Recovery in Practice

Richmond, Virginia was officially named the first Inclusive Recovery City in the United States in October 2024. The Board, composed of people with lived experience and allies from multiple agencies and perspectives across the City. The RVA IRC aims to bridge the recovery and broader communities and highlight all of the fantastic work already being done by recovery community organizations.

Team Members: Marty Alexander, Laela Huddleston, and Abby Sucher. Facilitated by Ella Floyd

The Creative Coalition, a support group for artists and creatives hosted by Rams in Recovery at VCU, will unveil a new, community-created banner for the recovery community in Richmond. By showcasing our many talents and strengths through creative practice, the group aims for the banner to act as a tool for growth and self-discovery, allowing us to break down social stigmas and develop a greater understanding of ourselves and the support we may need. This banner will serve as a visual reminder of the power of unity, whether it’s within a recovery group or our shared City of Richmond.

John Freyer (Artist, VCU School of the Arts) & Margaret Stratton - 90 Minutes - This opening event will begin with a conversation between Margaret Stratton and John Freyer about how their experiences in recovery shape and inform their current creative practice. Audience members will then have their own 20-minute one-on-one “Free Ice Water” conversations about turning points in their lives. The event will end with a brief Q&A and the completion of the audience’s Free Ice Water jars for display during the conference.

Free Hot Coffee/Recovery Roast Coffee Tasting - Join artist John Freyer and our local coffee partner for a special coffee tasting event. Participants will taste a variety of coffees from to finalize a new Rams in Recovery edition of Recovery Roast. This coffee “cupping” event will introduce participants to the rich history of coffee and the complexities of roasting, tasting and enjoyment. We will also taste editions of Recovery Roast from our project partners in the UK and across the country.

Join Kasey Anderson, Sarah Shotland, Dziko Singleton, Dyan Neary & Reverend Dana Sally-Allen for a conversation on recovery, creative practice and decarceration.

A panel discussion featuring VCUarts faculty member Paul Thulin and artists Elizabeth Huey, Grace Bromley, Erin Williams, and Margaret Stratton will focus on their journeys as artists in recovery. The panelists will share personal stories, talk about their artistic processes, and explore how recovery can play a significant role in their creative practice.

Join VCU Creative Writing faculty SJ Sindu for a discussion with three transgender poets in recovery—K. Iver, Chase Berggrun, and Samuel Ace—about how their experiences with transgender identity, poetic expression and recovery intersect.

Join writers Chris Brunt, Carvell Wallace, Alex Watson & Josh Galarza for a conversation about their work as writers, poets, educators and editors.  Learn how their experiences in recovery impacts the way they work and engage with their practice.  

The Joseph Seipel Gallery is proud to present a special exhibition featuring the work of visual artists who are alumni of the VCUarts program, featuring Richmond-based artists: Pia Bakala, Grace Bromley, Oliver Mukherjee, Calvin Ashley, Ella Floyd, Aspen DeRosa, Paul Thulin, and Elizabeth Huey. This exhibition coincides with the first-ever “Recovery in Practice” conference to be held in Richmond, Virginia, and highlights the journeys of artists who are navigating recovery, while continuing to cultivate powerful and thought-provoking practices.

The artists featured in this exhibition are at various stages of recovery, yet all share a commitment to using their artistic practice as a means of healing and self-expression. Their diverse works—spanning mediums such as painting, sculpture, photography, and multimedia installations—explore personal and collective narratives of recovery, resilience, and transformation. The exhibition asks important questions about the intersection between art and recovery: How do recovery journeys inspire creative processes? How can art contribute to building community and fostering a sense of shared experience?

This exhibition not only showcases the resilience and creativity of VCUarts alumni but also complements the broader mission of the “Recovery in Practice” conference, a transformative event that will bring together artists, authors, activists, and scientific researchers for a dialogue about the diverse meanings of recovery. Taking place for the first time in Richmond, the conference will provide an opportunity for attendees to engage in conversations about the intersections of recovery, harm reduction, and coalition-building.

The exhibition invites viewers to contemplate how art can serve as a transformative tool for recovery and healing, both for the individual artist and for the community at large. As artists continue to engage in their creative processes, their work becomes a living testament to the power of recovery.

Artists:

Pia Bakala is a Richmond, VA based visual artist. Born in Aurora, Illinois, she received a BFA in Painting and a BA in Art History from the Kansas City Art Institute in 2013 and an MFA in Painting and Printmaking from Virginia Commonwealth University in 2024. Her work has been exhibited in a solo show at Kiosk Gallery in Kansas City, as well as at D.D.D.D. Pictures in NYC, Charlotte St. Foundation in Kansas City, SpringBreak Art Show NYC, and Soloway Gallery in Brooklyn, NY. She was featured in New American Paintings MFA issue 165, and included in a panel discussion at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Richmond, Virginia in 2023. Bakala creates painterly expressions of everyday internal conflicts, influenced by her personal experiences as a transgender woman. In recent work, she explores the intersection of imagined and virtual realities through painted and video works composed of situations pulled from the life simulator game, The Sims 4.

Grace Bromley is a Richmond, VA based artist. Born and raised in Chicago, IL, she attended the School of the Art Institute of Chicago with a BFA in Painting and has received her MFA from Virginia Commonwealth University in Spring of 2024. She is a multidisciplinary artist whose work brings together various modes of critique about gender and self-hood, particularly through the lens of archetypal fairytale, myth and folklore, as well as questioning idealistic notions of individualism and self-reflection in the West. Her work is imbued with a dark sense of humor and through body language lays bare basic human emotions, such as fear, anger, loneliness, and desire. Her work has been shown at Thierry Goldberg Gallery, NYC, New Collectors Gallery NYC, Bloom Galerie, St. Tropez, SeeFood Room, Hong Kong, D.D.D.D Pictures and Spring/Break NYC. She participated in Spring/Break Art Show Los Angeles as well as New York City as an Independent Curator in 2023. She is the Recipient of the New American Paintings Emerging Artist Grant, 2023.

Oliver Mukherjee

Calvin Ashley is a mixed media artist and sculptor based in Richmond, VA. He is a recent BFA graduate from VCU’s Sculpture and Extended Media and interned with both Gallery 5 and the Institute of Contemporary Art while in school. He still volunteers with Gallery 5 and is on the exhibition and installation committee. His work focuses on themes of folklore, birth, and renewal and has been shown locally at the Anderson Gallery and sold at vendor markets in the Richmond Area. He has also worked with local bands and house show venues to create zines and t-shirt designs.

Ella Floyd is an interdisciplinary artist and research assistant based in Richmond, Virginia. Reigning from the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains in Southwest Virginia, Floyd left her rural practice to study Photography + Film at Virginia Commonwealth University School of the Arts, where she earned her BFA in 2024. Floyd is currently working on her series, “Say When,” asking how women articulate sexual desires and boundaries in a world that thrives on performance and the constant transformation of digital spaces. Her thesis project, "Where Light Divides the Holler," discussed themes of disrupted familial and personal archives in conjunction with trends in Appalachian folklore shown in her project, "Killmore." Outside of her personal practice, Floyd is currently working as a Research Assistant for the Fifty/Fifty Project at VCUarts, continuing to serve the greater Commonwealth area. When Floyd is not developing projects, she enjoys spending time in nature, specifically rivers and waterfalls! Floyd is passionate about continuing to share Appalachian culture and folklore in a positive light, attempting to challenge harmful stereotypes of poverty and drug abuse perpetuated in modern media, commonly stating, "If I don't tell this story, no one will."

Aspen DeRosa is an artist and educator dedicated to celebrating life and fostering safe spaces for creative and personal growth. Their work and teaching style encourage curiosity and play across a variety of mediums, including photography, writing, sculpture, music, and installation. They are actively involved in the sobriety and recovery community and host a support meeting for musicians in recovery, merging their commitment to healing and recovery with their passion for the arts.

Paul Thulin is an associate professor of Photography + Film. He uses analog photography, digital montage, appropriation and various alternative materials to explore the contextual and material constructs of history, cultural identity, consumerism, memory and myth. Thulin-Jimenez’s photographs have been exhibited nationally and internationally at United Photo Industries in New York, Miami Scope, Candela Gallery in Richmond, Chicago Art Fair, PPAC in Philadelphia, AAC in Washington, D.C., Toronto Art Fair, Foto Gallery in Barcelona, Grand Prix Fotofestival in Lodz, Poland, the Athens Photo Festival in Greece, the Center for Fine Art Photography in Colorado, and Mt. Rokko Photography Festival in Japan. Thulin-Jimenez has been the recipient of a variety of photographic prizes and awards including a TPI National Graduate Fellowship, a Virginia Commission for the Arts Artist Fellowship, Conveyor Magazine Exhibition Grant, Hariban Award Honorable Mention, Critical Mass Top 50, and the Lensculture Emerging Talent Grant.

Elizabeth Huey earned an MFA from Yale University and a BA in Psychology from George Washington University. She studied painting at both the Marchutz School in Aix-en-Provence, France and the New York Studio School of Drawing, Painting, and Sculpture in Manhattan. Huey has exhibited both nationally and internationally, and her work is held in museums and other prominent collections. She has been awarded multiple grants and residencies including the Terra Foundation Residency in Giverny, France, a Johns Hopkins University Travel

Free Hot Supper is a simple supper for invited guests, including individuals who participated in Recovery in Practice programming, and additional guests from the broader recovery community, including persons who belong to or provide services for communities affected by addiction. Dinner will be coordinated by Jason Alley and the Richmond members of  “Ben’s Friends,” a support network for food and beverage industry professionals who struggle with substance abuse and addiction, to develop a simple, locally-sourced menu, served in an environment with communal seating that allows for participants to dine and engage in dialogue.

Join visiting Recovery in Practice speakers and Richmond Community members for a special reading of poetry, memoir and short story excerpts.  

The dance class/workshop for Recovery in Practice is inspired by the idea of allowing feelings and facts to coexist, rather than being separated, in order to facilitate a processing space between the two. Through guided movement, improvisation, journaling prompts, and sharing, participants are encouraged to explore the connection between their physical experiences and emotional responses, fostering a sense of community and connection. The class structure can be adapted to different timeframes and individual physical needs, making it accessible to people with varying levels of dance experience.

Join author and educator Valley Haggard as she hosts a unique writing workshop designed specifically for individuals within the recovery community. This workshop promises to provide a safe and welcoming space for participants to explore their experiences through writing. Whether you are a seasoned writer or someone who has never picked up a pen before, Valley Haggard invites you to come and join us.  No prior experience is required.  Don't miss this opportunity to connect with others in the recovery community and embark on a creative exploration with Valley Haggard as your guide.