Qualla: Institute for Contemporary Art, Richmond

Institute for Contemporary Art, Richmond: Introduction

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Packer1028, CC0. Steven Holl wanted to design a building you could play. The architect, selected from 64 firms worldwide to design the new Institute for Contemporary Art at Virginia Commonwealth University, told the inaugural director that he was thinking of the museum as a musical instrument - different curators would draw different sounds from it, the way different musicians draw different sounds from a violin. The result is the Markel Center, which opened at the corner of Belvidere and Broad in April 2018 after years of fundraising, redesign, and the kind of construction delays that are normal for buildings whose engineering pushes against what zinc and translucent glass can be asked to do. Architectural Digest called it one of the twelve most anticipated buildings of 2018, putting it in the same list as a power plant in Copenhagen and a green tower in Nanjing. Thrillist called it the single coolest thing opening in America that year.

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Institute for Contemporary Art, Richmond: The Crossroads

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Packer1028, CC0. The site itself shaped the building. VCU President Michael Rao announced the project in 2011, arguing that the corner of Belvidere and Broad - bordering the Arts District and sitting at the gateway to the Broad Street Corridor - was the right place for the city's signature contem...

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Institute for Contemporary Art, Richmond: Funding and Frustration

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Packer1028, CC0. Building a $41 million art museum is its own kind of art. Beverly Reynolds, who ran Richmond's Reynolds Gallery, became a major donor in her last years before her death in 2014. The Royall and Markel families led the fundraising; Steve Markel of Markel Corporation served as vice-...

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Institute for Contemporary Art, Richmond: Declaration and What Followed

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Packer1028, CC0. The first show was called Declaration. It ran from the building's opening on April 21, 2018 through September 9, 2018, gathering work by an international roster including Nidaa Badwan, Tania Bruguera, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, Titus Kaphar, the Richmond shock-rock band GWAR, Cannupa ...

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Institute for Contemporary Art, Richmond: Leadership in Flux

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Packer1028, CC0. Running a brand-new institution is harder than designing one. Lisa Freiman, who had directed the ICA since planning, announced her resignation in January 2018, two months before the doors opened, to return to her scholarly research on Claes Oldenburg and her tenured faculty posit...

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