Richmond’s Transformational Mural Movement

Rich Meagher: Welcome to RVA’s Got Issues, the show that brings you the people and ideas that are reshaping Greater Richmond. I’m your host, Rich Marr. In many ways, Richmond is an artist’s town. The Richmond region has always had an outsized cultural footprint, and the visual arts are a big part of that. So for this year’s Black History Month, we’re looking at black artists in Richmond and how what they say through their art tells us all about RVA’s past, present, and future.

And for Richmond art, there’s no one better to talk to than Hamilton Glass, a painter who’s been the head and heart of RVA’s history. of a mural movement bringing artists together to transform the walls of hundreds of buildings around the city. This year marks the fifth anniversary of the launch of his landmark public art project, Mending Walls.

Welcome, Hamilton.

Hamilton Glass: Thanks, Rich. Glad to be here.

Rich Meagher: So, Hamilton, you have this documentary made about the Mending Walls Project a couple of years ago, and in the documentary, you start out by talking about this conversation you had with a friend of yours, Matt Lively. Alright, I’m gonna play that clip here, and then we can talk about it.

Hamilton Glass: When George Floyd was murdered, you know, the country was turned upside down. My feelings were torn because this wasn’t any different.

When a black person is slain by the police in this country, especially before George Floyd, there is this counter story that comes out that says, Oh, well, that person was not a good person anyway. And it’s dismissed. It’s literally dismissed. And I couldn’t understand why a eight minute videotape changed the way.

People thought about that. I can remember feeling dazed and confused because of that, that time. I was in a school doing a mural and I, I, I called Matt. And I can remember Matt asked me, man, how are you? You doing all right? And I was just like, no, I’m not doing all right.

Matt Lively: At that point, at the point of that conversation, there were protests that bubbled up about it, and it was kind of widespread protests, like in lots of cities.

And I can speak for me. I always thought that, uh, That there was the, the, the, by the time the news had gotten to me, the waters were muddied, but this time me and all the other white people that were, uh, upset, saw it happen. And then hearing from you that this was just another instance of this happening, you were seeing it the way you had seen all the other ones have happened.

And that was a surprise to me. And it did snap me out of this, uh, you know, this fog for an instant, I saw the way that you saw it.

Rich Meagher: So how does that conversation lead to a multi year public art project?

Hamilton Glass: That conversation was a realization to me that experiences Really shaped the way you see the world. That conversation was a four hour conversation really, truly based in empathy that really was the inspiration behind Mending Walls.

When I got off the phone, my idea was how to get everybody to have a conversation like that. The best way I know how to help is art. So the thing was, how can I get artists together to have a conversation like that? And that conversation create work to inspire other people to have those conversations.

Rich Meagher: So why murals?

Why is that the right platform for what you were trying to accomplish here?

Hamilton Glass: It’s my belief that public art and murals in general are the heartbeat of a city. They talk. About what a community stands for and what that community specifically believes in and is going through in the moment and about the history too, right?

I knew that these pieces of art that are larger than life would be something that no one could ignore and would be something that would get people talking.

Rich Meagher: And one of the outgrowths of that was a collaboration between you and Matt. What did you end up painting together?

Hamilton Glass: Matt and I created this mural about our backgrounds.

And how they were very different in those experience shaped who we are as people.

Rich Meagher: So it had toys and things from your background and baby pictures, right? Isn’t that right?

Hamilton Glass: So I always call the mural that we did for Mending Walls, my cheat wall, because it honestly is very different than the other murals, the other collaborators.

Created because they, one, had never collaborated together, and two, most of them didn’t know each other that well, they probably heard of one another, but didn’t know each other that well, and that really was the foundation of what the project was about, but because Matt and I really were the genesis of this, that mural needed to happen to show where the foundation was.

We didn’t want to make something that would make people cry. We wanted to make it very relatable. And so we use toys from our childhood to talk about the experiences of us.

Rich Meagher: And so let’s be clear about the mechanics of this. You and Matt collaborated, but this was a bunch of different collaborations.

Bringing artists together, were there any particular way that you selected the artists and figured out how to pair them up?

Hamilton Glass: The first thing I did was call every experienced muralist I know, all my peers here in Richmond. And there’s a lot of them, right? There was a lot of folks. Yeah, there was about 30 of them.

So I reached out to all of them and told them what I was trying to do to pair people who had not worked together before or were from a different race or a different background, because I wanted this collaboration to be something where you had to truly empathize with your partner to to create. And so.

The way that I pair them, honestly, was through social media. You can tell a lot about somebody by the type of people that follow them. So, if we are pairing two different types of following together, their actual Followings were then going to be introduced to another following because they’re going to post their work.

Rich Meagher: The PBS documentary does a good job of showing a bit of that collaboration, like particularly the one that struck me is the water and breath one that Mary Richardson Keyes and Emily Herr did. Let’s listen to a clip from the documentary of those artists talking about their work.

Mary Richardson Keyes & Emily Herr: When we got shockoe bottom, the thought was that was the only mural in shockoe bottom, but then the history of what shockoe bottom holds, the slave trade that ran through Virginia at that time.

Thinking about the water of the river that would bring these ships, um, and also thinking about, like, the concept of water as atmosphere and thinking about, like, the, the Turmoil on the top of the water and life deep waters with like sustaining and trapping life down there And as the project moved forward and we got more and more specific We had already started on the wall by the time we figured out some of the final pieces and And meanwhile, like the world is still Still unfolding, pandemic still going, and unfortunately still having altercations with police brutality.

James Blake was shot by the police officers several times, but he survived. And when I read that article and heard the news, I was like, that’s it. I still can breathe. But I’m still submerged under the fact that I’m, I mean, black. But I’m still present. To breathe and talk about it and many have not been able to still breathe and talk about their issues Because they’ve been submerged under that water or that turmoil that turbulence and not been able to come up for air because they don’t see The hope they don’t see the possibilities That was a part of our mission.

We’re creating it. It was in the midst of this chaos. Can we still find beauty in the art?

Rich Meagher: They’re discovering in real time This is our theme. This is what we want to talk about. It’s just really powerful to see artists at work, and then seeing it actually be painted.

Hamilton Glass: Yeah. I think part of the magic in that was them really aligning themselves to what they wanted to say. They know they’re on an aligned path.

But they don’t know how to say what they want to say. And so they’re just trusting the creative process to give them the message. They’re so poetic in the way that they arrived at that final design.

Rich Meagher: A lot of these murals, it wasn’t just the painting. It was bringing volunteers in to paint. It was having community conversations. It was poetry. It was dance.

Hamilton Glass: Yeah. Art inspires art. So when you do something in the public with art, something creative is going to follow. Most of the murals, 15 to the 16, had a community engagement day where we asked volunteers to come out.

Learn about the artists, learn about that authentic conversation that they had, and then maybe take part in the painting process. Or doing some little exercise the artist had set up.

Rich Meagher: The name itself, Mending Walls, comes from this Robert Frost poem about two farmers that come together. I mean, how did that inspire you?

Hamilton Glass: Yeah, yeah. So, when I’m organizing this thing, I’m looking for a name, and I come across this Robert Frost poem. And I love Robert Frost, by the way. It’s about these two farmers that live on either side of this wall and one of the farmers hates the wall and the other farmer thinks it’s necessary, but they have to come together every couple of years to repair it because it’ll fall apart.

And so to me, it’s this ultimate example of empathy, right? It’s the conversation they have to have. They disagree on that foundation of it, but they have to empathize to keep that wall alive. It kind of plays like a double entendre with the murals.

Rich Meagher: Let’s talk about the bigger picture, no pun intended. What are some of the ways that you’re continuing the project even today?

Hamilton Glass: The thing that we really lean into right now is the process of Mending Walls. Conversation, creativity, and connection based and empathy. We’ve now done over 25 murals, hand Richmond, but many walls can be done in any medium, in any form of art. So we’ve also done. Dance projects, we’ve done projects with poetry.

We’ve also worked a lot with schools in all age ranges, trying to foster a curriculum around the process of Mending Walls and that the public can interact with. But we want people to see Mending Walls as a process more than just a public art project.

Rich Meagher: We’ll talk more with Hamilton Glass, including about his art commemorating a stolen heart. When we come back on RVA Scout issues, this is RVA Scout issues. We’re back with Richmond artist Hamilton Plass. What drew you to doing this kind of work?

Hamilton Glass: Really? It’s where I’m from. It’s Philadelphia. I grew up in Philadelphia, born and raised. And there’s public art everywhere there that is truly tied to the community. I grew up seeing that. It’s my idea of successful public art, and I’ve always wanted to do that. And so I live the dream every day. And you have done how many murals? Oh, I’ve done over 400.

Rich Meagher: Wow. Yeah. I’m particularly interested in this mural you’re working on with VCU. Can you tell us about it? It has to do with this gentleman, Bruce Oliver Tucker.

Hamilton Glass: Yes. A couple of months ago, I was contacted by Emily Smith over at VCU’s Mob Studio, who made me aware of a project that VCU Health was working on. With Gail Tucker, who is kin to Bruce Oliver Tucker, his heart was used in the first successful heart transplant, but the kick is that it was taken without the family’s permission.

So VCU Health is doing a lot of things around Bruce Oliver Tucker’s family to commemorate him. One of those things is a mural. I’m incredibly honored that VCU and the family asked me to be a part of the project. I worked with three mob students and the family to create a mural that honors Bruce. It’s about moving forward.

Using Bruce as an example, for future doctors, nurses, anyone in healthcare to just treat people like they belong to someone else.

Rich Meagher: How good a job do you think the Richmond art scene does with grappling with the past of the city? Dealing with our history, whether black history or the history of the city.

Hamilton Glass: I don’t think that we foster enough art in Richmond, there are murals all over the place, but they’re really because the artists are making those happen.

This city is now nationally recognized as the number two street art city in America. I think the city needs to do a little bit better job of fostering those in funding those.

Rich Meagher: So we have a new mayor, Mayor Danny Avula, a new administration coming in. What are some of the things you think that the Avula administration could do to support public art?

Hamilton Glass: I really would love if this new administration could kind of lean into having a public art commission that really supports the work. And Answers directly to the mayor’s office right now. I feel like the process of working on public art or getting something approved is ever changing. It’s a tough thing to do.

Also, a lot of the artists here don’t feel supported when you don’t feel supported. But then you see your work in a Ad for the city, that’s a little bit of a kick in the gut. So we’ve got to find a way to support these artists that are making our city look so great and bringing more dollars to the city.

I am very upbeat about that. Like the Avula. campaign talked a lot about cultural arts, full disclosure, I’m on the cultural arts transition team. So I’ve been a part of that. And to my knowledge, there hasn’t been a cultural arts transition team in the past. So someone’s listening, right? So I think that’s a really good sign.

I don’t think that anything will happen overnight. I do think and hope that it is a priority of theirs to evolve from where we are on this. And so I’m really hopeful about that because it was a very different city. When I started here in Richmond, there’s a lot more competition now, and there are a lot more artists who traveled and now live here because of the work that happens now.

And so we really have to champion that. And we’ve really got to. Back up what the city looks like and what we look like moving forward.

Rich Meagher: What do you think the city might look like 10 years from now?

Hamilton Glass: I hope we have a more sustainable way of fostering this creative energy here in Richmond. It lets people nationally see how amazing Richmond is.

Rich Meagher: Looking back at Mending Walls, five years, it’s still ongoing. What do you think the legacy of that project is?

Hamilton Glass: I hope that the legacy really morphs into a way for people to foster more conversations. I think people need to get more in tune with respecting their neighbor’s views. Even if it’s completely opposite than yours.

We don’t need to step on one another to move forward. We’re all just trying to survive on this earth together.

Rich Meagher: Hamilton Glass is a Richmond based artist and the founder of the Mending Walls Project.

Hamilton Glass: Thank you. It’s a pleasure being here.

Rich Meagher: This episode we’re shining our community spotlight on another Richmond based artist, one who’s constantly thinking about the impact art can make on community. He’s known as Silly Genius, and he’s much an activist as an artist. Silly, thanks for being here. Thank you, thank you. I should say for our listeners, we’re not in a studio, right?

We’re on Hull Street. We’re on the south side of Richmond, Manchester, like near 13th Street. Can you describe for our listeners sort of where we are?

Silly Genius: What once was a run down vacant lot, we’ve painted two murals out here, and injected some color into the place and brought it to life to kind of just bring a lot more energy to the area.

Rich Meagher: Yeah, so it’s a it’s a concrete lot. It’s got some picnic tables in it and on either side is this brightly colored mural And so on one side, we’ve got local hip hop artists right with a comic kind of theme to it

Silly Genius: So it’s a I guess like an homage to the super friends Which is Lonnie B skills and danger mouth if y’all remember it was like the Justice League It was like late 70s, early 80s.

So we decided to just lean into that conceptually. Use like a Jack Kirby esque aesthetic to it all.

Rich Meagher: Comic panels. There’s a little Dick Tracy. There’s a little Thanos. There’s a little bit of everything.

Silly Genius: Yeah, a lot of Easter eggs to lyrics and albums and, uh, comic book nods. Just a lot of pop culture references that all tie in together.

I was inspired a lot by graffiti as a kid, so I try to infuse graffiti aesthetics into a lot of the murals I do, just to challenge people’s idea of graffiti. There’s the idea that the graffiti is just all illegal tagging and whatnot, but if you put it in the right context, then people can see the artistic quality of it all, so.

That was my overall approach to this wall.

Rich Meagher: And so then what’s on the other side over here? Like, what story are you telling on this? It’s darker, and it’s not darker, like, it’s still really colorful and beautiful, but it’s almost like, this is like the daytime, this is like nighttime at the club or something.

Silly Genius: At least color wise, we weren’t going for the dark and light of it all, but this one is conceptually just a little bit more freeform. There is an overall sort of like creative direction. So like the artist’s journey or like bringing ideas to fruition.

Rich Meagher: So what were you trying to do with these bright murals here in the middle of Hull Street?

Silly Genius: Kind of just bring some life to the area, especially on this whole street corridor. There’s a ton of vacant property. It’s just, you know, abandoned building, abandoned building, tire shop, corner store, and just trying to use public art to sort of Just bring life back to the area.

Rich Meagher: And so how did these murals come about?

What generated the idea to put murals here? These

Silly Genius: walls had been kind of just here untouched other than like some tags and whatnot, uh, but we had been driving by them for years, like recognizing that that was a great spot for a mural, just, but not knowing how to get in touch with the owners. So when we saw that.

This building was being renovated. We just stopped to knock on the door and the owner kind of already knew who we were. So it was an easy sale. Like, Hey, can we paint a mural here? And he’s like, yeah, I know who you are. I’ve been wanting to get a mirror from you anyway. So yeah, it was that easy.

Rich Meagher: It probably doesn’t usually happen that easily.

Silly Genius: Never happens that easy, but yeah.

Rich Meagher: Let’s talk a little bit about how easy it is to do this kind of work. I think you have expressed in the past your frustrations with the city’s art scene in terms of the support environment. What bugs you about the way we do art in RVA?

Silly Genius: Richmond, for as long as I can remember, has always been touted as this, like, art hub.

VCU, at the time, I don’t know if it still is, was the number one art school in the country. We’re always being celebrated for art, but there’s little to any investment in the arts from the city on a government level. So you look at a city like, Miami, for example, they’re like the poster child for public art.

The entire art world goes to Miami every year for Art Basel. So Miami makes like a billion dollars a year just from arts and culture. And then you got a city like Detroit that’s battling the idea of blight. They have a whole city program where they hire artists every year to paint murals on vacant property to just clean up the eyesore of.

Abandoned buildings. You got Philly, which has probably one of the best mural programs in the country. And they’re painting like a thousand murals a year, just from the city alone. And then you look at how much money cities are bringing in via arts and culture. We should be bringing in that much money, but we’re not because there’s just no investment.

Rich Meagher: And it’s also the way that even if we do the investment, there’s like a structure to it that seems to focus on maybe leaving the artist out of the picture. A lot of

Silly Genius: the investment in the arts in this city is left to private corporations, and they have their own sort of motives. More or less, it’s a tool of gentrification, like let’s make the neighborhood more attractive or whatever.

But there’s a lack of cultural. context, like they’re just putting up things like, Oh, this looks good, but it has no sort of connection to the environment itself, to the people or to the place or anything. It’s just a painted pretty flower. I mean, it’s like, that’s not who these people are to live here.

That’s not what this neighborhood is known for. And the artists are sort of the last person on the line sheet in terms of the benefits that come from the art.

Rich Meagher: And there’s a geographic component to this too, right? Trying to funnel arts to parts of the city and maybe neglecting other parts of the city?

Silly Genius: There’s the more tourist friendly, I guess, parts of town, like the Fan and like the Museum District and Scott’s Additions and all that. I have never lived in the Fayenne or the Art District or anything.

I’ve always lived on Southside. There is one art gallery on South Side. Like, think about all the art galleries in the city, only one on this side of town.

Rich Meagher: How do you think the city’s doing in terms of Black artists and Black voices and supporting them? Is it better than it used to be? Is it worse? Where does it need to go?

Silly Genius: mean, it’s kind of always been the same from my point of view. Some of it has a racial component, and then some of it probably has to do with conservative views around what is acceptable public art. Like, like safer art is, is easier. Safer art is easier. From a creative artist sort of standpoint, we’re always trying to find the new edge, or push the culture forward, and you don’t do that by playing it safe.

Which I imagine being non white makes harder, you know what I mean? Or just any other marginalized group that you’re trying to push forward with themes and subject matter that the masses don’t really, you know, jive with. It’s just going to be harder and that would be easier to do. Like if we had an independent, um, office of cultural affairs that could approve these projects and like fund these projects, then you don’t have to worry about whatever sort of corporation telling you like, ah, no, we want to do something a little bit more safer or whatever.

We can just get the money from the city and do it.

Rich Meagher: Silly Genius is a Richmond based artist. You can find him and his work on the web at silly genius. com. Thanks for being here, Silly.

Silly Genius: Thank you.

Rich Meagher: That’s our show. Thanks to our guests, Hamilton Glass and Silly Genius. Find out more about our show and tell us about your issues at our website, rvasgotissues.

vpm. org. Remember to tell your friends about us, share a social media post, or leave a review on your favorite podcasting platform. RVA’s Got Issues is produced by Max Wasserman and Rachel Dwyer and edited by Steve Lack. Our intern is Cate McKenzie. Our theme music was composed by Alexander Hitchens. Meg Lindholm is our executive producer.

Steve Humble is VPM’s chief content officer. I’m your host, Rich Meagher. Thanks for listening.