An artful investment in Richmond’s beloved art nonprofit, Studio Two Three

May 8

Studio Two Three is a forward-thinking nonprofit art studio in Richmond, VA with a mission to empower artists to create civic change and community engagement through art. After 13 years of growth, Studio Two Three decided to explore the opportunity of purchasing a permanent home for their high-performing studio. The team expected the search to take at least a year until they stumbled upon an article announcing Dogtown Dance Theatre’s closing in Manchester. After corresponding with the owner of the building and discovering that they had a shared set of values, Ashley Hawkins, co-founder and Executive Director of Studio Two Three, knew that this location would be the one.

The organization bought the former Dogtown Dance Theatre building in November 2022, and that’s when Studio Two Three and Virginia Community Development Fund’s (VCDF) partnership began. VCDF was founded by VCDC in 1996 and is a certified Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) and Community Development Entity (CDE) specializing in alternative financing. An integral piece in fundraising for the Studio Two Three move is an $800,000 loan using New Market Tax Credit equity that VCDF helped provide to the organization, which officially closed on April 21, 2023. The New Market Tax Credit program, established in 2000, is a crucial source of funding for businesses and real estate in lower-income communities by providing investors with Federal Tax Credit benefits. As a CDE, VCDF uses allocated NMTC credits to help create investments and loans for small businesses.

Laura Dupuy, VCDF’s Loan Fund Manager, has led the efforts to provide this loan for a thoughtful reconstruction of Studio Three’s new home which will include custom-designed spaces that best fit the nonprofit’s team, the artists who create at the studio, and the surrounding community. Laura has held a deep appreciation for artists and been involved in the arts herself for years, which is what connected her specifically to this project. She described Studio Two Three as innovative and energizing.

“There’s nothing like Studio Two Three; it’s like everybody’s laboratory,” Laura said.

Laura believes that Studio Two Three’s presence in Manchester will contribute to the dynamism and diversity in the neighborhood. Since buying the new property, she has been instrumental in helping the team receive a lost-cost, flexible loan with low interest that blends cash and equity from New Market Tax Credits. Ashley described how working with Laura throughout this process has been instrumental to her team’s success.

“Laura’s fantastic, so smart and just foundationally understands it, and I think has been a great sounding board for me,” Ashley said. “She doesn’t have an agenda; she’s just clear and really good at presenting the pros and the cons and the complexity of it... I just trust her judgement. One of the biggest things was just having her meet with a few of our board members to explain that it wasn’t too good to be true, that the structure is designed to help projects like this get off the ground.”

The new building’s set up comprises three stories, which will give Studio Two Three the opportunity to house three print studios divided by technique, a 3,000 square foot space for events and workshops, and 19 artist studio spaces. The open space section of the building also contains a theatre-grade projection screen, which the team hopes to use for activities like film screenings and conferences. One of Studio Two Three’s greatest values is fostering a shared sense of ownership among all resident artists, so they’re excited to use the new open space section for a lounge and coffee bar to promote artist convening and collaboration. The team cares about cultivating spaces where all members have the same opportunity to work and create together, with 24/7 access to the building and art supplies – it's what makes them stand out in the art community.

Studio Two Three’s move to a permanent location comes after a period of significant growth for the nonprofit organization after they helped bring community members together when the COVID pandemic hit in 2020. The studio’s mission emphasizes art as an empowering force to engage individuals in activism and creating change, so the team took the opportunity to facilitate meaningful connections during that highly unprecedented time. In the first several months of the pandemic, they sewed 10,000 masks for essential workers, hosted outdoor pop-up community print days, and created a series of prints commemorating the protests on Monument Avenue in the summer of 2020.

“We’re able to take a position and sit at the intersection of activism and art-making in a way that a lot of other organizations who aren’t taking stance [aren't] quite able to do,” Ashley said.

Studio Two Three will find a welcoming return to the Manchester area of Richmond, where their organization’s journey began back in 2009, and Ashley can’t wait to finalize the move in.

“It’s kind of poignant to be going back right as [our] first [home] base is no longer going to be existent,” Ashley said. The studio’s first location was in the former Plant Zero building which was torn down in December 2022.

“It isn’t just a neighborhood, it’s community-grounded folks who live there and have lived there for a very long time,” she said. “Manchester is changing so much, too, and needs artist spaces to remain in that community.”

Follow along with Studio Two Three’s journey on their website here. We are proud to have assisted with the organization’s new move and can’t wait to see the impact they make on the community and how they continue to push boundaries in the art world.