CONGRATULATIONS STUDIO TWO THREE! It’s official! We bought a building! We have officially signed the paperwork to close on the former Dogtown Dance Building at 109 W. 15th Street, the new permanent home of Studio Two Three! I co-founded the studio 13 years ago with the belief that, with the right resources, Richmond could be an anchor for artists to stay rather than a gateway to someplace bigger. I believe that the diversity and hyper-local nature of Richmond culture is what makes this place special. For Richmond to retain its vibrant, remarkable local culture, we need to prioritize spaces that support new generations of makers, builders and dreamers. We need places where people can experiment and fail safely, and apply those lessons forward as they grow. When the costs associated with renting a space are daunting, failure often means closure – or not getting started at all. Studio Two Three has always been committed to providing an affordable space for creative risk taking. This is why we purchased our own building.

About the Event Join us on Saturday, December 3rd at 10AM for Coffee + Conversation with Justin Smith, founder, and curator of Afrovisualism. Justin Smith is an artist-curator, writer-researcher, theorist and designer from Richmond, VA. He is the founder and curator of Afrovisualism – his curatorial platform and continual studio practice that provides curation, visual direction, and creative development for artists and creatives. He constellates frameworks of Black aesthetic formulations in a harmonious arrangement of curatorial and design projects, visual essays, collages, and moodboards. He coined and theorized Black Aesthetic Continual Theory as a way to establish his Afrovisualist language and realms of thought that contextualizes “crate digging” as an immersive sample-based process that centers curatorial research, theory and design. His Afrovisualist practice is driven by the continual advancement of Black artistic expression, Black visual-sonic culture, Black aesthetics, and Black cultural production. His nuanced approach considers worldbuilding theoretics of Black aesthetic continuums, timelines and chronologies. This program is sponsored by our friends at Blanchard’s! Come enjoy a cup of delicious coffee and design centered discussion. Check out Justin’s Afrovisualist work ahead of time on Instagram @afrovisualism.

About the Event Join us at The Branch Museum on Thursday, November 17th, at 6pm for a free viewing of Graphic Means: A History of Graphic Design Production followed by a discussion with director and producer, Briar Levit. Graphic Means uncovers the hidden history of the graphic design industry’s cold type era. Decades before, every desktop had a computer; it was the hands of industrious workers and ingenious tools that brought type and image together. It explores rapid changes in design from the mid-twentieth century through the 1990s. Levit and her team spent years traveling around the US and UK interviewing design legends. Graphic Means gives viewers a look at the history of the ever-evolving design industry, and what’s in store for the future. Briar Levit is an Associate Professor of Graphic Design at Portland State University. She came up as a designer in San Francisco in the late 1990s, and missed the cold type era by about ten years. She earned her undergraduate degree from San Francisco State University and her master’s degree from Central St. Martin’s College of Art & Design in London. Her design practice originally focused on publication and book design. Since making Graphic Means: A History of Graphic Design Production, she has become much more focused on helping to expand the graphic design history canon.