Twenty-eight years ago, Anne Hart Chay established Anne’s Visual Art Studio Gallery, a studio space, gallery and home at 208 W. Broad St. She has lived, worked and made a family there ever since.
“Some places can feel sterile and formal,” reflects longtime exhibitor Chris Semtner, whose often macabre but also slyly amusing paintings are frequently inspired by his role as curator at The Poe Museum. “But at Anne’s, there’s an explosion of creativity in every nook and cranny. There’s painting, photography, jewelry, books — including a few of my own. And once she shows the work, she’ll keep some of it displayed. I mean, it’s really great to have your work up and seen in the Arts District.”
“I’ve never turned away an artist,” Chay says. She doesn’t charge submission fees to show work, either. Everyone is familiar with the trope of “struggling artist.” Chay wants to ease their exertions by offering artists the opportunity to be seen.
She was also integral to creating the Arts District, a designation that didn’t happen overnight or without obstacles. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Chay formed a nonprofit, joined committees and, with Christina Newton, then of Richmond’s Artspace gallery, was a founding member of Curated Culture. The organization sought to gather the galleries, merchants and other spaces on and off Broad Street to solidify the character of First Fridays and incorporate music and entertainment. Then came the undertaking to formalize an Arts District.
A lifetime Richmonder, Chay has an enduring relationship to art and presentation and has always possessed a clarity of purpose. She grew up in an art-minded family. Her mother, Mary Anne Hart, painted and made ceramics, embroidery and lace, and her father, Frank, was a Richmond native and Reynolds Metals Co. chemical engineer who enjoyed photography so much that he built a darkroom. Chay remembers trying to persuade him to invest in a possible gallery space amid a retail stretch in what is now Carytown. She chuckles. “I was 14 years old at the time.”
Chay attended Trinity Episcopal School and Marymount School, a now-closed Catholic high school, where she maintained a studio in the arts building. A guidance counselor there, Sister Theresa, told her, “You should be an artist,” which resonated. She also came under the tutelage of Mary Arzt, who is now an art instructor at Collegiate School and has shown at Chay’s gallery.
“I was always with a camera around my neck,” Chay recalls of her teen years. When she was old enough to drive, she took herself to Richmond Camera, then on Broad Street. She volunteered at the 1708 Gallery, both in Shockoe Bottom and after its move onto Broad Street, and at the Hand Workshop (now the Visual Arts Center of Richmond).
When it came time for college, Chay wanted to pursue her training at Virginia Commonwealth University’s School of the Arts. “My parents were aghast,” she says, laughing. “My father said, ‘At least be practical, Anne. Become an architect.’” Instead, she studied painting and printmaking, taking classes from influential figures such as Richard Carlyon, David Freed, Myron Helfgott and Barbara Tisserat.
A few years after graduation, wanting a space of her own, Chay set her sights on the empty 208 W. Broad St. In 1993, she says, only one business operated on the block and banks viewed the building as worthless. With help from Long & Foster Realtor Ed Andrews, she worked for years to purchase the building from developer Alex Alexander, who wanted to convert the nearby Richmond Dairy Company “Milk Bottle” building into an arts center. Her father became ill and died before she finally signed the deed on Feb. 7, 1997. “Then I wondered, can I do this alone?” Chay recalls. “And I did, gutted this place by myself, and I really do it in tribute to my dad.”
Sociability is part of the building’s character, as well as Chay’s. In the 1880s it was O’Rourke’s Tavern, started by Jeremiah and Catharine O’Rourke and continued by their son Edward and his wife Isabel, who, like Chay, lived over their business. Later, Richmond Dairy used the site as a test kitchen for Dolly Madison Ice Cream.
During Chay’s time at 208, she has conducted scenic design for films, worked in broadcasting with Fox Channel 35, gotten married and divorced, raised two daughters, experienced her mother’s illness and death, suffered debilitating health issues that brought artists to assist in running the gallery, and contended with damage during the upheaval of 2020. Now confronting rising tax assessments, she idly wonders if the city wants to keep the Arts District.
“She’s always worked for the artist,” says Terrie Powers, another longtime exhibitor who paints dreamlike landscapes. “It’s incredible that she’s been through all that and survived.”
Orgia Labidi, whose sculptures are inspired by African heritage, has exhibited with Chay for 20 years. Visiting from Norfolk during the gallery’s anniversary celebration on Feb. 7, she describes her relationship with Chay as “wonderful” and says she enjoys the gallery’s openness. “Engaging with people about the art is what I love most,” she says. Smiling, she gazes through the windows at musicians who are setting up; the gallery resembles a jewelry case. “Look at it there. It’s beautiful.”
In honor of Women’s History Month and International Women’s Day, Anne’s Visual Art Studio Gallery and painter Sheila Holland will present “Crimson Beauties,” an exhibition of works on canvas, opening March 7. The show will feature Terrie Powers, Gryder, Susan Lamson and additional artists.
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