RICHMOND, Va. –By the time that September 2015 rolls around, we will have been two years without a RVA Street Art Festival.
But a new date and location has just been announced by organizers. The third edition of the event will take place in Manchester throughout 2015 with a special focus from September 10-13, 2015 at the Southern States silo complex along the James River and floodwall, on 14th Street, south of the Mayo Bridge.
The first RVA Street Art Festival, organized by Councilman Jon Baliles and artist Ed Trask, came to life at the Power Plant along the Canal Walk, in 2012. The next year organizers hosted the event at the five-acre, historic GRTC Bus Barn, in 2013.
This event will be just ahead of the huge international party headed into town, with the 2015 UCI World Cycling Championships. That 18-day event runs from Sept. 19-27, and takes place all over the city.
Working with a canvass literally larger than life, the festival weekend will center around the iconic silos and will also include a large water tank, warehouse, and several out-buildings. Murals, lighting installations, sculpture, musical performances and numerous other forms of performance art will be featured at the festival. More details will be revealed in the Spring of 2015.
Beginning in the Spring of 2015, the RVA Street Art Festival is honored to partner with the Manchester Civic Association and other local artist groups to bring art, color, and creativity to the neighborhood to create a vibrant arts district that builds on recent similar successes throughout Richmond.
“This festival will be bigger than anything we’ve done in the past. It’s literally going to be huge. Our goal is to keep creating large community-driven experiences like last year’s event at the GRTC bus depot,” says artist Ed Trask.
“This is an incredible opportunity to showcase the creativity of RVA, not only to residents and thousands of people daily on I-95, but also to the world – just before the 2015 UCI World Championships kick off to hundreds of millions of viewers,” said Baliles. “They will all see the creative spirit of Richmond.”
Local creative firm Release the Hounds is leading the effort for the showpiece of the site, the 57 year-old Southern States silos. “We’re working on several ideas to transform the silos from an industrial relic into a modern beacon for RVA – all while preserving the character of structure. We are assembling an amazing creative team of graphic designers, artists, technologists and producers here in Richmond to bring the project to life,” said Release the Hounds’ Principal John Mills, who teamed-up with the Festival in 2013.
