Creative Connector
This Saturday, Gallery5 celebrates its first year of pushing boundaries and forging creative connections
Aaron Roberts/Richmond.com
Gallery5 serves as a catalyst for Richmond's creative community.
Katherine Houstoun
Richmond.com
Thursday, April 13, 2006
When Amanda Robinson moved into Steamer Company No.5 last winter to prepare for the opening of Gallery5, it wasn’t like coming home for her – it was coming home.
Robinson spent her infant days living in the old firehouse at 200 W. Marshall St. with her mother and father, who bought the historical Jackson Ward building in 1976 and turned it into the Virginia Fire and Police Museum to save it from demolition.
"All of my memories are from this building," Robinson said. "My parents lived here; I was born here. I used to teach fire safety classes here. I've been in and out of this building my whole life."
The building, which Robinson said is the oldest standing firehouse in Virginia and the second oldest in the country, dates to 1849. Both her grandfather and great-grandfather served as firefighters with the company, and her father breathed new life into the building in the '70s when he established the Fire and Police Museum, complete with antique vehicles and memorabilia. Now it's his daughter's turn to make a difference.
"It's really important to keep the history alive in this building, but the arts are here to bring a new light into the building and to keep its doors open," said Robinson, 23, a 2004 graduate of the Savannah College of Art and Design.
Steamer Company No.5 fell into her hands when she returned to Richmond on a break from following the Warped Tour in 2004.
"I was never planning on coming back to Richmond," Robinson said. "I thought the art scene was stagnant…But when I asked my father what he was doing with this building – it had been vacant for two years – and he said, 'Do you have any great ideas?' I said, 'hell, yeah.'"
One year later, those ideas have come to fruition in the thriving art mecca that is Gallery5. Not simply a place to show visual art work (the Fire and Police Museum is maintained downstairs), Gallery5 serves as a showplace for performing arts, including film/video installations, dance performances, live music concerts and spoken word.
"We're trying to house all different art forms under one roof," Robinson said. "But we're also trying to be a voice, a catalyst for the new art movement in Richmond."
Robinson's gallery gives fledgling artists of this new movement, which she describes as "progressive, innovative and cutting edge," the opportunity to display work that otherwise might not make it into established Richmond galleries. And it serves to bring creative-minded people of all genres together.
"Richmond's always had small little circles of creativity," said Jeremy Parker, the art director for RVA magazine and Robinson's right hand man. "You've got filmmakers, you've got artists, musicians, poets, whatever. For the longest time, it seemed like these circles weren't interacting; they were kind of staying in their own little corners. Now, it's time to get all of these circles together to interact and discover each other – and that's what we're trying to do."
"The whole art movement has dramatically increased within the past year," Robinson added. "Four new promotion companies, a couple new magazines, new dance troupes and theatrical groups, new galleries all opening. I wouldn't say it's because of us, but it's this newfound interest in the art scene."
Gallery5's biggest show to date was February's "Disrobed" nude art exhibition, which featured 25 nude models painted to resemble different Greek mythological deities and the four elements. Close to 5,000 Richmonders made it through the doors to view the exhibit, which Robinson described as "beautiful" and "classy," while around 3,000 passersby turned away at the sight of the monstrous line.
"[It's important to do shows like this] to open people's eyes and do something different and to make people aware that being risqué or cutting edge is not wrong; it's art," Robinson said. "And we're really hoping that other galleries say, 'hey, look what they're doing. Let's try to keep up with them. Let's try to do something different.'"
Though Robinson's audience initially consisted of mainly 20 to 35 year olds, she contends that it is ever expanding.
"Every month, the diversity of our audience – and the diversity of our artists – gets higher and higher," she said. "I had a couple in their 80s who came to 'Disrobed' in a tuxedo and an evening gown and said, 'We've waited our whole lives to see something as innovative and as cultural as this come into our city.'"
"It's not your parents' art gallery," said Jeff Odell, who recently joined the gallery's board of directors. "But, as a 44-year-old, I think a lot of my peers and their families would be interested in this type of non-traditional art and music."
And there's more to come. Robinson has plans to add studios, classes and yoga instruction to the gallery's offerings, and she is closing shop in July and August to better organize next year's exhibits. She expects the quality of the art to continue to rise, all the while preserving the history of the Virginia Fire and Police Museum.
"We've done so much already that it's really just trying to fine-tune what we've done," Robinson said. "This gallery has turned into something beyond what I imagined.
"It's not just a place; it's not just a building. It's a life form."
If you haven't checked out Gallery5 on one of its popular First Friday gigs, get in on the excitement this Saturday when the gallery and RVA magazine celebrate their joint first-year anniversary. The event, which features The Gaskets, Hoots & Hellmouth, a year in review projection by Todd Raviotta and CD releases of The Family Swaggards and Prabir & Substitute, starts at 8 p.m. and costs $5. For more info, call (804) 644 0005 or visit www.gallery5arts.com.
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