VMFA honors Black community with 7th annual RVA Community Makers
Artists Kourtenay Plummer and Hamilton Glass pose for a picture at RVA Community Makers Unveiling. Photo by Cam Dorsey.
Maeve Bauer, Contributing Writer
The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts unveiled this year’s RVA Community Makers’ pieces on Feb. 13, as a way to honor the Black community in Richmond.
Hamilton Glass, the project creator, said RVA Community Makers is held during Black History Month to celebrate Black art and honor those in the community who have made a positive impact.
Glass started RVA Community Makers seven years ago. He said he feels museums can be intimidating to artists, so he wanted to create a project that made people feel like they belong.
“To be honored in a museum is a special thing, to create a piece of art in a museum is a special thing and to feel like you belong in a museum are three things that this project aims for. We wanted to put all those elements into this work, to this project,” Glass said.
The artists and honorees are selected by a panel at the museum.
This year’s project featured sculpted vessels created by Kourtenay Plummer, founder of her own pottery shop, and honored David Marion and Tiara Green, co-founders of the Liberated Art Foundation, Taylor Scott, founder of RVA Community Fridges and Corey Taylor, CEO of Peter Paul Development Company, according to the VMFA’s website.
The vessels were made to represent the honorees, as they are the heart of the event, according to Glass.
The medium of art changes each year, to coincide with a new exhibition or piece that has been added to the museum. This year’s project is based on artist Fred Wilson’s black Murano glass chandelier, “No Way But This,” which can now be seen in the historic entrance of the VMFA, according to the VMFA’s website.
Paula Saylor-Robinson, the director of audience development at the VMFA, said Glass came up with the idea for RVA Community Makers after doing some work with the museum one year for Black History Month.
“He proposed the idea of honoring the local community members who make a difference, particularly African American people who are working hard in the community and trying to be very positive in their impact,” Saylor-Robinson said.
Glass was the first artist to be featured in the project, making portraits of the honorees, according to Saylor-Robinson.
Saylor-Robinson said they have been involved in this project since the start, helping select the honorees.
“RVA Community Makers is a title that I came up with once we started talking about the project and who we wanted to honor, it just seemed to be pretty straightforward, people who make their communities better here in Richmond,” Saylor-Robinson said.
Community members of all ages attended the event, one of which was Darrian Hewlett, executive director of “Threaded, A Men’s Fashion Week”.
“I wanted to come support, especially considering it’s Black History Month. Being a Black man, I like to see what people in my culture are up here doing in the art scene,” said Hewlett.
Hewlett said the message that viewers should take away from this is to consider Black art.
“Consider Black art. When you’re decorating your home, consider Black art. When you decorate your office, consider some Black art. If you’re decorating an event, and you need artwork, consider some Black art. You’ll find some of the coolest things,” said Hewlett.
