Oakwood Arts

Oakwood Arts makes art and careers in creative industries accessible to all through community engagement, inspiring programming, and experiential education.

We are a fledgling arts center (Oakwood Arts) and gallery (P35) in the Oakwood neighborhood of Richmond's East End. By bringing together members of the community to engage with art in all its forms, we seek to make art, as well as careers in creative industries, accessible to all. We also aim to serve as a secular space in a rapidly changing neighborhood for economically and culturally diverse neighbors to gather, interact, and learn from one another.

07/20/2026

We’re excited to share that our new solar panels are officially up and running—and we’re already storing energy in our battery system. This means Oakwood Arts will be able to maintain power during an outage and continue serving as a resource for our community.

We are incredibly grateful to Norfolk Solar Solutions for this generous donation and for helping us take such an important step toward becoming a more resilient and sustainable community space.

We’re also so proud of OA JET graduate and former Oakwood Arts intern Catori Ryan ( ), who is interning at Channel 8 this summer. Catori reached out to ask whether she could produce a story about our work, and we are honored that she chose to shine a spotlight on Oakwood Arts. Thank you, Catori!

Visit the link in our bio to read and watch the story.

You can also help us care for our neighbors this summer by donating water, food, or popsicles to the RVA Community Fridge located on our site. We also welcome donations of art supplies, books, and personal-care products for our community giving libraries.

It truly takes a village, and we are so grateful for all the wonderful people in ours.

07/16/2026

Yesterday, we spent the day at Overcoast Studios working on the original score and final sound mix for Malcolm and Me.

Composer Dylan White ( ) created a beautiful original score and brought in saxophonist Charles Owens () and trumpet player Sam Colaccino (.colaccino ) to record live in the studio. Jesse Smith who was location Sound mixer was also there working on the final mix, while members of the OA JET crew had the opportunity to observe, learn, and be part of this incredible experience.

We are so grateful to everyone at for welcoming us and making us feel at home. A huge thank-you to Travis Tucker ( )for being such a generous and supportive partner on this and previous projects.

07/02/2026

Last night’s Cast, Crew & Supporter screening of Malcolm & Me at the was amazing. We are so incredibly grateful to each and every person who helped us get this special story to the screen. A few more tweaks, adding the final sound mix and the it is ready to make the festival rounds!

Huge thank you to the ICA for hosting the event and to Chioke for leading the conversation following the screening.

Photos .t.h.photos

06/26/2026

Day 5 of Bound Together 💐

What a powerful week it has been.

Today, the students put the final touches on their books while our mentors helped create pages for the community book, which we can’t wait to share with you in the future.

We are all so grateful for the experiences we shared throughout the week.

We closed out the day with students presenting their books and reflecting on their favorite experiences from the last five days.

Then our hosts and partners presented each person with a gift: a beautiful bouquet of flowers from Barb’s garden, and a copy of The Book of Mary from IBé, about the making of her artist book 11033. Visit the link in our bio to learn more about this powerful project.

Huge thank you to everyone who not only helped make this week happen, but also helped make it a success: IBé Crawley, Barbara Payton, Janelle Washington, Gwen Fitzgerald, Alex Jones, Rebecca Field, Coby Flannagan, Jasmine Elmore, Taylor Freeman, Mayla Lemu, Laneecia Ricks, and the creative participating artists who made it all worthwhile: Elijah, Icis, Ndondwa, and Lily.

We are now all Bound Together!

06/25/2026

Day 3 of Bound Together!

Our first day at the IBé Arts Institute was vibrant and enlightening.

We were welcomed by book artist and sculptor IBé Crawley, and Barbra Payton of Barb’s Blooms, who created the I-Blooms Fellowship which has created this amazing opportunity. IBé gave us a studio tour of the amazing space she will be sharing with us for the rest of the week.

The students explored unique handmade artist books and participated in a discussion on the importance of physical media in the preservation of the history of erased narratives. Followed by a beautiful and enlightening walk around her studio and surrounding neighborhood.

After lunch, students jumped into their sequencing workshop. After an informative lesson from iBe, each camper made their very first mock book and began laying out their photographs and collaborating with their mentors on their book planning. We experimented with visual flow and the rhythm of beginnings and endings, gaining perspective on the strategic planning behind bookmaking and storytelling.

By the end of the day, rough page mock-ups were created, providing a foundation for the developing stories.

After such and inspiring day we cannot wait to dive deeper into this exciting bookmaking process!

📸 Coby Flanagan, Rebecca Fields, Janelle Washington, Shannon Castleman

06/23/2026

Day 2 of Bound Together!

Today our campers worked on finding the story in their pictures.

Artist Janelle Washington started the morning off with a lesson on the history of the silhouette, equipping the campers with context of the photography style before they each took their portraits.

With the help of their mentors, our campers uploaded and organized the images they took at their chosen locations and began to reflect on how their images could best illustrate the story they wanted to tell.

After lunch, the group dove into a discussion on storytelling, exploring how each camper has a completely unique way of sharing their voice, whether through a narrative, a poem, a letter, or a song. They spent the rest of the afternoon narrowing down their final images, sketching out layouts, and creating paper-cut silhouettes inspired by Janelle’s work to explore identity in storytelling .

We are so inspired by how these unique narratives are coming together and can't wait to see their books take shape!

06/22/2026

Day 1 of Bound Together! ✨

Today our Bound Together campers began the exciting process of turning ideas into stories.

The day started with artist Janelle Washington sharing her creative process, including how she researches and develops work for books and how that process changes depending on the story she wants to tell. Inspired by her presentation, students paired up with their mentors to take a deep dive into the stories they hope to create this week.

After lunch, the group headed out into the community to photograph locations connected to their stories, gathering images and inspiration that will help shape their final projects.

We're already impressed by the creativity, curiosity, and thoughtfulness these young artists are bringing to the workshop and can't wait to see how their stories develop over the course of the week.

Stay tuned for more updates from Bound Together!

'sBlooms

BOUND TOGETHER IS SPONSORED BY I BLOOM FELLOWSHIP CREATED VIA A GENEROUS GIFT FROM IBÈ ARTS INSTITUTE (IBÈ BULINDA CRAWLEY) & BARB’S BLOOMS (BARBARA PAYTON)

06/21/2026

Oakwood Arts is Happy to support independent film production in any way we can. Especially when it also several OA Jet crew members will be working on set!

06/17/2026

We are very excited to share that Oakwood Arts is now a microgrid thanks to a generous donation from Norfolk Solar Solutions.

We are so grateful for their donation of solar panels and a battery system that will allow us to provide power to our neighbors in the event of a prolonged power outage. We will be able to serve as a warming or cooling center for vulnerable neighbors, continue powering the , and, through the many outdoor electrical receptacles installed around our building, provide a place for neighbors to charge devices they may need access to.

All of that, and we also become part of the solution rather than part of the problem.

A special thank you as well to Tiger Solar for the installation, and to everyone who helped make this project a reality. This effort would not have been possible without the support, expertise, and generosity of so many people, especially Norfolk Solar Solutions' visionary and tenacious founder, Ruth McElroy Amundsen.

Our red roof has always been a signature part of our identity. Now it does even more than just look pretty.

Visit the Linktree in our bio to learn more about Norfolk Solar Solutions and watch a cool video about how the microgrid will work. 🌞

Address

3000 E Marshall St
Richmond, VA
23223

Website

http://oakwoodarts.com/, http://Linktr.ee/oakwoodarts

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