To support local artists, VCU Institute for Contemporary Art commissions video performances

By Joan Tupponce

Local gospel singer Cora Harvey Armstrong said she felt blessed when she received a video commission from the VCU Institute for Contemporary Art this spring. The COVID-19 pandemic had shut down the entertainment industry, canceling of all of Armstrong’s upcoming performances.

“I praised God and said thank you when I got the stipend. It came right when I needed it. When the pandemic hit, everything on the calendar got canceled,” said Armstrong. “The ICA knows this is what we depend on. They were so giving, and they didn’t require much, just a minute of a song. I am so amazed and so grateful.” 

Since opening in 2018, the ICA has commissioned over 100 live performances but all live performances were canceled when the pandemic hit. The ICA established the video commissions in April to support local artists during the crisis. Armstrong’s video — one of 13 commissioned — features her soulful interpretation of the old Baptist hymn, “He Knows.”

“We were trying to find a way to support the artists we have worked with in the past as well as our audiences,” said David Riley, programming coordinator at the ICA. “We wanted the artists to share their art and their thoughts.” 

The ICA wanted to move the performances from live to virtual by way of video commissions. “We think of it as a small honorarium to the artists,” Riley said. “We give them space to voice whatever they want to voice.”

The first commissions focused on COVID-19 and finding strength and hope during the pandemic. They ranged from Andrew Alli, musician and trails manager for the James River Park System, talking about how people were helping each other during the pandemic to Rebecca Keel’s message, recorded at a May Day rally organized to draw attention to the spread of COVID-19 inside jails and prisons.

The videos are being released upon receipt. Videos are posted on the ICA’s Instagram TV and its YouTube channel.

“We’ve been getting nice responses to them,” Riley said.  

Singer and VCU graduate Shy Lennox had performed at the ICA last year during the exhibit “Provocations: Rashid Johnson.” Lennox’s performance for the commissioned video was more casual in nature.

“We shot it at my home studio. It was me and my pianist and guitarist,” Lennox said.

He performed a mashup between his original song “Signs” and Aaliyah’s classic “One in a Million.”

“Both are love songs,” Lennox said. “I wanted to submit something positive and love-like amidst the pandemic and the inhuman killing of Black lives in America.”

The ICA has done a good job of showcasing and providing spaces for artists of color, he added.

“It’s cool that they asked me to do a video commission,” Lennox said. “I always love a challenge.”

Video commissions to date:
Andrew Alli – musician and trails manager
Rebecca Keel – community organizer
Michelle Dodd – poet
Kevin LaMarr Jones – choreographer
Cora Harvey Armstrong – gospel singer
Radio B – rapper
Kenneka Cook – singer
Shy Lennox – singer
DeVonté Saunders – opera singer
Free Egunfemi Bangura – local historian
Luis Vasquez La Roche – artist and recent VCU School of the Arts M.F.A. graduate
Sandy Williams IV – artist and recent VCU School of the Arts M.F.A. graduate

The final commission will be:
David Dominique – musician and journalist