Architect Walter Parks at 2-4 E. Broad St., the storefronts his company is renovating (Photo by Jay Paul)
The Richmond Arts District, which today comes with its name in lights at its own Pulse bus dock, began almost a generation ago as a loose affiliation of arts and cultural groups and entrepreneurs. Christina Newton of Artspace, then the director of Curated Culture, harnessed those entities and organized the monthly First Fridays Artwalk which, during the early 2000s, became one of the city’s hallmark attractions in an otherwise somewhat beleaguered part of town.
Today, on and off Broad Street, arts and cultural organizations and several stalwart enterprises endure, despite occasional disputes about what the Arts District is supposed to be and its boundaries — Pulse installation and parking issues, economic downturn, the coronavirus pandemic, festivals ongoing and gone, social upheavals, and the vagaries of municipal governance.
The Arts District is among the downtown areas included in marketing efforts by Venture Richmond, which promotes the city. Last year, the district was the focus of several initiatives by the group in concert with the city and the Broad Street Task Force public safety initiative “to provide a more inviting and safer environment, like graffiti removal, pressure-washing Broad Street, tree-limbing, LED lighting upgrades and holiday street pole banners,” according to Erika Gay, Venture Richmond’s director of marketing and communications.
The district is also on the full agenda of new Mayor Danny Avula, who said in a statement in late 2024 that “a healthy, flourishing arts and culture scene is an integral part of a healthy, flourishing city.” Avula built a working group that includes members of the local arts community into his transition team, a step that longtimers in the neighborhood say shows an early difference from previous officeholders.
Meanwhile, upcoming additions, such as VPM, Virginia’s home for public media, relocating its headquarters downtown, could bolster the area’s draw as well as its population, and current denizens have ideas for enhancing the district’s future.
A rendering of VPM’s new headquarters, scheduled to open in early 2026 (Image courtesy SMBW)
‘A Mixing Bowl’
Architect Walter Parks moved his offices onto Adams Street 24 years ago. “People talk about the problems of the city,” he reflects, “and the city’s got its challenges, but I’ve been down here all this time, and Broad Street is in much better shape now than it was then.”
During a conversation in the lobby of Quirk Hotel — itself a testimony to the positive changes along this stretch — Parks recalls boarded-up storefronts and the characters who used to inhabit the area. “We had Duck Man, riding around on his bicycle and making quacking sounds, and Goat Boy, who had bumps on his head, and he’d bleat,” he says with a laugh. “We were the oddity in the neighborhood.”
In addition to designing new construction, Parks’ firm, WPA Studios, specializes in historic renovation and adaptive reuse. One building rehabilitation led to the studio owning a thousand wigs. “We gave some of them, and some hats, to [Virginia Repertory Theatre] and then went to see ‘Beehive’ and saw our wigs in action,” he recalls with amusement.
So far, no comparable trove has emerged in the three-story, circa-1881 storefronts at 2-4 E. Broad St., which Parks described to Richmond BizSense as “the worst building on the block.” Parks bought it in 2022 and is creating living and commercial spaces within. The apartments, he says, will hold their own personalities by keeping much of the old while installing aspects of the new and modern; the juxtapositions interest him.
Within sight of Quirk Hotel is the comedy venue Coalition Theater, Virginia Repertory Theatre, Candela Books + Gallery, Lift Coffee Shop & Cafe, and Bar Solita, creating a vital mix. “And that’s one of the reasons there’s energy here,” Parks says. “It’s a mixing bowl with all kinds of people.”
Emily Smith has been the director of the Arts District mainstay 1708 Gallery for more than a decade. (Photo by Jay Paul)
The Downtown Beat
Occasions and events attract visitors to the Arts District. Among them are the almost-40-year-old 2nd Street Festival in Jackson Ward; First Fridays; Candela’s “Unbound” celebration of photography; Gallery5’s art, music and street fairs; and shows at Virginia Rep. Affiliations with the Richmond Folk Festival also bring liveliness, while potential spillover from the forthcoming Allianz Amphitheater nearby will remain to be seen.
Emily Smith, the director of 1708 Gallery for over a decade and a member of the mayor’s arts and culture transition team, says Broad Street comes alive for events such as the conference of the National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts. In March 2024, the gathering transformed downtown into a happening “Claychella.” Smith recounts, “They had ceramic projects at so many different sites. If you walked around Broad Street, every place felt great. I mean, we had about 200 people come through the gallery every day that week, [even] on a Wednesday.”
She also remembers the early onset of First Fridays when 1,800 people trooped through 1708. Foot traffic is no longer at those levels — Smith points to professionals working from home contributing to the decline — but it remains active and consistent. The point, Smith asserts, is that “the arts, whether visual or otherwise, attract people, [which is] why practically every venue in the Arts District pre-COVID is still here.”
Among them is Elegba Folklore Society, which highlights all forms of African American culture. Its doors opened 28 years ago on a much different intersection of First and Broad streets. “I smile as I say that the Arts District built itself around Elegba Folklore Society’s Cultural Center in the heart of downtown,” says Janine Bell, Elegba president and art director, via email.
Other enduring Arts District businesses include the Ada Gallery, for 21 years John Pollard’s spot for contemporary work, and Metro Sound & Music Co., which has traded in new and used instruments for 34 years. Art 180, an interdisciplinary arts nonprofit, has hosted workshops and events for youths on West Marshall Street for over a decade, and Black Iris, an arts-based social club on Broad Street, is celebrating seven years.
The success of those businesses has lured newcomers, among them Charged Up, the home of longtime rapper and businessman Noah-O’s entertainment company, and Supply, a recently opened art materials store, both on Broad Street. Of the building at 15 E. Broad St. that will house VPM, President and CEO Jayme Swain says the location “reflects who we are as an organization. ... We envision this modern media facility to be welcoming for all and programmed with events and engagement opportunities to encourage people to visit downtown.”
Visions for the Future
“We have some extraordinarily dedicated restaurant and business owners, galleries, niche shops and other entertainment venues,” says Klaus Schuller, the managing director of Virginia Rep. Located at the center of the Arts District on Broad Street, it is one of the oldest venues in the area and an anchor for entertainment, but in recent years it has contended with wide-ranging financial challenges. “If not now, when can we lift up the Arts District?” Schuller questions. “VCU is getting closer to us, VPM is moving in, and we really would like to generate a plan to improve our block in a way that enhances and doesn’t displace. This is a magnificent neighborhood and doesn’t get the traffic it deserves.” He’d like to see a parking deck built for use by patrons of the theater and nearby businesses.
In addition, Schuller notes that Virginia Rep’s main stage, the November Theatre, was founded as The Empire in 1911, then in 1919 was purchased and renamed The Strand by Black publisher and businessman John Mitchell Jr. “He had the temerity at the time to be a Black man who owned things,” Schuller remarks sardonically. As he works to right the ship at Virginia Rep, Schuller also wants to contribute to the neighborhood by better honoring the history of both Jackson and Monroe wards, although he notes, “There are no plans in place. This is more of a vision moment.”
On Marshall Street, Gallery5 is in its 20th year as an arts and music venue and community space. Like the Arts District itself, the group has gone through times both fruitful and fraught. Board member and marketing director Ash Moore says needed neighborhood improvements include attention to years-vacant properties and additional street lighting. “Honoring the historic neighborhood and ensuring that the Arts District is accessible to the arts community should remain at the forefront of interest to reflect the needs and direction of those in the district,” Moore says.
None of the challenges confronting the district are insurmountable, although they require time and attention at both the administrative and community level. Janine Bell serves on Mayor Avula’s arts transition team, working to support and forward the local scene, and is vice president of the Downtown Neighborhood Association in the Richmond Arts District. “We have discussed the need for placemaking and our vision of a locale pulsing with life — where great businesses thrive with food, music and art — nurturing the growth of downtown,” she says.
When asked what she would do if she could magically improve the area, Bell replies, “If the Richmond Arts District is philosophically the heart of the city, as its geography indicates, I would ensure a demographic diversity of businesses and nonprofits in an environment where all can flourish cohesively, where there are sufficient services for human care, and where patrons and potential patrons can access with ease, feeling safe and welcomed. Isn’t this what we seek as a city?”
