Last Fridays grant safe, collaborate space

Sophia Belletti
Staff Writer

Earlier this year, a group of Richmond artists recognized a need for a safe environment where any artist could express themselves and present their work.

Thus, “Last Friday” came to be. Taking place on the last Friday of nearly every month, Last Fridays were created as a community-wide effort to expose artists’ work to the rest of Richmond.

Last Friday had their first show March 25, and a huge number of spectators arrived and about 40 submissions on less than three-weeks-notice were received.

There were two rooms with art and an interactive piece in the backyard and it was packed. Guests and artists were able to enjoy art outside of the context of a class, museum or gallery.

Shepard was a part of the team of people curating the show and said most of the work she looked at she had never seen before.

While the artists behind these events wish to refrain from labeling a specific person as the founder of Last Fridays, Stuart Shepard, a sophomore Craft/Material Studies and Sculpture + Extended Material major, remembers VCU students Bethany Allen and Helen Westergreen as the two people who got the conversation started.

“We want everyone to have the opportunity to have an equal part in organizing Last Fridays so we haven’t elected any leadership roles and no one has singular credit in the creation of the group,” Shepard said.

According the Shepard, when the Last Fridays events were originally proposed, there was a lot of confusion about the association with First Fridays – the monthly event that involves showcasing local artist at many Richmond galleries and restaurants downtown – and how they would pan out not being in a gallery.

“Last Friday was created to give a space for artists to show work that may not otherwise have a space to,” Shepard said. “It definitely was not created in response to First Friday, but I think the conversation between the two events is a necessary one.”

Still, original feedback was welcome, and the event is expected to evolve from the input of the artists involved.

“Also, (there’s) excitement that it was created solely from the desire of individuals who want to create and experience art apart from VCU’s artistic paradigm,” said junior urban planning and psychology major Patrick Silva.

One big factor that differentiates Last Friday from First Friday is the level of involvement artists are allowed to have with the shows. There are plans to have different groups of people curating the show every month to give people a chance to have a say in organizing shows.

Along with the theme, the location of the shows will change every month to help keep the show from becoming repetitive.

“The idea of shows, spaces and structure changing often is really exciting,” Shepard said. “I love when things are hard to define and I think the openness of Last Fridays allows for some really beautiful things to happen.”

Shepard also said it was important to take artists out of there comfort zone and general audience to gain experience.

“It’s easy to see the same people in the same buildings every day and never know what their work looks like so it was really cool being able to see the stuff people have been doing, even if it didn’t make it into the show,” Shepard said.

As with any first-time event, lessons were learned. Last Friday members worked out a process to curate submissions, market the shows more efficiently and better host a space that is warm and receptive to all walks of life.

“It was really casual and allowed for people to have really good conversations about the work they were looking at,” Shepard said. “So many people came just to see art, and that was the most successful part of it for me.”

To find out about future Last Friday events, visit lastfridaysrva.tumblr.com or the Last Friday Facebook page.

Staff Writer, Sophia Belletti

Sophia is a sophomore print/online journalism major with a minor in gender, sexuality and women’s studies. She enjoys writing about current events and sports and hopes to one day be a sports reporter, covering soccer, basketball and baseball. You can usually find Sophia drinking way too much coffee and laughing at her own jokes. // Facebook | Twitter | LinkedIn

bellettisr@commonwealthtimes.org