About Us

Friends, Neighbors, Supporters, Families,

It’s true: we love you more than ever. Because that’s what happens when the globe spins off its axis and you’re left suspended, left to remember what—and who—is most important.

At this writing, we—ART 180 and our eight staff members—are doing well, staying productive, and remaining positive. Life is certainly very different, surreal and at times unreal, stretching us and challenging us in countless ways we’ll surely grow from. Life is weird…but life is good.

So, what’s that really mean?

Like much of the country, ART 180 is closed for the time being. Our staff are working remotely except for checking mail and popping in to do cool things like document the awesome exhibition now in our gallery, so we can share it with you! Good thing we held off on getting that office kitty though...

With public schools closed through the end of the academic year, ART 180 programs are on hiatus, too. Most of our spring community programs are about 2/3 complete, while Atlas winter programs just wrapped.

Our new Sankofa workshop series is on hold. We’re still planning and recruiting for spring teen programs at Atlas (beginning April 13).

Our April exhibition—featuring Sacred Heart Center youth art—is postponed, with no First Fridays next month.

The big news is about The Really BIG Show May 1. Heeding the CDC’s plea to not hold public events through mid-May, we’re postponing our annual program showcase. We expect to have even more to celebrate when we are able to gather together in the streets, and the tentative new date is September First Fridays. As one of our committed event sponsors, Virginia Community Capital, said: “As long as it happens I’m happy [smiley face emoji].”

So then, what are we doing?

We’re staying in touch daily, Zooming as a full staff, leadership trio, program and operations teams, and today with a subset of our board. We’re taking care of business, taking care of our staff and artists, diving into our strategic plan and back-burner work, keeping an eye on cashflow and running projections, feeling super grateful for what we have, and thinking about our young folks.

We’re shifting plans, staying steady, leaning into our values of children, creative expression, communication, compassion, community, change(!), soul-searching our role in the community and in the lives our young people, strategizing how to engage our teen leaders individually and collectively while we’re apart (and how we can support their mentors in doing so). In short, we’re staying strong to be in the best possible position once we’re all able to move past the pandemic.

What can you do, you ask?

Don’t go far, for one! We need you more than ever. Follow us, connect with us, keep us in your hearts and head. But here's another thing you can do...engage with our young people and our artists for yourself. Send a poem, piece of art, quote, or other words of encouragement to our teen leaders or artist program leaders. Do it! Email it to [email protected] and we’ll forward it along (and, if you say it's okay, we'll share it on social).

If you’re the parent of an ART 180 kid, encourage your child to keep creating—then share it with us! Email it or tag us on Facebook or Instagram.

My mind is blown on an hourly basis by the creative responses and gifts of kindness this pandemic has prompted. Artists leading online experiences,

Broadway and the Met streaming performances and Richmond Grid hosting virtual happy hours with local musicians, museums offering virtual tours,

choreographers dancing straight into your living room, New York Public Library sharing 300,000 books for free download...

Let’s live TODAY, which BTdubs is: Forgive Mom and Dad Day, Kick Butts Day, National Awkward Moments Day, Oatmeal Cookie Day, Supreme Sacrifice Day, and…Queen Latifah’s birthday!

And guess what? SPRING is coming.

Finally, we leave you with this brilliant spoken word performance by our own Chris Oliver, recorded at this year’s Richmond Peace Education Center Generation Dream concert (and posted on Instagram last week, when we were first reeling and dealing with COVID-19).

Life has thrown us all a big ol’ curve ball, y'all. This is bigger than we know…yet we’ll be bigger for it. That is, if we face it as a family. We are ALL in this; let’s remember that and look out for each other.

In love, strength, and solidarity,

ALL OF US @ ART 180

FACEBOOK @ART180

INSTAGRAM art_180

“If our children are unable to voice what they mean, no one will know how they feel. If they can't imagine a different world, they are stumbling through a darkness made all the more sinister by its lack of reference points. For a young person growing up in America's alienated neighborhoods, there can be no greater empowerment than to dare to speak from the heart-and then to discover that one is not alone in one's feelings.”

– Rita Dove, former U.S. Poet Laureate

For many of our city’s emerging citizens, the young people (who make up 18% of the population, according to the 2010 census) are not getting the creative outlet they need to develop those skills that are so vital to the 21^st century: a sense of self-worth, teamwork, conflict resolution, creative thinking, and hope for their future. This is true in our public school system and even truer for our vulnerable young people who deal with abuse, violence, and poverty, are transient, identify as LGBTQ or live with physical or intellectual disabilities.

At ART 180, we create and provide art-related programs for young people living in challenging circumstances, encouraging personal and community change through self-expression. Our community lives and works in Richmond, Virginia.

We believe that our work with young people will turn lives and communities around 180 degrees.

Our Mission

ART 180 gives young people ages 8-18 living in challenging circumstances the chance to express themselves through art, and to share their stories with others. For 20 years, ART 180 has served Greater Richmond by offering outlets in creative expression for young people and the communities in which they live and go to school. Our programs complement the services provided by our partners, and our work provides a vital service by addressing the need for quality after school programs for youth in our community. Over the years, we have served thousands of young people, celebrated their creative expressions through innumerable showcases and events, and immortalized their ideas and aspirations in murals and other forms of public art that brighten communities across Richmond.

Our Operating Model

ART 180 partners with other nonprofit organizations to serve youth, ages 8 to 18, living in challenging circumstances in Richmond, Virginia. We also operate an art center for teens, called Atlas, in the Arts & Cultural District.

In addition to the programs at Atlas, ART 180 staff and our Teen Leadership Council operate and manage a community gallery that showcases a rotating set of exhibitions targeting or featuring work by youth.

Click here to see our current community program offerings

Click here to see our current teen program offerings

Click here to learn about the former ART 180 program Performing Statistics

Financials

2019 annual report, click here
2018 Audited Financial Statement, click here
2018 IRS Form-990, click here

pdf:

ART 180 2018 Audited Financial Statements FINAL.pdf

ART 180 Form 990.pdf

We Believe in Young People

Each young person is a valuable part of our community. We promise to offer a supportive and nurturing environment, which allows our young people an opportunity to bring into being the beauty that exists within their creative spirits.

We Believe in Creative Expression

Everyone will be free to be an artist who can give birth to a masterpiece, because we recognize that innovation is the heartbeat of growth.

We Believe in Communication

We seek to provoke ideas and stimulate conversation that encourages self-awareness and expression of diverse perspectives, remove barriers of fear, create a better understanding of humanity, and illuminate hope.

We Believe in Compassion

We advocate kindness to heal division and resolve conflicts, because everyone has a right to be heard, to experience love, and to be treated with dignity and mutual respect.

We Believe in Community

We value the importance of collaborative relationships, which celebrate diversity. We recognize that by sharing together we're capable of making even greater creative contributions that can enhance the well-being and quality of life for the whole.

We Believe in Change

We embrace change as a gift that empowers young people to transform our world through creative expression. It provides opportunities to be passionately engaged in a natural process of learning, challenging complacency and discovering opportunities to live a meaningful life.