Heartbeat of Africa heard in new gallery

By Casey Gillis

Published: September 15, 2008

Artist Ann van de Graaf’s life has always been closely tied to the black community.

“Everybody knows about Ann,” says Lynchburg resident Violet Mitchell, who is working with her to showcase the work of new and emerging artists at van de Graaf’s new gallery, Africa House.

Van de Graaf grew up in the East African town of Mbeya, where her British father, George Rushby, was an elephant hunter and, later, ran a coffee farm.

She spent her childhood going back and forth between Africa and England, where she lived with her grandmother during World War II.

After moving to Lynchburg in 1959 with husband Hans, van de Graaf soon became involved in the civil rights movement. She is a founding member of the Legacy Museum of African-American History.

“I think what drew me to the African-American community here … (was) they still had that (spirit),” she says, adding that she saw the old saying “It takes a village to raise a child” in action.

Mitchell agrees.

“That’s how I was raised, by my village. On my street,” says the Danville native. “Both my parents worked, but they didn’t have to worry about me (because of close neighborhood ties).”

Van de Graaf’s art is heavily influenced by both her childhood and her activism.

A painting she created to honor Lynchburg’s black civil rights leaders, called “Lord, Plant My Feet on Higher Ground,” hangs in an upstairs office of Africa House.

Van de Graaf says she knew everyone in the painting. Among the faces are Cecelia Jackson, one of the first students to integrate E.C. Glass High School; the Rev. Haywood Robinson Jr., a Baptist preacher; and Olivet Lee Thaxton, who challenged segregation of the city’s recreational activities.

Another personal work hangs in van de Graaf’s upstairs studio, a sanctuary for the artist.

It’s a series she drew that tells the story of John Chilembwe, a pioneer who resisted colonialism in what is now Malawi, Africa.

“He wanted more respect from the British (colonists),” van de Graaf says. “He had no success and led an uprising. Now his picture is on all the bank notes in Malawi.”

Van de Graaf always dabbled in art growing up, but didn’t get serious about it until she came to Lynchburg, where she studied art and sociology at what was then Randolph-Macon Woman’s College. She has been painting and drawing ever since.

She’s been a fellow at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts and has painted several murals around town, including one at Amazement Square and one for the Lynchburg Bicentennial Commission.
Opening Africa House has always been in the back of her mind.

“My passion is Africa because that’s (where) my roots are,” she says.

She found the perfect spot — 2238 Garfield Ave., right down the street from Virginia University of Lynchburg (VUL), where she’s on the board of trustees — almost two years ago and quickly started renovation efforts.

“It just has a special feeling to it,” says van de Graaf, who previously had a studio on Rivermont Avenue.

She and Mitchell want Africa House to be a gathering place for performances and discussions, as well as a resource for VUL students.

Mitchell, an avid art collector, says they hope those kinds of events can complement the art on display.

“You cannot appreciate (art) if you don’t know something about it. You don’t have to know everything about it, but you have to know something,” she says. “Art is part of who you are, whether you collect it (or make it).”

The gallery won’t have regular exhibits or hours and will instead hold a few events a year that will focus on Africa and the African-American community.

“It’s for the artists who don’t (usually) get the big … type of exhibit, particularly ethnic artists,” says Mitchell.

“There’s still a mystery about things African,” she adds. “The culture is so vibrant, and we need to bring it out and show it.”