Maeve Bauer, Spectrum Editor
Since her teenage years, Lydia James dreamed of opening a communal space to support people who just want to belong. The now 29-year-old did not think that dream would come true until her 30s. However, just this past Saturday marked the grand opening of the new location of Passion Project, a third space for anyone who needs it.
Located at 1039 W. Grace St., it holds a lot of the same features as the old one downtown — including, the free community fridge at it’s front door stocked with water and other food essentials for whoever needs them.
What will be a first at the new location is its art studio space. James finds that it is important to create room for all people to have a creative outlet to take what they feel inside and bring it out.
“I believe that art is anything you do to express yourself. There is no such thing as bad art, I tell everybody that,” James said. “Art does not have to be something you do on pen and paper, doesn’t have to be crochet. It could be poetry, music. It could be anything.”
James is still processing the feeling of her dreams coming true. After starting the collective in 2024 with a team of five she had no idea it would expand to what it is today, with a team that is now 11 times bigger. There was a line wrapping around the corner opening day, with hundreds of people coming by to support the new space.
“So quickly our community came together and within a year ran out of space,” James said. “And I was like, ‘Oh man, we need something bigger and better for the community. They want this.’ … It really takes the community believing in the artist, artists believing in each other, me believing in them, them believing in me.”
One artist supporting James and Passion Project is DJ BIIGDRII, more formally known as Adryan Tostevin-Sheridan. The two first met last year at Big Gay Market RVA. Tostevin-Sheridan said and James liked her sound, and asked her to perform at the old location’s one year anniversary and then again for the new space’s grand opening.
“It’s really nice to have these spaces where it’s like, you can come here, you can make friends, you can meet like-minded people, and there’s not that financial barrier in between it. I think that it is very important for all of our mental health and just getting to know the people in our city,” Tostevin-Sheridan said.
Passion Project is open from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. It is open 12 to 5 p.m. on Sunday and closed on Wednesday. More information on Passion Project can be found on their instagram, @passionprojectrva.