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Kids’ activities at the Lamb Center for Arts and Healing
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The 2023 Lamb Arts Fest
Artist and educator Eliza Lamb recently asked students from Hopewell High School a question: if you could change one thing about the city, what would it be?
A 17-year-old replied, “I’d change the way the rest of the world thinks of us.”
Hopewell has never been afforded the opportunity to see itself reflected in a positive light, Lamb says. “Imagine what that does to the psychology of people.”
The idea became a mission for Lamb, who grew up in and around Hopewell. In early November, she opened the Lamb Center for Arts and Healing at 230 E. Broadway, in the heart of town, to uplift the community by connecting its 23,000 residents through creative expression.
Lamb left Hopewell to pursue her education, thinking she’d never return. She earned three master’s degrees and a doctorate in the arts from Columbia University in New York. She taught at her alma mater, curated at the Children’s Museum of the Arts in New York City, and became the first arts and health researcher for VCUarts’ Arts Research Institute in Richmond. Along the way she became a wife and mother, but Hopewell never left her thoughts.
For seven years, Lamb produced art and photography related to Hopewell that was displayed around the world. Notably, the images didn’t portray people. Noticing this, Lamb realized she was investigating her own relationship with the town. Hopewell kept calling her, and she chose to return.
Through her academic and artistic career, Lamb began to see the impact the arts can have on communities. Studying or working for organizations that raised funds to help the underserved led her to a realization: “Coming from Hopewell, I had a perspective most of my peers didn’t have. I came from the kind of place they were saying they wanted to help. And it wasn’t just Hopewell, it was what many small towns throughout America were, and are, experiencing.”
She founded Lamb Arts in 2016, partnering with schools, social services and other nonprofits to offer art programs, events and advocacy in Hopewell and the surrounding area. She and the organization’s teachers went into schools, nursing homes and the town’s library to spread the word. They taught classes in rented rooms near the post office, but the size of the space limited the number of students.
Lamb purchased the building on Broadway in 2018, but finding the money to renovate the 3,500-square-foot space took a while — potential donors were reluctant to invest in Hopewell. She persevered and eventually received enough grants and donations to complete the project.
“Having this building is going to really, really shake things up. For the first time, the public can come to us,” Lamb says with enthusiasm. “We’ll still go to them, but here Hopewell can come to us in community.”
Lamb envisions the organization as a template that can be applied to other localities across the country. “There is no better place than here to pilot this work,” she says.
Join Lamb Arts for its Candlelit Christmas Singalong, Dec. 18, from 5:30 to 7 p.m. at City Point in Hopewell. For information on classes and events, visit lambarts.org.
