What is the arts and culture sector doing to help Virginia through these difficult economic times? It is stimulating our annual economy to the tune of $849 million, which is more than four times as much as the entire federal Arts Endowment budget. It's pulling in another $342 million in out-of-state visitor spending. It's generating $447 million in personal income for Virginia residents. And it's creating jobs for nearly 19,000 people. It's official: Arts in Virginia are more than a pretty face.
A major cornerstone of this vibrant arts industry is behind the scenes, quietly supporting the most crucial and fundamental stage of the arts that we all depend on: its production. Today, from a bucolic farm in Amherst, the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts operates one of America's premier artists' communities. If you haven't heard of it, you are not alone, yet it is one of the top three artists' communities in the nation, a creative space par excellence.
In almost 40 years, VCCA has awarded peer-reviewed fellowships to more than 4,000 exceptional writers, composers and visual artists. They come to Virginia from all around the nation, but Americans are not the only ones who renew their artistic powers in the creative fertility of our Blue Ridge Mountains. Hundreds of distinguished emissaries from 63 different countries come to VCCA, men and women superbly placed to spread the cultural repute of the commonwealth in their native lands.
Artists working at VCCA have contributed a Virginia presence to books, plays, poems, songs, symphonies, sculptures and paintings that have garnered every imaginable accolade, be it the Pulitzer Prize, the MacArthur "Genius Grant," the National Book Award, the Bellwether Prize, the Guggenheim Fellowship, Poet Laureate ... the list goes on and on.
With the acquisition of Le Moulin à Nef in Auvillar seven years ago, VCCA became one of only three artists' communities with facilities on multiple continents. The Virginia approach is a big export success. Recently, a member of the VCCA Advisory Board, Cy Twombly, became the first American ever invited to do a permanent installation at the Louvre, carrying out the groundbreaking work with the assistance of VCCA Fellow Barbara Crawford.
On Saturday, Jan. 8, this quiet ambassador for Virginia and for the arts inaugurates its 40th anniversary year with a celebration at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. In raising our glass to VCCA we toast something truly indispensable: creativity and artists everywhere.
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