Secret Art in Plain Sight; Puppy Love; A Street Without Grace; Driving Force Daughters; Teal Housing.
RVA 5x5 - ALT 5 - February 19, 2024
No algorithms. No content filters. No A.I. Honest and insightful analysis from Richmond, VA.
You can find the 5 main stories from Saturday’s edition here, and today features the “ALT 5” stories for a nice, leisurely, read. Enjoy!
This week check out our five stories on:
An ongoing secret art show in plain sight at local businesses around town conceived by artist Noah Scalin.
A heartwarming quote of the week from a couple that adopted a dog rescued from a storm drain and recognizing those helping find forever homes for rescues.
A great look back at the character of Grace Street near VCU that birthed the counterculture of Richmond and still has people telling stories today.
A program born in Richmond was the talk of a documentary at the recent Sundance Film Festival and is coming to Netflix.
A local nonprofit is trying a different strategy and thinking outside the box to help those in need of housing.
THE ALT 5
ALT #1 — OFF THE BEATEN PATH: Secret Art in Plain Sight
Local artist Noah Scalin, who made a name for himself with the super cool Skull-A-Day project 15 years ago, has another unique and fun project going on right in front of you in local businesses — an art show that also serves as a scavenger hunt.
The project was born after an employee at Shelf Life Books (formerly Chop Suey) spotted a piece of Scalin’s art in a hair studio, and when she asked him why he didn’t have any art pieces over in Shelf Life, a light bulb went off. The project developed organically over the course of the new year and Scalin started getting requests for his art from additional stores and he now has recent and older works hidden in plain sight and each is chosen for the store in which it is placed.
“I really had no plan for this. Usually my work is in storage in my studio until I have an exhibition, but after the positive response to hanging my work up at Shelf Life Books I realized the new paintings I was making would fit well in some of my other favorite stores around town. I started asking the store owners if I could hang them up and things just took off from there. I love that people can see them in person right away and I can support my favorite local businesses in the process.”
The stores can display the pieces for as long as they like (or until they sell) and Noah will continue to add art in other stores as the “show” has no predefined length or set closing.
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