VIRGINIA CENTER FOR THE CREATIVE ARTS • 154 SAN ANGELO DRIVE AMHERST, VIRGINIA 24521 • 434.946.7236 • VCCA.COM VCCA ANNUAL REPORT FISCAL YEAR 2015V 2 CONTENTS President + Executive Director 3 Spotlight on FELLOWS 5 VCCA Mission Statement Legacy Society: VCCA Fellow • Board Member Sandell Mors 15 Spotlight on the Jacques and Natasha Gelman Foundation 17 Endowed + Sponsored Fellowships VCCA advances the arts by providing a creative space in 19 The Commission 2015 25 which our best national and international artists produce WAVERTREE 27 their finest literature, visual art and music. Contributors 29 Art + Books + Score Donations 38 In-Kind Donations 39 VCCA-France 39 Legacy + Honorary Donations 41 Foundations + Government + Corporate Support 43 Fellows in Residence 45 VCCA Board of Directors/International Oversight 51 Honorary + Advisory Boards 53 VCCA Staff 54 Audited Financial Information 55 Credits 58 Cover: EXALT, 2014, mixed media, David Farrar In his practice, which incorporates printmaking, woodwork, sculpture and installation, British artist David Farrar makes use of humble materials and objects, subtly altering them in unexpected and, indeed, quite dysfunctional ways. A printing technician at the Glasgow School of Art where he studied, David is influenced and guided in his practice by “Ephemeral moments of beauty and comedy.” These include: “Lines of light cast through a Venetian blind, a toilet roll dancing uninhibitedly in the gentle breeze of an extraction fan, the strong shadow cast from a streetlight illuminating a wooden pallet on the street. I repackage these moments as ethereal worlds isolated from the imperfections and noise of reality so that more people might appreciate the beauty of everyday occurrences.” 3 4 P R E S I D E N T + E X E C U T I V E D I R E C T O R FISCAL YEAR 2015 each year. We are so grateful to the anonymous donor for so generously supporting VCCA-Abroad. The old Chinese adage that is both a blessing and a curse, “May you live in interesting times”, took on special significance this past spring. Life is always interesting at VCCA, thanks to the presence of our Fellows, but things got VERY interesting when it was announced that Sweet Briar College, a vanguard in women’s education, would close, and the prospect cast a dark cloud over the final quarter of fiscal year 2015. As everyone now knows, Sweet Briar was given a second chance. It was a welcome denouement for the institution we have shared such a close relationship with for going on five decades. With the college now under the most capable leadership of President Philip C. Stone working in concert with its passionate alumnae, we are confident that Sweet Briar has many, many bright years ahead. Going forward, we want to ensure VCCA is most advantageously positioned for success. To this end, VCCA Executive Director, Board of Directors and Strategic Planning Committee have been diligently pursuing a long-term home for VCCA. Cameron Littleton Photography While we continue to weigh other options, our deepest wish is to stay put and move forward together with “Without culture,” wrote Albert Camus, “And the relative freedom it implies, society, even when perfect, is but a Sweet Briar, but wherever we end up, one thing is certain, VCCA will remain strong. Our strength derives from jungle. This is why any authentic creation is a gift to the future.” the high caliber of our Fellows, the commitment of our staff and board and the support of our many donors who understand that sustaining arts and culture is of vital importance to the health and well-being of society. Every day artists at VCCA are fashioning precious gifts for the future. Between July 1, 2014 and June 30, 2015, 452 national and international artists passed though VCCA. Of these, 247 were writers, 129 visual artists and 39 Artists continue to flock to VCCA from all corners of the earth finding here the haven where they can tap into composers. Twenty-three had residencies at the Moulin à Nef in Auvillar and 14 more went on international the rich veins of creativity found deep within themselves, bringing forth the literature, visual art and music that exchanges to Germany, Ireland, Malta and Austria. bear the truth, beauty and mystery of the human heart and will embellish lives for many generations to come. Thank you to all who have made this possible. We know how transformative, indeed, life changing these residencies can be to individual artists, inspiring ideas, instilling confidence, providing the time and place to create. They also transform culture, enhancing it with works created right here in Amherst, Virginia and in Auvillar, France. Calendar year 2015 started off with a bang when it was announced that VCCA-Abroad was the recipient of a $1 million anonymous gift. One of the largest in VCCA’s history, the gift, to be known as the Elizabeth Coles Robert O. Satterfield Gregory Allgire Smith Langhorne Memorial Endowment Fund for VCCA in France, is to be used solely by VCCA for improvement of President, VCCA Board of Directors Executive Director the current French properties to include the purchase of additional real and personal property, and operation July 1, 2013 - June 30, 2015 to include the payment of utilities and taxes, and in particular, the funding of Fellowships and transportation of VCCA-qualified United States artists for residencies in Auvillar. This gift represents a significant imprimatur on the important work VCCA does in support of hundreds of artists 5 6 S P O T L I G H T O N F E L L O W S FISCAL YEAR 2015 It would be impossible to include all the 452 amazing Fellows who passed through our doors in fiscal year 2015. Following are VCCA Fellows who were in residence at Mt. San Angelo between July 1, 2014 start to find forms and then refine and approach details. I start with detail and zoom out. It’s like the details are super precise and controlled and I know what I’m going for. In the beginning, I’m using a tiny brush; it’s and June 30, 2015. They represent just a sampling of the incredible creativity and talent that is painstakingly slow and then as the paintings progress, I’m relinquishing control of this thing I labored on. The nurtured at VCCA. backgrounds often involve splatters and poured paint—chance things and a little bit of chaos so I’m not exactly quite sure what the finished work is going to look like from the front anymore.” Aaron Johnson’s vibrantly colored, densely packed compositions feature a profoundly macabre subject After Aaron has finished the painting/liquid polymer stage, he lays the painting surface flat, plastic side down, matter where Mexican Day of the Dead imagery vies with and then after pouring on a final coat of polymer, he transfers it onto stretched netting. The polymer saturates East Indian iconography for visual whammy. The work, the net, congealing all those layers of paint to the net as the polymer dries. The plastic sheeting is peeled away which is created through a complicated technique Aaron once the piece is completely dry. Aaron began using netting because canvas wasn’t porous enough and when refers to as “reverse painted acrylic polymer peel he tried to use his multi-layer technique he ended up with a lot of air bubbles. He got the idea to use the painting”, is also generously larded with potent political unconventional material walking past a construction site in New York where he spotted the orange net and societal themes. barricades. Aaron’s multi step process starts with a preliminary There’s plenty of blood and grossness in Aaron’s work, but it’s handled in such an irreverent and intentionally drawing. “For the small paintings with their hyper detail it outlandish way, it comes across as darkly funny rather than truly disturbing. In one, a bizarre feast/operation helps for me to plan it all out in advance,” he says. is depicted. It’s a grotesque comedy featuring a cast of oddball death’s headed characters arranged around a “Narratives come easily when I’m drawing with pencil table. and paper—letting things enter my mind and having fun with it.” The drawings get messy with all the erasing and Aaron’s mother grew up in Assam and his childhood house was filled with Indian art. He says the Indian smudges of graphite and so he makes a tracing of them aesthetic is so ingrained in him he references it without thinking about it. This explains the ease with which he that he tapes to the front of the polyethylene plastic incorporates the sumptuous palette, marvelously inventive patterns and flame-like gestures that enliven his sheeting attached to stretchers that he uses as his paintings and recall Indian miniatures. In some works, Aaron makes more direct reference: inserting the painting surface. “For the bigger ones, I’ll just draw right elephant foot stool he inherited from his grandfather in one, a Ganesh-like figure in another. onto the plastic because it’s a looser piece.” Aaron’s paintings have three layers of paint each separated by Aaron enjoys putting “little things for people to discover” in his paintings like familiar food items. He keeps the a layer of liquid acrylic polymer that’s poured onto the meaning very open. “I’m not really thinking why the fries and hamburger would be dancing on the piano… it’s painted surface and left overnight to harden. The layering just available iconography to me. I wanted something on the tabletop to punctuate the wood grain.” The food adds dimension and a luscious sheen to the work.