Illustration by Carson McNamara
The house at 1 N. Granby St. fit like a perfect stitch for the next-door Visual Arts Center of Richmond, which was seeking space for its resident artist programs.
“We needed to do nothing to it except paint,” says Executive Director Stefanie Fedor. This is the most recent addition for VisArts, which has provided classes and workshops in arts and crafts to the greater Richmond community for 59 years.
Working in her West Main Street office, Fedor happened to come across an announcement that the house was for sale. She didn’t believe what she was seeing, so she went down the hall to the office of the center’s development director, Lizzie Oliver.
Stefanie Fedor, executive director of VisArts (Photo courtesy Visual Arts Center of Richmond)
“Lizzie, would you walk down the street with me?” she asked.
Sure enough, the two found a “For Sale” sign planted in front of the house at the corner of Granby and Main. Without hesitation, they called the listing agent and asked for 24 hours to make an offer on the house, which was priced at around $400,000. Then key VisArts supporters received calls.
“A chance like this wasn’t going to come again anytime soon,” Fedor explains. “This is the highest and best use for us. We’re just so fortunate that VisArts has such committed contributors.” An anonymous donor finalized the purchase.
The attached three-bedroom, two-story residence features an inspiring sunroom and 1,656 square feet of space. It also comes with built-in bookcases and a mural of Black ballerinas by Monty Montgomery and Nico Cathcart. Now dubbed Granby House, the building made its public debut when staged for VisArts’ 57th Annual Craft + Design Show, held virtually in November 2021.
VisArts had already established a legacy of bringing contemporary artists to Richmond. They received housing through the hospitality of board members or other arrangements, such as one recently with Quirk Hotel. But the logistics have presented the occasional challenge for resident artists, who have 24-hour access to VisArts studios. “Artists can keep odd hours,” Fedor says. “They may need to go wherever they’re staying at 4 a.m., and they don’t have a car here.”
Granby House is specifically a residential arrangement for visiting artists. “We’re going to be good and faithful neighbors,” Fedor says. “We really want the artists to have a place where they don’t have to feel like they’re always ‘on,’ to be as comfortable as they can.”
“We’re going to be good and faithful neighbors.” —Stefanie Fedor
VisArts curates the artists as they do their exhibitions. The residency isn’t in a university setting, and neither is it an artist’s retreat. After all, VisArts is in the former Virginia Dairy, and before the center changed the name, it went by the Hand Workshop. Those enrolled make not only physical things, whether a painting, a tapestry or a vase, as well as more abstract creations such as a short story or a video, but they also make discoveries about their own abilities.
The residency program begins with an invitation and an introductory visit that includes meetings with VisArts staff and community partners. “They really have to fit,” Fedor explains, “and we speak frankly with them: ‘Listen, we’re a community arts center, and you’re going to be embedded in a community.’ ” With relationships established, the artist proposes their project. “And we run with it,” Fedor says.
When one enters VisArts, there is a palpable sense of creation — something akin to a pleasant and invigorating hum. And yet, at 30,000 square feet, the organization needs more room. Incremental reduction of staff space, due to the expansion of student work areas, was relieved by the pandemic, and the center pivoted to online classes. Though with in-person learning returning with distancing, there is the need to have space for programs, including those offered to students of nearby Binford Middle. A third of the center’s revenue is generated from its classes, and going into its 60th year, VisArts is confronting how to both improve and expand within its space while supporting its variety of outreach programs.
“People can really have their first experience with art and art-making at VisArts,” Fedor says. “From professional, international artists who come into our gallery shows to folks who say, ‘I’m not an artist, I can’t draw a stick figure.’ Well, you don’t have to! Come in and let me teach you how to make a stool, or weave a rug, or take a photo.”
And resident artists will be right next door.
