“We Would Not Lead You Wrong;” Ground Zero Spot On The Fall Line Trail; From VMFA to Morocco; Eating Well For A Better Cause; A New Spring For Shad?

RVA 5x5 - October 23

No algorithms. No content filters. Honest and insightful analysis from Richmond, VA.
You can find the 5 main stories from Friday’s edition here, and today features the “ALT 5” stories for a nice, leisurely, read. Enjoy!

This week check out our five stories on:

• The Cy Twombly Exhibit at VMFA highlights one of the museums earliest fellowship grants that inspired and impacted an artist for life.

• Former Mayor Jones came out last week with his endorsemsent of what he says is another great idea and asks for your trust. Just like the Redskins camp; no, the Shockoe stadium; no, wait…

• A look at the intertwined history of the American Shad and the James River and the latest efforts to help replenish the population.

• It’s Restaurant Week and that means dining out on creative dishes while serving a good cause in helping stock FeedMore for the winter.

• One of Richmond’s best run organizations has found a new home that is at ground zero of the the oncoming Fall Line Trail and the possibilities it will bring.

THE ALT 5

ALT #1 — OFF THE BEATEN PATH: From VMFA to Morocco
The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts has opened the exhibit Cy Twombly, Morocco, 1952/1953 and it is the only place to see it in the United States (though January 7th). Direct from the Musée Yves Saint Laurent in Marrakech, the pioneering exhibition charts the early pilgrimage of one of the most influential figures in 20th-century American art. Cy Twombly, Morocco, 1952/1953 captures the artist’s enduring and style-defining fascination with archaeology and the historic landscapes of Morocco through the pages of his sketchbooks, photographs, and two paintings.

There are other pieces from the VMFA archives to compliment the exhibition and is a “homecoming” for the VMFA’s Visual Arts Fellowship Program, which helped fund a young Cy Twombly in 1952 with a VMFA Fellowship that supported his travels to Europe and North Africa and influenced his work for the rest of his life.

Anna Lopacinski had a nice piece in the Commonwealth Times about the exhibit and the screening of the accompanying 2019 documentary “Cy Dear.”

The film, directed by Andrea Bettinetti, takes viewers from Lexington, Virginia — Twombly’s birthplace — to his second home Gaeta, Italy, and passes through Paris, Munich, New York and Houston (click here to view the trailer).

“American painter, sculptor and photographer Cy Twombly is the most important Virginia artist of the 20th century,” said Jeffery Allison, VMFA’s director of statewide programs and exhibitions and Paul Mellon Collection educator. 

Lopacinski writes, Even for people who know Twombly’s work, the documentary provides a larger context around him and his art because it includes people who knew him and how others reacted to and researched his work, according to Barbara Rothermel, recently retired director of the Daura Museum of Art at the University of Lynchburg. 

“The film is a resource for not only information but also gives life to the legacy of Cy Twombly and his art,” Rothermel said.

ALT #2 — QUOTE OF THE WEEK: “We Would Not Lead You Wrong”
The casino advocates were quite pleased with the endorsement this week from former Mayor Dwight Jones. He has a large congregation at two churches on Southside, but I am not sure how much influence his endorsement carries, however. The former Mayor served for eight years but did very little to lift up the lives of people in Southside other than use city employees to help build his massive new church in Chesterfield County on city time and the city dime.

Not to mention, he was also the Mayor who brought us the disastrous Redskins Training Camp debacle, tried to ram through a city-funded Shockoe Stadium on behalf of developers, and supported the Navy Hill boondoggle. Those are not exactly the kinds of projects to inspire people, but he is now telling you to trust him (yet again) to do the right thing. The quote of the week is this humorous video reminder from the casino opposition: