Dear Friends,

Despite the fiscal, physical, and social challenges of this year, VisArts kept the fires of the creative community burning. We continued to present exhibitions in our building, in the community, and through virtual events while staying safe and healthy. Our studio resident artists and fellows persevered with generous conversations and strategies for coping with shifting conditions. We embraced the struggle with unwavering commitment to the value of the “work” of art and artists through stipends, studio space, our Emerging Curator Program, our Inside Art programming, F.E.A.S.T., and the launch of a new Art and Social Justice Fellowship.

We held space for artists to stay tuned in, attentive, and active. We supported artists in the face of lost income, radical changes to daily life, interruptions of solitary studio time, screen only communities, and the immense psychic and physical toll of creating and imagining a non-racist, equitable, accessible, and inclusive future. We used the “work” of art to wrangle with these challenges.

The “work” of art and artists is valuable, active, and persistent.

It is a powerful way to make meaning, cope, question, attend, voice, witness, imagine and re-think.

VisArts realizes this value everyday by investing in artists, gallery exhibitions, studios, and classrooms.

Please consider donating to our Vibrancy Campaign. Your donation allows us to continue to stand with artists and the work they do. No amount is too small. Please share this with friends, colleagues, and family. Encourage them to join our VisArts community. Your donation creates opportunities and funding for artists, opens up transformative experiences in our galleries and studio classrooms, and fosters a community bonded by art as a way of thinking.

Thanks for making the dream come true,

Susan