CALENDAR OF EVENTS 2020:
HOUSE TOURS
Tours of the Branch House and the Branch Museum are available every weekend, Friday and Saturday 10 AM and 1 PM, and Sunday at 1 PM.
Museum tours feature the first and second floors of The Branch Museum and include historical information about the family as well as architectural elements specific to the Branch House. It’s the only way to see the full house! Tours last about 60 minutes. Click Here for more information and to register for a tour.
JUNE
JULY
JULY 11
4:00 PM – 5:30 PM
RVA Baroque
On July 11, The Branch will partner with our friends at RVA Baroque* (formerly Jefferson Baroque) to return live music to Richmond. The program has been carefully crafted under all Covid-19 guidelines to offer a beautiful evening of Baroque Music in a magnificent setting.
The concert features innovative simultaneous use of The Branch’s indoor and outdoor space. The audience will experience two different sound worlds: winds and voices in the garden, and strings and harpsichord in the building. The outdoor sets feature medieval and renaissance music, including a mystical hymn by Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179), while the indoor sets feature 17th and 18th century music, including one of the earliest string quartets.
The July concert represents the first major public event for The Branch and RVA Baroque since the start of the coronavirus pandemic. The ensemble has modified the traditional concert format in novel ways to accommodate all government-recommended best practices. All seating is socially distanced. The audience will seated in two separate locations (The Branch Museum’s Long Gallery and The Branch Garden). A brief intermission will permit guests to switch seats and hear the other half of the performance. Audience and performers will wear masks, with the exception of vocalists. All singing will be performed below the terrace level and guests will be seated on the terrace above them, in accordance with government guidelines.
“The RVA Baroque musicians have worked closely with us so that they can do what they do so beautifully, perform the very best of baroque music. The Branch contributes to that performance with a beautiful setting that was originally conceived of as a space for musical performance. We hope that you will join us for a lovely summer evening of baroque music.”
Penny Fletcher, Executive Director, The Branch Museum
Light refreshments will be provided. Per the requirements of our performers, all visitors must wear masks and practice social distancing at the event. The outdoor program will be held rain or shine except in the event of severe weather. Tickets are $30 per person.
*During the pandemic, Jefferson Baroque changed their name officially to RVA Baroque.
JULY 21
6:00 PM – 7:00 PM
A Zoom Webinar –“Listening Theatres: The Sounds of Iconic Landscapes and Architectural Spaces”
Joel Sanders, FAIA, will moderate a discussion with the artists who have produced Listening Theatres: The Sounds of Iconic Landscapes and Architectural Spaces” which is now on display at The Branch Museum through September 16, 2020. Sanders is an award-winning architect and founder of MIXdesign, an inclusive design thinktank and consultancy in New York City. He is a Professor in Practice and Director of Post-Professional Studies at Yale School of Architecture.
In Listening Theatres Karen Van Lengen and Jim Welty explore the act of attentive listening through an interactive engagement with the world around them. Listening in this sense is not passive, but an active excavation of passing time, fleeting actions and the experiences of others. Sanders will explore with Van Lengen and Welty some of the listening projects in the exhibition:The Academical Village at the University of Virginia, and New York City spaces; Grand Central Terminal, The New York Public Library, The Seagram Building, Rockefeller Center and The Guggenheim Museum.
Sanders will moderate a lively discussion with the exhibition’s creators Karen Van Lengen and Jim Welty. Karen Van Lengen, FAIA, is the William Kenan Professor of Architecture and former dean (1999-2009) at the University of Virginia School of Architecture. Van Lengen began her professional career as a design Associate at I M Pei & Partners before forming her own firm in New York City. Her recent projects have focused on the aural aspects of architectural space, bringing awareness to the comprehensive experience of ‘place’. Jim Welty is an accomplished artist who created the animations for Soundscape New York and Open Gates as well as the Soundscape Architecture web site. Welty began his artistic career working with Frank Stella as the Master Printer and collaborator for over 10 years. He has exhibited his sculptures nationally, including a major exhibition at the Fralin Museum of Art at the University of Virginia. He is currently developing a new interactive body of work incorporating sound, animation and sculpture, extending the current project’s mission to foster genuine listening and engagement with our environment.
These projects have been supported by The Institute for Advanced Technology in the Humanities, a Jefferson Trust Grant, a School of Architecture Summer Grant and an Arts Grounds Grant at the University of Virginia.
If you have registered for the talk, please check your email for the Zoom link information sent by The Branch Museum. It may have ended up in your junk/spam/promotions folder.
JULY 25
4:00 PM – 5:30 PM
RVA Baroque
Richmond’s early music ensemble RVA Baroque* gives its second live concert at the Branch Museum on Saturday, July 25, at 4:00 p.m. The hour-long performance will take place in the garden. Small groups of musicians will perform a diverse array of works from the 16th through 18th centuries. Among the selections featured will be a concerto for four violins by Telemann, keyboard music by J.S. Bach arranged for strings by Mozart, and two rediscovered French arias that have not been performed for three centuries. A set of a capella madrigals will highlight the ensemble’s vocal talent. Full attention will be paid to patron accessibility, audibility in the outside space, and above all hygiene and safety. Socially distanced seating is limited.
Light refreshments will be provided. All visitors are asked to wear a mask. Tickets are $30 per person.
A handicap entrance is available at the front of the building, but guests needing accommodation may find it easier to enter directly through the parking lot. If you need this accommodation, please let us know in advance. Call us at 804-655-6055.
RVA Baroque is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit based in Richmond, Virginia. Follow them on Facebook and Instagram or get on their mailing list by writing to rvabaroque@gmail.com.
*During the pandemic, Jefferson Baroque changed their name officially to RVA Baroque.
AUGUST
SEPTEMBER
SEPTEMBER 10 and 12 POSTPONED
Frank Harmon Lecture and Workshop
Did you miss out on his events in November? Do you have more questions? Want to do more urban sketching? Frank Harmon is back for another lecture and workshop.
Harmon has loved drawing since he was a boy gazing out of a classroom window. As an architecture student in London in the 1960s, he used freehand sketching to discover, study, and understand the nuances of structures and nature. He still does. Always armed with a pocket-sized sketchbook, a couple of drawing implements, and a miniature watercolor set, he also uses sketching to embed the subject of his drawing in his memory.
“If I take a photograph of something, I’ll soon forget it. But if I draw something, it remains in my mind forever.”
Frank Harmon, FAIA, has designed sustainable modern buildings across the Southeast for 30 years. His work engages pressing contemporary issues such as placelessness, sustainability, and restoration of cities and nature.
Lecture
SEPTEMBER 10| 5:30 – 7:30 PM
Harmon will share excerpts from his book, Native Places: Drawing as a Way to See, and examples of his own architectural work to illustrate how sketching “as a way to see” enhances the grace with which we observe and appreciate all sorts of “native places”.
Workshop
SEPTEMBER 12 | 10:00 AM – 1:00 PM
During the Urban Sketching workshop on June 20 at 10:00 am, Frank Harmon will teach participants how to look more closely at the particulars of place and nuances of objects within that place, then express their observations more clearly through sketching.
Frank Harmon Package
With one purchase, you can attend Harmon’s lecture AND workshop. Plus, a copy of his book, Native Places.
Ticket Options:
Lecture Only
$20 per person, $10 for members
Workshop Only
$35 per person, $30 for members
Package
(Lecture, Workshop, and book)
$55 per person, $40 for members