Wednesday Lemonade

May 20, 2020

Welcome back to Wednesday Lemonade, a community newsletter focused on keeping VCCA Fellows, staff, and supporters connected.

Last week, we successfully kicked off our new VCCA Fireplace Series. Thanks to those who watched in real time as well as those who have continued to view, comment on, and share the video after the fact. The recording is still available on Facebook and on YouTube for those interested in truly beautiful readings by Christina Chiu and Julie E. Bloemeke. Thanks to Steven Petrow for launching this project and hosting our first reading. We're looking forward to continuing this series with virtual events taking place every other Thursday. See below for our announcement of next week's featured artists.

Tomorrow, we kick off yet another online event initiative. See below for your invitation to the first-ever virtual VCCA Happy Hour which will take place via Zoom on Thursday evening. If you'd like to pretend you're Zooming from Mt. San Angelo or Le Moulin à Nef, use one of our new VCCA Zoom backgrounds.

Thanks for being a part of this community.
new this week
Virtual Happy Hour
Join Amie Oliver and Sheila Gulley Pleasants for an informal Zoom gathering tomorrow evening in our first virtual VCCA Happy Hour! Use the below link to join anytime between 7:30 and 8:30 p.m. ET, on Thursday, May 21.

Link to Join Thursday's Zoom Happy Hour . Details on how to join are also listed in Virtual VCCA .

When you join , use the Chat area to type a message telling everyone:
  • who you are
  • where you are
  • what you're drinking (or what you wish you were drinking!); you can share your preferred brand of tea, your wine varietal of choice, your best smoothie recipe, whatever!

Your host Amie Oliver is a visual artist and member of the VCCA Fellows Council. She lives in Richmond, VA, with her husband, writer and fellow VCCA Fellow Harry Kollatz. Lately, their go-to cocktail has been a Belle Isle Mule.
Belle Isle Mule

  • 1 oz Belle Isle Honey Habanero Moonshine
  • Add extra strong Ginger Beer according to taste
  • Slice of lime
  • Old fashioned glass half full of ice
VCCA Zoom Backgrounds
We've put together a small collection of VCCA photos that are formatted to use as virtual backgrounds in Zoom!

Now you can attend your Zoom meetings from the virtual comfort of Mt. San Angelo or Le Moulin à Nef. Browse VCCA Zoom backgrounds on our website where you can download an image with a simple click. You can then upload it as your  virtual background on Zoom

Try one out for to morrow's virtual VCCA Happy Hour!
save the date
 VCCA Fireplace Series 02: Nandi Comer and Sandell Morse
Next Thursday, May 28, we'll host our second event in the VCCA Fireplace Series featuring Fellows whose in-person events for new work have been canceled due to the pandemic.

Nandi Comer will read poems from her new collection ( Tapping Out ), Sandell Morse will share an excerpt from her new memoir ( The Spiral Shell ), and writer and Fellows Council member Lex Williford will host the event and facilitate live questions. We hope you'll plan to tune in next Thursday! More details are forthcoming in next week's newsletter.
fellow messages
Below are just a few of the many lovely messages from Fellows we've collected so far. Keep them coming! And keep an eye out for more messages from Fellows elsewhere.
J. Walter Hawkes
"I'm mostly hiding in my studio . . . I've found composition to be difficult with the stress of everything going on here in NYC, so I'm spending time making my space more efficient and working on my piano and trombone skills. The physical demands of playing the trombone are especially important to address and keep up with being that I'm not playing regular gigs anymore.

My good friend Pat Irwin and I released a record at the end of last year. We've premiered some videos. The most recent video is entitled ' February .' It is a composition of mine that was mostly written at VCCA, and the video is footage from my grandfather's 8mm camera.

Just for fun, here's another one entitled ' Automatic 3 . ' I wrote the lyrics (deep as they are haha) while staring at the still pond on one of the walking trails at VCCA."

All of J.'s tours as an orchestra member with Taylor Mac have been postponed.
Priyanka Champaneri
"Like many artists, when news of the pandemic and self-isolation began floating my way in Virginia—a possibility so strange I didn’t quite register it as reality—my first thought was All that time . As in, all that time away from the daily chatter that once filled my days at my full-time job. All that time saved from my commute. All that time to create, to think, to dream. Four weeks later, I mostly find myself staring blankly at my surroundings and feeling a deep sense of unease. My initial motivation was quickly swept away in the tidal wave of sadness and confusion that greet me each morning. So now, instead of thinking about drafting an entire novel in this time I’ve been given, I take smaller steps—sometimes literal ones. Walks help. Noticing the peerless symmetry of a single, dew-washed yellow tulip helps. Looking up at the unbroken blue of a spring morning sky helps. All that time. Indeed."

Priyanka's debut novel The City of Good Death (Restless Books), which was supposed to be released this June, has now been pushed back to a February 2021 release. Additionally, all of the associated tour dates for the book have been canceled.
Judith Pratt
"Going to the studio each day to work under normal circumstances reinforces my identity as an artist. During the COVID-19 pandemic, going to the studio each day underscores my responsibility as an artist, not only to the arts community, but to the community at large. Now that museums, galleries, and art departments are shuttered, artists still have a powerful means to exhibit their work, welcome the public to interact with us via videos, visit our studios by means of virtual tours, and join us in conversation using digital platforms such as Zoom. I open the door to the studio every day to try and continue keeping the visual conversation alive."

For Judith, o ne important exhibition, the 2020 Sondheim Artscape Prize in Baltimore, has been cancelled, and the Taubman Museum's Triennial has been postponed until November 2020.
covid-19 resources
From Arts North Carolina
For our North Carolinian Fellows, we recommend the Arts North Carolina website for their COVID-19 Action & Resource Center and COVID-19 Relief Funds for Artists & the Arts pages.
standing invitations
Buy New Books by Fellows
Keep in Touch
🧡 Stay safe, and be well.