The Anderson

This past Saturday, February 25, held their closing event after an exciting month long exhibition and series of creative events.

Here are some of my favorite images from the closing event, a night full of of poetry, dance, and live music performances! 🎤⭐️

What an amazing way to wrap up the project at The Anderson 💜

-Gaby (Anderson Photo + Social Media intern)

📣 the Publishing Grant has been EXTENDED!! Submissions will be accepted til 3/12 instead of 3/5. Link in bio for the details & submission form! 📣

Pictured here are peaks at past Publishing Grant projects. The student recipients used the $300 grant funds to support their widely varying projects, from a virtual exhibition space to a risograph chapbook. 🌟

Image 1-2: screenshots of the virtual space built by Spring 2020 grant recipient Alex Goss to display the “InnerOut” exhibition
Image 3-4: screenshots of a Zoom event about Fall 2020 recipient Sam Taylor’s “gentle tools,” a web aggregator for personal well-being, creative inspiration, & radical reimagining of our world
Image 5-6: pages from Spring 2021 recipient C.A.P. Ward’s “The Just Opposed,” a risograph chapbook of poems uplifting Black art while memorializing lives lost or destroyed by oppressive systems

🐜 SIGNAL(S): a pop-up event, 5–8pm Thurs. 3/2 on the top floor of The Anderson! 🐜

Signal(s) presents live music, performance, sound, projections, and more at an event celebrating time-based art and live experiences of it. Additionally, there will be activity tables with a range of opportunities and things to try out, including a tactile art-based workshop, prints and designs available to purchase from students, and even building your own take-home contact mic. 🤯

On February 17, student Raana Abtahi’s solo show, InMemoryOf, opened to the public as part of the Anderson’s Open Call program.

InMemoryOf is an immersive installation which provides a place for visitors to reflect and create their own interpretations of the piece. It is on view now through March 3 in the Hidden Galleries on the top floor of the Anderson. Don’t miss out! ✨🥀

-Gaby (Anderson Photo & Social Media Intern)

We have had a very busy couple of days at the Anderson, consisting of three different opening receptions! 💥

students Hyunji da Silva’s ‘Summit New Jersey 2001’ and and Sally Wells’ ‘Secret Ingredients’ both opened this past week as part of the Anderson’s Open Call Projects. Additionally, ‘Desert Euphony’, curated by student Shannon Harper Kane, held an opening reception this past Saturday, February 17.

All three shows will be up until March 3, so make sure to stop by and check out all of this amazing student work while you have the chance! 💫💙

Image 1-3: Desert Euphony Reception, images by Manavi Singh
Image 4-7: Secret Ingredients Reception, images by Manavi Singh
Image 8-10: Summit New Jersey Reception, images by Gaby Davenport

-Gaby (Anderson Photo & Social Media intern)

💥the Spring Publishing Grant is HERE!💥submit your proposal by 3/5!

Interested in publishing a series of prints, a set of cassette tapes, a limited edition of bound books, a riso zine, a website to host a special project, or some other awesome thing where $300 could be really useful? Then submit your proposal idea for the Anderson Publishing Grant! The Anderson will provide $300 in production support for the selected publication designed by a student.

See the 🔗 in bio for the submission form!

Poster by ☄️✨🔥

Hello everyone! Curatorial Research Intern Andy here. I am doing a series of writings about different exhibitions and projects that have been shown here at The Anderson. As I flipped through the pages of The Anderson’s catalog of 45 years, I stumbled upon one of our own VCUarts faculty member’s work from 1996 entitled The Shell that Remains. This piece was made by Kendall Buster, a VCU professor in the Department of Sculpture + Extended Media.

I got a chance to speak with Buster to learn a bit more about her practice and interests. Her work explores the place where object and place meet using biological morphologies in a construction process that she described as being “skeletons with skins.” With those themes in mind, the scale and the architecture of her pieces are especially important.

Click the link in our bio to read the full essay on The Shell that Remains!

Image 1: Kendall Buster troweling softened wax onto the sculpture, 1996.
Image 2: The Shell that Remains completed, 1996.

💀Screenings & Artist Lecture at the Byrd Theatre on Weds. 2/22!💀

In connection with student-curated exhibition “Everything Once Arranged Has Become Scattered,” The Anderson is excited to host a lecture by Pittsburgh-based artist & filmmaker Rebecca Shapass & a screening of her short film “nickel for a silver screen,” along with a screening of the 1968 horror classic “Night of the Living Dead” at the historic Byrd Theatre in Carytown. 🧟‍♂️🧟‍♂️🧟‍♂️

The event is FREE to all VCU students, faculty, and staff! $8 for general admission.

6:10pm doors open, screening of “nickel for a silver screen”
6:30pm lecture
7:05pm intermission
7:15 screening of “Night of the Living Dead”


See the 🔗 in bio for more details and to buy GA tickets! If you are a VCU student/staff/faculty member, you must bring your VCU ID. ☠️


Image 1: NOTLD still
Image 2: “nickel for a silver screen” still
Image 3: NOTLD still

⭐️“Yes, I Also Make Work”—an exhibition of artworks by staff from the Anderson and the ICA—opened this past Friday in Gallery A (February 10)⭐️

This exhibition is a collection of works from 23 and staff members, featuring pieces by Kristen Andes, Reyane Ashtar, Jenna Casey, Daniella Caycedo, Gaby Davenport, Amina Coleman-Davis, Hannah Dunn, Savannah Figueroa, Shannon Harper Kane, Kailey King, India Mawn, Andy Mazzella, Hannah McHugh, Geovanny Mejia, Amuri Morris, N**s Neman, Hannah Randall, Trinity Rucker, Madeline Ruffieux, Caroline Sagebiel, Bradley Sinanan, Manavi Singh, and Aaron Tran.

If you missed the reception, that’s ok!! The show will be up until March 3, stop by and check it out! 💙💫
-Gaby (Anderson Photo & Social Media Intern)

Hello everyone! My name is Madeline Ruffieux and I have been working as a gallery preparatory intern here at The Anderson during the fall and spring semesters. I am a senior in the Painting & Printmaking department and I am very excited to show you some behind the scenes!

As a gallery preparator, I work on installing art for shows, handling/ packing work, and keeping our equipment/ spaces organized. I have been lucky enough to work with some amazing artists during the fall semester and cannot wait to see what the rest of the spring semester brings!

When I am not at The Anderson, you can find me in my studio working on my personal work. My work focuses on how suffering impacts how we function, grow, and interact with others. Each work focuses on a specific question with the goal of initiating contemplation for the viewer. I explore these questions, selecting whatever medium fits conceptually to express my ideas. 

Thanks for tuning in today to hear a little bit about my work both here at The Anderson and within my major :)

Image 1: Chillin’ on the scaffolding
Image 2: Process photos of Eugenio Espinoza install
Image 3: My work- Mirror (currently on view!)
Image 4: A still from my video work- I am an Object

🕊️InMemoryOf, a solo exhibition from Raana Abtahi ( student), opens to the public on Fri. 2/17🕊️

Part of The Anderson’s Open Call program, this exhibition will be on view in the Hidden Galleries on the top floor of The Anderson until 3/3. An immersive installation, InMemoryOf provides a space for reflection that is open to interpretation and meant to be experienced on a personal level.

💡it’s baAAaaack! That’s right—it’s time for the next Open Call for Student Video Work!💡

Submit your video and time-based media works 2/13–2/23. Selected submissions will be curated into a reel projected outside The Anderson on 3/31. This call for video works is not themed, so submit your best work for consideration! 📽️📼💥

See the 🔗 in bio for the submission form for Video Call No.9!! 👏

Poster designed by Zach Duke⚡️