Open Call: The Medium is the Mess

The Anderson and VCUarts are pleased to announce a call for submissions for the upcoming Graphic Design Juried Student Exhibition, The Medium is the Mess. This show invites designers to think outside their computers, and challenges them to get messy. The jury will consi......More

The Anderson and VCUarts are pleased to announce a call for submissions for the upcoming Graphic Design Juried Student Exhibition, The Medium is the Mess. This show invites designers to think outside their computers, and challenges them to get messy. The jury will consist of a group of VCU Graphic Design faculty, and applicants will be adjudicated based on creativity in response to the prompt and design fundamentals. Fifteen artists will be accepted. The exhibition is scheduled for September 25 – October 17 in the Sponge Gallery on the top floor of The Anderson, with an opening reception on September 25. Exhibitors are expected to deliver their own posters to The Anderson. Please note that the Anderson is not equipped with an elevator. This exhibition is organized by Jamie Cox, Graphic Design ’27 ([email protected]) and Lian Wasser-Goren, Graphic Design ’27 ([email protected]). Parameters & Prompts:  Use a quote from The Medium is the Massage as the content of the poster (see details below)Posters must be wall-mounted, and arrive install-ready, including the hardware needed for hangingi.e. hooks installed on the back of the work, d-rings, or a French cleat for a wooden poster.Unframed works on paper may be hung using clips or pinned to the wall by the organizers which will create holes through the paper, unless another install option is provided by the artist.Can explore materials such as fiber or wood,Explore texture, cutout, or low reliefExplore printmaking methods including letterpress, linocuts, risographs, and cyanotypePhotocopying, zine-making processes, and collaging are encouragedDo not use digital editing softwareLean into experimentation and new processesEligibility: This exhibition is open to VCUarts Graphic Design majors enrolled in the Fall 2026 semester.Limit one submission per person.The application will be reviewed on overall understanding of the requirements and creative liberty taken.  Theme:“The Medium is the Massage: An inventory of Effects” is an experimental manifesto created in collaboration by Marshall McLuhan and Quentin Fiore, produced by Jerome Agel. It was published in 1967 and became widely acknowledged by creatives and influential within design history. The title comes from a phrase that McLuhan often used, “The medium is the message.” McLuhan changed “message” to “massage” to signify the ways in which various types of media can stimulate human consciousness. The book itself experiments with graphics, photography, and typography, while expressing both commentary and ideation on society’s interactions with media. It also plays with physical creation techniques like collaging. The Medium is the Massage aims to show the human connections to mainstream media and the ways in which it is used as an extension of human senses. Media has the essential abilities to both ground us in a physical sense, to serve as a tool to perceive and interpret the world around us. This show, The Medium is the Mess, is about pushing the boundaries of how a poster is conceptualized. We want artists and designers to create outside of the digital space, use their hands, and get messy. Think beyond a piece of paper in terms of the poster format, experiment with materiality, texture, and composition, while still maintaining typographic fundamentals using a chosen quote from the book.   Timeline:5/15  Submissions open. All VCUarts undergrad students, enrolled in the Graphic Design department for the Fall 2026 semester are eligible to apply.8/30   Submissions close at 11:59pm9/4  Selected artists notified9/15  Artwork drop off9/25   Exhibition opens, reception 5–7pm10/17   Exhibition concludes10/19 Artwork pickup Apply Now! Questions can be directed to Jamie Cox, Graphic Design ’27 ([email protected]) and Lian Wasser-Goren, Graphic Design ’27 ([email protected]).  

The Anderson, 907 1/2 W Franklin St., Richmond, 23284, United States

40th Anniversary VCU Community Guitar Ensemble Concert

The 25-member VCU Community Guitar Ensemble will be celebrating its 40th anniversary with a concert on Sunday, July 26 at 4:00 p.m. in Vlahcevic Concert Hall in VCU’s W.E. Singleton Center for the Performing Arts, 922 Park Avenue. This performance is free to attend. The......More

The 25-member VCU Community Guitar Ensemble will be celebrating its 40th anniversary with a concert on Sunday, July 26 at 4:00 p.m. in Vlahcevic Concert Hall in VCU’s W.E. Singleton Center for the Performing Arts, 922 Park Avenue. This performance is free to attend. The program will include works by  Marcello, Toselli, Mompou, Frank Mullen III, and the Del-Vikings. The concert will also be live streamed at go.vcu.edu/concerthall .

W. E. Singleton Center for the Performing Arts, 922 Park Avenue, Richmond, VA, 23284, United States

Upcoming Open Call Fall 2026: Undergraduate Juried Exhibition

The Anderson and VCUarts are pleased to announce the 2026 Undergraduate Juried Exhibition, juried by Stamatina Gregory, Head Curator and Director of Exhibitions and Collections at the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art, New York. Applications will be open August 18th-September......More

The Anderson and VCUarts are pleased to announce the 2026 Undergraduate Juried Exhibition, juried by Stamatina Gregory, Head Curator and Director of Exhibitions and Collections at the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art, New York. Applications will be open August 18th-September 22nd, 2026. The exhibition will on view at The Anderson from November 12th-November 20th, with an opening reception from 5-7pm. The Undergraduate Juried Exhibition (UJE) is open to undergraduate students from all VCUarts Departments, working individually or collaboratively in any media or discipline – or combination thereof. If you are a current VCUarts undergrad, you’re invited to apply! Timeline: Submissions Open: August 18Submissions Close: September 22Selected Artists Notified: October 16Exhibition Open: November 12Exhibition Close: November 20The Anderson is closed for summer break! Join us for our first receptions this fall on August 28th. 

Excellence in Adjunct Research Exhibition

The Anderson and VCUarts are pleased to announce the 2026 Excellence in Adjunct Research Exhibition, a solo exhibition of work by Art Foundation Instructor Anna Showers-Cruser. The exhibition will be on view from August 28th – September 26th, with an opening reception o......More

The Anderson and VCUarts are pleased to announce the 2026 Excellence in Adjunct Research Exhibition, a solo exhibition of work by Art Foundation Instructor Anna Showers-Cruser. The exhibition will be on view from August 28th – September 26th, with an opening reception on August 28th from 5-7pm.   The Anderson is closed for summer break! Join us for our first receptions this fall on August 28th.  

The Anderson, 907 1/2 W Franklin St., Richmond, 23284, United States

THE LATENT IMAGE OF US

The Anderson and VCUarts are pleased to present THE LATENT IMAGE OF US, a solo exhibition by guest artist Kei Ito. Ito is a Baltimore-based interdisciplinary artist whose work expands photographic media through cameraless processes, installation, and chance-based mater......More

The Anderson and VCUarts are pleased to present THE LATENT IMAGE OF US, a solo exhibition by guest artist Kei Ito. Ito is a Baltimore-based interdisciplinary artist whose work expands photographic media through cameraless processes, installation, and chance-based material transformation. Working with light, archive, and ephemeral processes, he explores memory, history, and the invisible forces that shape human experience. Drawing from his family history—his grandfather survived the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and lived with the lasting trauma of family loss and long-term health effects before eventually passing away from cancer—Ito examines how individuals are shaped by global histories and political forces, particularly those tied to war and national identity. Through his practice, he creates spaces to reflect on multiple perspectives through which historical events and national symbols are understood, as well as the invisible legacies they leave behind.  The exhibition will be on view from August 28th to September 26th with an opening reception on August 28th from 5-7 pm.    The Anderson is closed for summer break! Join us for our first receptions this fall on August 28th.

The Anderson, 907 1/2 W Franklin St., Richmond, 23284, United States

A System Of Exceptions

The Anderson and VCUarts are pleased to announce A System Of Exceptions, an exhibition of artwork by Halima Bachir-Bouiadjra, a double major student in Sculpture + Extended Media and Philosophy ofScience, class of 2028. The exhibition features an installation centered o......More

The Anderson and VCUarts are pleased to announce A System Of Exceptions, an exhibition of artwork by Halima Bachir-Bouiadjra, a double major student in Sculpture + Extended Media and Philosophy ofScience, class of 2028. The exhibition features an installation centered on a recreated hole in the wall and a“fruit fountain,” constructing a parafictional space where distance, depth, and time becomeunstable. Drawing loosely from Zeno of Elea’s distance paradoxes, the work uses humor andspatial illogic to undermine orientation and causal logic. Originally staged in an apartment usingsound to extend the illusion of space, the project was later restaged in the Murray DePillarsBuilding, where each iteration references and reconfigures the last, folding the work into its owntemporal paradox. The exhibition will be on view from August 28th – September 12th, 2026, with an opening reception on Friday, August 28th from 5-7pm. The Anderson is closed for summer break! Join us for our first receptions this fall on August 28th.

The Anderson, 907 1/2 W Franklin St., Richmond, 23284, United States

Miró Quartet with David Shifrin, clarinet

The Mary Anne Rennolds Chamber Concert series presents the Miró Quartet with clarinetist David Shifrin on Sunday, September 13th at 3:00pm in the Singleton Center for the Performing Arts. Season subscriptions for the Rennolds series are $100.00. Individual tickets to ea......More

The Mary Anne Rennolds Chamber Concert series presents the Miró Quartet with clarinetist David Shifrin on Sunday, September 13th at 3:00pm in the Singleton Center for the Performing Arts. Season subscriptions for the Rennolds series are $100.00. Individual tickets to each concert will be available late Summer 2026 for $40.00. The Miró Quartet is one of America’s most celebrated string quartets, praised as “furiously committed” by The New Yorker and recognized for its “exceptional tonal focus and interpretive intensity” by the Cleveland Plain Dealer. The GRAMMY®-nominated quartet has performed on the world’s most prestigious concert stages, earning accolades from critics and audiences alike. Winner of both the Avery Fisher Career Grant (1987) and the Avery Fisher Prize (2000), David Shifrin is in constant demand as an orchestral soloist, recitalist and chamber music collaborator. Read more about the Miró Quartet. Read more about David Shifrin.

W. E. Singleton Center for the Performing Arts, 922 Park Avenue, Richmond, VA, 23284, United States

LogJam

The Anderson and VCUarts are pleased to present LogJam, an exhibition of artwork by Sculpture + Extended Media student Nathan Varney. The exhibition will be on view from September 25th – October 17th, with an opening reception on September 25th from 5-7pm.   The Anderso......More

The Anderson and VCUarts are pleased to present LogJam, an exhibition of artwork by Sculpture + Extended Media student Nathan Varney. The exhibition will be on view from September 25th – October 17th, with an opening reception on September 25th from 5-7pm.   The Anderson is closed for summer break! Join us for our first receptions this fall on August 28th.

The Anderson, 907 1/2 W Franklin St., Richmond, 23284, United States

At The End Of The Song

The Anderson and VCUarts are pleased to present At The End Of The Song, an exhibition of artwork by Painting + Printmaking graduate student Trang Huynh. The exhibition will be on view from September 25th – October 17th, with an opening reception on September 25th from 5......More

The Anderson and VCUarts are pleased to present At The End Of The Song, an exhibition of artwork by Painting + Printmaking graduate student Trang Huynh. The exhibition will be on view from September 25th – October 17th, with an opening reception on September 25th from 5-7pm.   The Anderson is closed for summer break! Join us for our first receptions this fall on August 28th.

The Anderson, 907 1/2 W Franklin St., Richmond, 23284, United States