (RAA) (1955-2005) was a twentieth-century incorporated organization of artists active in Virginia well into the 21st century. Organizational plans began in 1955, and RAA was founded and started building up its membership during 1955-1965, securing its first certificate of incorporation in 1956. Artist/lawyer Westwood Winfree was the first president. RAA was allied with the Richmond Federated Arts Council, Arts Council of Richmond,[1] Artists Equity Association, and the Southern Arts Association. The group brought to Richmond the show Three Modern Painters: Hartley, Feininger, Beckmann, featuring the art of Marsden Hartley, Lyonel Feininger, and Max Beckmann in January 6–27, 1957 and Max Ernst Works on Paper in 1968. The RAA remained active until 2005 when some of the membership merged with another art organization to form the Richmond Metropolitan Artists Association.[2]

Officers and Members of RAA

Theresa Pollak, a teacher and founder of the art departments at both the University of Richmond and Richmond Professional Institute (also known as RPI, an extension of the College of William and Mary which became the Virginia Commonwealth University School of the Arts) was Vice President of the Richmond Artists' Association from 1958-1959. In 1978, she became a lifetime Honorary Member and frequent exhibitor in the group's juried shows.[3] Other presidents of RAA after Westwood Winfree were Barbara Kennedy (1963-1964), Thomas Gay, Jr. (1964-1965),[4] Nadara Goodwin (1965-1966),[5] Ruth Ensign (1965-1967),[6] Kenneth Rowe (1967-1968),[7] Baylor Nichols (1968-1969),[8] Gwyn Beitzell (1971-1972),[9] Kitty Schwartzchild (1972-1973),[10] Etta Edwards (1974-1975),[11][12] Ed Steinberg (1976-1978),[13] Anne Savedge (1979),[14] Margot Blank (1982-1984),[15] Mitzi Humphrey (1985-1986),[16][17][18] Mary Montague Sikes (1986-1987),[19] Anne Perkins (1988-1992),[20] Irene Jesse Perry (1992-1994),[21] and Mary Melton.[22]

RAA members also included Gertrude K. Russi[23] (a vice president (1967-1968), Ruth Rose, Bea Klein (a founding member),[24] Jane Ware, Gloria Blades (a vice-president), Henrietta Near,[25] Willie Anne Wright,[26][27] Ann Oppenheimer,[28] Helen Hull,[29] Roomy Pak,[30] James Bumgardner,[31] Bell Worsham,[32] Gail McKennis,[33] (owner of Scott-McKennis Gallery and co-founder with RAA member Nancy David of the Richmond Printmaking Workshop).

Other artist members were Barbara Ames,[34][35] Louise Cochrane,[36] Janice McMurray,[37] Barbara Bishop,[38] Pam Shelor,[39] Viola "Pete" Butzner, Isota Epes, Kitty Boldock, Celeste Hicks, Margaret Cramer, Judith Kowler, Mary Shumate, Homer Springer,[40] Frances Rex,[41] Nancy David,[42] Ed Wiles (author of a 1990 history of RAA), and Anne Perkins (art director of the Richmond Public Library exhibitions).[43]

Exhibitions

In 1963 the Petersburg Area Art League featured the Richmond Artists' Association member Helen S. Hull in one of their exhibitions, and she presented a critique session for the group.[44]

RAA members were frequent exhibitors in the juried and curated shows of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, the Women's Caucus for Art, and local galleries such as Schindler Gallery, Scott-McKennis Gallery, Artspace, 1708, Uptown, Shockoe Bottom Arts Center, and Art6.

In 1992 Baylor Nichols presented a show at Artspace Gallery on Broad Street in Richmond, a gallery originally founded in Shockoe Slip by members also affiliated with RAA. The Richmond Artists' Association was one of the sponsors of the national book art show Art ex Libris shown at Artspace, and several member artists contributed art to the exhibition.

A favorite public exhibition site for RAA was the Gellman Room gallery space at the Richmond Public Library, presenting juried member shows and receptions there from 1977-1983. It was usual to invite a well-known artist, often artists-in-residence or visiting artists from the University of Richmond or Virginia Commonwealth University to act as juror and to give in the library's auditorium a follow-up lecture/critique about their choices .

There were also early annual public exhibitions of members' art at the Carillon in Richmond, Virginia, Thalhimers, and Miller & Rhoads. The 35th Anniversary Show of RAA was held in 1992 in the gallery of Richmond's Crestar Bank.[45]

Projects and sponsorships

In 1955-1960 RAA presented a Festival of the Arts Summer Show.

From February 1 to March 1, 1964 RAA sponsored the exhibition of Hans Hoffmann and his students held at the Carillon in Richmond's Byrd Park and Maymont area. Entitled Hans Hofmann and his students 1963-1964, this was a nationally circulating exhibition of 58 works of art by 51 artists organized by William Seitz for the Museum of Modern Art.

In 1976 to celebrate the 30th anniversary of its founding, RAA published an edition of original postcards by its members, a copy of which is archived in James Branch Cabell Library special collections at Virginia Commonwealth University.[46]

In July 1993, RAA sponsored a trip for members to see the Barnes Collection and to visit the National Gallery in Washington, DC.

Late history, dissolution, and merger of the RAA

Upon the dissolution of the Richmond Artists Association, a group of former members in 2005 merged with the Metropolitan Artists Association (which had evolved and grown from the West End Art Alliance) to become the Metropolitan Richmond Artists Association (MRAA).

References

  1. ↑ "Arts Council of Richmond". www.richmondarts.org.
  2. ↑ "Metropolitan Richmond Artists Association". www.metrorichmondart.com. Retrieved 27 May 2016. Looking for ways to display their artworks and introduce Richmond to contemporary fine art, a group of full time art instructors and other professional artists from Richmond Professional Institute (now Virginia Commonwealth University's School of the Arts) started the area's very first art organization. . . . The Richmond Artists Association has been a leader in encouraging and showcasing all types of art throughout the community. In the fall of 2005, members of the Richmond Artists Association and the Metropolitan Artists Association met and decided to join together to form the Metropolitan Richmond Artists Association.
  3. ↑ https://gallery.library.vcu.edu/exhibits/show/remembering-theresa-pollak/about-theresa-pollak/later-years
  4. ↑ "Thomas B. Gay". www.blackbird.vcu.edu. Retrieved 28 May 2016.
  5. ↑ Arnold, Leigh. "Arts District-Downtown: A City's Dream Come True". publications.dma.org. Retrieved 28 May 2016. Painter Nadara Goodwin was one of the first to move her studio into the space in 1988 after securing the building with the help of a few other artists.
  6. ↑ Ensign, Joseph. "Ruth Singley Ensign | Josephine Ensign's "Medical Margins" Blog". josephineensign.wordpress.com. Retrieved 28 May 2016.
  7. ↑ "The art collection of Westminster Canterbury Richmond | Artwork Archive". www.artworkarchive.com. Retrieved 28 May 2016.
  8. ↑ Frostick, Dana. "artspacegallery.org". www.artspacegallery.org. Retrieved 28 May 2016.
  9. ↑ "Richmond Artists Association Archives" (PDF). Special Collection: Records of the Richmond Artists Association 1955-2005. Richmond, Virginia. p. 5. Retrieved 28 May 2016. The collection was donated by Irene Jessee Perry . . . The blue notebook belonging to Sara D. (Mrs. Israel) November was donated by Neil November in November 2011.
  10. ↑ "The Family History of the Calzaretta, Krieger, Michaels and Rafael Families - Kathryn (Kitty) Emsheimer Schwarzschild Death Notice". www.calzareth.com.
  11. ↑ Frostick, Dana. "artspacegallery.org". www.artspacegallery.org. Retrieved 28 May 2016.
  12. ↑ Robertson, Ellen. "Ruth Ensign, Richmond artist and writer, dies". Richmond Times-Dispatch. Retrieved 28 May 2016.
  13. ↑ Frostick, Dana. "artspacegallery.org". www.artspacegallery.org.
  14. ↑ http://www.styleweekly.com/richmond/hark-the-herald/Content?oid=1960339
  15. ↑ "Virginia Holocaust Museum's "Margot Blank Exhibit" (PDF). Retrieved 28 May 2016.
  16. ↑ Mitzi, Humphrey, (1 January 1997). "In Search of the Meandering Absolute: The Prints of Mitzi Humphrey". Virginia Commonwealth University.
  17. ↑ "Mitzi Humphrey - VCUarts". VCUarts.
  18. ↑ "Accent: Art Center to offer bookbinding class". Martinsville, Virginia: Martinsville Bulletin. October 17, 1989. p. 8-B.
  19. ↑ "Crossroads Art Center | Mary Montague Sikes". www.crossroadsartcenter.com.
  20. ↑ Sikes, Mary Montague (January 1990). "RAA Members in Touch". Richmond, Virginia: Richmond Artists Association. pp. 1, 2, 7.
  21. ↑ "irene jessee perry - Bing video". www.bing.com.,
  22. ↑ Frostick, Dana. "artspacegallery.org". www.artspacegallery.org.
  23. ↑ Art, Archives of American. "Detailed description of the Hans Hofmann papers, [circa 1904]-2011, bulk 1945-2000 | Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution". www.aaa.si.edu.
  24. ↑ http://www.jewishnewsva.org/beatrice-klein/
  25. ↑ Humphrey, Jr., Thomas. "Fluxus Redux" (PDF). Jimmy Warner Design--Archives of Broad Strokes, the monthly news zine of Artspace. Richmond, Virginia: Artspace Gallery. p. 1. Retrieved 31 May 2016.
  26. ↑ "Exhibition at Limestone". Gaffney, South Carolina: The Gaffney Ledger. October 30, 1970. p. 4. Wright holds a number of awards including . . . first prize in the Richmond Artists Association in 1970 . . . .
  27. ↑ Booth, Ed (March 30, 1975). "Artist Uses 'Pinhole' Camera". Richmond Times-Dispatch. p. H-12. Wright discovered that her pinhole photographs (soft focus) coincided with her concept of 19th century imagery (nostalgic) . . . .
  28. ↑ http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2002-04-16/news/0204150368_1_american-folk-art-orlando-city-hall-collection-of-folk
  29. ↑ "JRAL home". James River Art League. Richmond, Virginia. Retrieved 28 May 2016. History of JRAL:James River Art League is one of the oldest art groups in Richmond and was organized in 1964 by members of a painting class taught by Helen Hull Bailey.
  30. ↑ Frostick, Dana. "artspacegallery.org". www.artspacegallery.org. Retrieved 28 May 2016.
  31. ↑ "Artists - Jim Bumgardner". www.pagebondgallery.com. Page Bond Gallery. Retrieved 31 May 2016.
  32. ↑ "Exhibitions - 1950s - Library". vmfa.museum.
  33. ↑ "Search - Permanent Collection - NCMA - North Carolina Museum of Art". ncartmuseum.org. Retrieved 28 May 2016.
  34. ↑ "ArtCount2000 - gallery 11". savedge.com. Retrieved 28 May 2016.
  35. ↑ Review, Tidewater. "West Point artist Baylor Nichols to celebrate 90th birthday with exhibit". Tidewater Review. Retrieved 28 May 2016.
  36. ↑ http://vmfa.museum/exhibitions/exhibitions/a-floral-jubilee-the-art-of-louise
  37. ↑ "Crossroads Art Center | Janice McMurray". www.crossroadsartcenter.com.
  38. ↑ (tm), e-yearbook.com. "Longwood College - Virginian Yearbook (Farmville, VA), Class of 1979, Page 36". www.e-yearbook.com.
  39. ↑ Frostick, Dana. "artspacegallery.org". www.artspacegallery.org.
  40. ↑ Artist's book
  41. ↑ "Exhibitions - 1950s - Library". vmfa.museum. Retrieved 28 May 2016.
  42. ↑ Riker, Stephanie Davis (March 1988). "Nancy David and the Richmond Printmaking Workshop" (Volume 1, issue 6). Gallery:Richmond's Visual Arts Magazine. p. 8.
  43. ↑ "Richmond Artists Association Files" (PDF). Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Library. Retrieved 15 September 2016.
  44. ↑ "Portrait Artist to Give Critique". Petersburg, Virginia: The Progress-Index. September 24, 1963. p. 5.
  45. ↑ Yevich, Courtney C. "Special Collection 09(SC-09): Records of the Richmond Artists' Association, 1955-2005". Finding Aids to Personal Papers and Special Collections in the VMFA Artchives (4 cubic feet). VMFA Archives. The material highlights RAA's growth and achievements over five decades, including exhibitions at the Richmond International Airport. Several files highlight the RAA's relationship with other arts organizations, especially the Federated Arts Council of Richmond.
  46. ↑ Merritt, Robert (January 12, 1986). "Exhibit, card project start year with innovation". Richmond, Virginia: Richmond Times-Dispatch. p. J-4. The Richmond Artists Association Post Card Project is an entirely different, though equally unique, venture. . . . Most [cards] are very true to the individual artist's work, and anyone who has followed the Richmond Artists Association through the years will surely recognize many of the artists even without looking at the list of names.

External links

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