G40 Art Summit + Floodwall Street Art Festival

In case you haven't heard, some incredible art is making its way into Richmond this month and next.

Gaia's mural at 11 W. Grace - image by The Cheats Movement

First, RVA magazine and Art Whino have been hard at work bringing the G40 Art Summit to Richmond. Starting this week through April 5th, 13 mural artists from all over the world will be painting 20 large scale murals in a 10 block radius to help launch Richmond's Downtown Arts District. There will be an opening reception on April 6th and dozens of other events throughout the rest of April including gallery shows, art workshops, painting nights, art battles and more. Gaia has already completed a mural at 11 West Grace and Pixel Pancho is currently in town working on his robots mural also on Grace Street. Check RVA mag's site for more updates on murals as they progress around town.

Secondly, the city of Richmond and Ed Trask are teaming up with Altria, Venture Richmond, Troutman Sanders, the Cordish Company, Art 180, and more to bring us the RVA Floodwall Street Art Festival on April 12 - 15. The festival is inviting artists from around the country to paint wall murals that will hang as removable banners along the flood wall. The artists will spend three days constructing their pieces and you're encouraged to come watch and interact with them. The organizers of the event hope that local organizations will purchase the banners after the event and the space can become a rotating gallery of sorts. In addition to the murals, Chop Suey's Bizarre Market will be set up and Brown Distributing will have beer trucks in the area on Saturday, April 14th.

This Spring is shaping up to be quite the colorful season!

Christie Thompson