All City Art Club awarded National Academy of Design’s 2023 Abbey Mural Prize
Southside’s own All City Art Club were one of five projects selected as recipients of the National Academy of Design’s 2023 Abbey Mural Prize. The prize money will allow the group to paint a new collection of murals “throughout Southside Richmond and other areas of the city needing art that is created with care & purpose.”
Named for illustrator and muralist Edwin Austin Abbey NA, the Abbey Mural Prize awards grants to support the creation and restoration of public murals in the United States. The National Academy of Design has awarded funds to hundreds of individuals or organizations since 1940 “who are building on a tradition of public murals as instruments of social activism, neighborhood revitalization, and community engagement.” The Abbey Mural Prize supports projects with grants ranging from $10,000 to $40,000, towards creating or restoring public murals.
The murals of All City Art Club were the motivation for our Map of South Richmond Murals and Street Art. Get out and see the work!
Speed cameras coming to Boushall Middle School and Swansboro Elementary School
New speed cameras are in the works for Boushall MS, Swansboro ES, and MLK MS, and could be in place before the start of the school year.
Applications are pending for speed cameras for River City MS, Huguenot HS, Westover Hill ES, Frances W. McClenney ES, and Mary Mumford ES. The plan is eventually have cameras at 13 schools, including Richmond High School for the Arts and Blackwell Elementary.
The speed cameras in use in front of Patrick Henry School of Science & Arts on Semmes Avenue and by Linwood Holton ES in Northside are generating an average of 76 tickets per day – and that with only being active for 4 hours per day.
Two Journeys
AJ Soltan, now the Store Manager of Walmart Supercenter #2821 on Sheila Lane, started working at the store as a teenager in 2007 as a cashier.
After growing up in Afghanistan in the late 1990s, AJ fled with his mother, father brother, and two sisters to a refugee camp in Tajikistan. A few years later the family moved to Uzbekistan. From there, UNICEF helped arrange immigration to the United States. AJ moved the 7,000 miles to Richmond – into Saint John’s Wood apartments to be precise – to what he calls without irony “the land of opportunity.”
Barbara Goode speaks on the recent renovations at Oak Grove Playground
CLICK THROUGH HERE to hear Barbara Goode, Oak Grove Civic Association president, speak on the recent renovations at Oak Grove Playground. The playground has a community garden, basketball courts, a play area, swing sets, a pavilion, and the first mini pitch court in the city.
Shop Two Three coming to Hull Street in September
The folks at Studio Two Three are branching out to Shop Two Three, a store front at 1437 Hull Street that should be open in early September.
Kate Fowler, Director of Development & Community Partnerships at Studio Two Three, says that the space will host small pop-up vendor markets, art exhibitions, classes and a storefront. In addition, they will have a risograph printer on site and a letterpress set-up for in-store printing.
Bruster’s Ice Cream coming to Manchester
Plans in the window and permits online show Bruster’s Ice Cream coming to 512 Hull Street.
Semmes/Forest Hill/Dundee project starts August 12
The project reconfigures traffic and parking in the area and is centered around adding a stoplight at 34th and Semmes Avenue. Completion is scheduled for June 2025.
Last minute revisions had removed the parking spots from in front of the businesses on the 3400 block of Semmes Avenue. After pushback from the businesses, one lane of traffic is instead being removed, allowing for retention of the parking and extending the existing bike lane one block farther.
Forest Hill Neighborhood Association is hosting a Mayoral Forum in September
The Forest Hill Neighborhood Association will be hosting a Mayoral Forum on Tuesday, September 17 at 7PM with all 5 mayoral candidates.
The forum will be held at the Forest Hill Presbyterian Church at 4401 Forest Hill
Avenue, and is sponsored by a number of area civic organizations including Westover Hills Neighborhood Association, Willow Oaks/Clevedon Civic Association, Westlake Hills Civic Association, Springhill Neighborhood Association, Forest Hill-Bliley Road Neighborhood Association, Greater Oxford Civic Association, Traylor Estates Civic Association, and the Forest Hill Neighborhood Association.
Questions for all of the candidates can be emailed to foresthillassoc@gmail.com ahead of time, and will also be taken at the event.
Crime
- 51% of all shoplifting in Richmond this year has been from ABC stores
- George Phillips, Jr., 56, of Powhatan was shot to death on Sunday, July 14 on German School Road. This is the 7th killing in South Richmond this year; last year at this time there had been 21.