The mission statement that guides our 2025 Richmonder of the Year is to empower artists to “make art and make change.” Since opening 16 years ago, Studio Two Three has grown while staying true to that mission — sometimes with a steamroller in tow.
But after moving back to Manchester two years ago, the nonprofit has emerged as more than just a printmaking hub with attitude. For being a much-needed artistic resource, cultural conduit, provocative voice, educational facilitator, civic gathering spot, art ambassador-on-wheels, and innovative inspiration to those navigating new political paradigms, Studio Two Three is Style Weekly’s 2025 Richmonder of the Year.
On an annual budget of $700,000, and with only four full-time staffers, this scrappy nonprofit housed in a historic schoolhouse has managed to place itself at the center of Richmond’s community life in different, interlocking ways.
“There’s nothing like Studio Two Three. It’s like everybody’s laboratory,” writes Laura Dupuy, the loan fund manager at Virginia Community Development Corporation, which helped the studio purchase the former Dogtown Dance Theater in 2022, transforming the old schoolhouse, and the surrounding area, in the process.
Artist Barry O’Keefe, the director of artists and public spaces at Studio Two Three (and a 2025 Top 40 under 40 winner) credits the nonprofit’s leadership from Ashley Hawkins, Kate Fowler and the board: “They are willing to take really cool risks. [It’s at] the core of what makes it a special place, a different place from most art nonprofits I’ve encountered.”
Today, the studio boasts 140 members who pay a monthly rate of $115 for full access, although many are given a discount or free membership based on financial need, and some pay more for larger studio space. Members can access the studio every day of the year, 24 hours a day, O’Keefe points out, adding that the nonprofit opens its community event space to people it sometimes barely knows, often for free. “These aren’t the kind of cautious decisions that most organizations would make,” he says.
But Studio Two Three started out with just four people and a simple need, Executive Director Ashley Hawkins says. She and co-founders Sarah Moore, Emily Gannon and Tyler Dawkins simply wanted a workspace of their own.
Grassroots success story
The original Studio Two Three was a 400-square-foot room — the name comes from the fact that it was Room 23 — in the now-demolished Plant Zero building in Manchester. That space, only blocks from the current location, was filled with borrowed equipment and donated supplies. Almost immediately, other artists wanted to join. Memberships were sold and numbers grew. “It was one of those ‘Field of Dreams’ build-it-and-they-will-come mentalities,” Hawkins says, laughing.
Within a year, they moved into a 3,400-square-foot space at 1617 W. Main, a property owned by Joe Seipel, former dean of VCU’s School of the Arts, and acquired a digital arts lab. They achieved nonprofit status in 2010, and classes and seminars began to be offered in everything from screen printing to hand lettering to (importantly) making money from your art.
Hawkins’ co-founders rotated out by 2014 (Gannon is still a member) and, the next year, the studio moved to a new space in Scott’s Addition, increasing the number of artist members, classes and activities. The studio shop, selling local output, became profitable and its annual winter’s market evolved into a much-anticipated shopping staple. Soon, Studio Two Three expanded into the neighboring space, giving it 13,000-square-feet of room for events, darkrooms, workstations and even bookmaking.
But when a skylight flew off the roof during a storm in 2022, there was some soul searching. “It rained indoors for hours, destroying artists’ studios and our Studio Two Three shop,” Hawkins recalls. “In the midst of that chaos, we realized how critical it was for this organization to have its own space, not a rented building, dependent on landlords.” She thought it would take years to find a suitable property but learned (from a Style Weekly article) that the Dogtown Dance Theatre building, a former schoolhouse, was being sold.
It was perfect timing, Hawkins says. “In a stroke of Richmond fortuity, the owner, Bob Petres, was committed to ensuring that the building remained in the hands of a community arts organization rather than being turned into condos. Like Joe Seipel did many years before, he said yes [to our offer].” After a year-long renovation, the nonprofit relocated to its current home at West 15th and Bainbridge streets in November 2023.
Studio Two Three’s key function remains art making. Artists can work in mediums such as screen printing, risograph printing, etching, lithography, letterpress and relief printing. “The studio is great for learning and for zeroing in on your own skill,” says Cam Johnson, an artist member since 2018. “I don’t know too many places like this, especially to have the equipment that you need.”
Johnson’s story is like many others. He has his own clothing brand, MEANS, selling T-shirts and items he makes at the studio. He’s not only taking classes — a recent one was pattern making — he’s become an instructor himself, teaching screen printing. “It’s a great environment for artists in general. You’re bouncing ideas with like-minded people, incorporating different techniques. There’s really nothing quite like it.”
“What’s made them so exceptional is that they’re doing something that hasn’t been done before and they’re being hugely successful in the process,” says philanthropist and longtime supporter Pamela Royall. “Richmond has long been an artist-centered community, but studio space is scandalously expensive. To offer that to 100+ plus people is really impressive.”
Power to the people
From the start, the studio has been committed to bringing the joy and usefulness of art — particularly printmaking — to the greater community. Early on, Hawkins became known as the lady at the wheel of a giant steamroller printing press, omnipresent at special events like the RVA Street Art festival. The studio’s mobile print van has also been a staple at local schools and gatherings.
The nonprofit has not shied away from political matters — printing T-shirts and posters for abortion rights marches and setting up onsite at Lee Circle to create prints calling for the removal of the Robert E. Lee statue. At the height of the pandemic, studio volunteers sewed more than 10,000 masks for use in schools and within the city, and Studio Two Three held community print days during the Black Lives Matter protests to offer free printed T-shirts, prints and banners supporting African American empowerment. The studio also has partnered with Richmond historians and artists on a series of re-contextualized signs highlighting local Black history and made signs to protect Black-owned businesses from damage during the BLM protests. In more recent times, staff issued public statements and written editorials (in Style Weekly) on the Israel–Hamas war, VCU’s treatment of student protestors, and the local effects of Donald Trump’s defunding policies.
“I think people have a misconception about what nonprofits can do broadly,” says Kate Fowler, the studio’s director of community partnerships and development. “The limitation for nonprofits is that we can’t lobby. We can’t say, ‘Go vote for this person tomorrow’ or ‘go vote for this bill.’ But what we can do is speak to our organizational values. We can talk about politics at large. We can talk about civic and social justice.”
Along the way, they’ve gotten help in the form of grants from CultureWorks, the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), Virginia Commission for the Arts, CDC Foundation, the Golden Rule Foundation, and the Mary Morton Parsons Foundation, among others. But at the start of this year, the studio was denied an already awarded $200,000 Department of Energy funding grant designed to do much-needed efficiency improvements on their aged building. At the same time, they were turned down for a $30,000 National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) grant that would’ve funded their artist residency program, where visiting artists are given space and resources.
Studio Two Three’s response to the rescinded federal funds was to rally the people — to loudly roar that the arts were under attack and, in the process, inspire other nonprofits to act. In March, the nonprofit raised more than $22,000 through a “Sad Prom” gala, and in May held a “Dance Party for the End of the World” that netted $12,000. In October, their annual Camp Two Three fundraiser was their most successful yet, collecting $150,000.
“Just an amazing example of a creative organization that has used that creativity to raise more money,” says Lisa Sims, executive director of Venture Richmond. “With the cuts in federal funds to the arts, creative fundraising will have to prevail.”
In many ways, the studio’s success is the community’s way of saying, “thank you.” An estimated 20,000 people will utilize its space in meaningful ways this year. Since the move to Manchester, the studio’s community events space program has made its second-floor ballroom available free of charge to nearly two dozen organizations each month.
Earlier this year, Studio Two Three sponsored citizen town halls focusing on the changing political landscape involving LGBTQ+ rights and the environment. By gathering together nonprofit groups and experts, these packed events provided a critical service, offering a safe space of mutual support and expert help understanding sweeping new changes.
“Our community events programming feels incredibly important in this moment,” Hawkins says. “It’s a wonderful resource that we have in our new building, and it feels really meaningful that folks are able to continue with their efforts without having to spend funds they don’t have on finding a space to do it.”
A sampling of recent community meetings that Studio Two Three has hosted includes: Southside People’s Assembly, Virginia Community Voice and Manchester Alliance, alternative and documentary movie screenings from Hard Light Cinema, Nowhere Cinema, the Thrive Film Festival and CinemaNiche (which donated the projection system), live music events like RVA Square Dance, the Dark Days, Bright Nights festival and a punk show/benefit for Gaza Food Kitchen – even a workshop on how to turn guns into ink.
Neighborhood impact
Studio Two Three is also having an impact outside its doors on its Manchester neighborhood. With support from Chesapeake Bay Alliance, Marvel Architects and the city’s Office of Sustainability, it is constructing a community greenspace on its lawn featuring new trees, native plants and wildflowers, a path and a rainwater cistern. Also their community fridge has gotten a major upgrade and is accessible in their parking lot and covered from the rain. The goal is to create an inviting, thriving, eco-conscious community space.
“Not only are they transforming Manchester, they’ve done it everywhere they’ve been, starting on Main Street,” adds Royall. “When they moved to Scott’s Addition, they again became a hub for that community and defined that space in a progressive way.” Royall attributes a lot of Two Three’s success to Ashley Hawkins’ people-first leadership. “She’s one of the most thoughtful relationship managers I’ve ever met in my life,” says the trustee board chair of the Institute for Contemporary Art at VCU. “And I’ve known a lot of business people who you’d expect to be skilled at relationship management. But as an artist and a community organizer, she is unlike any other.”
A retail offshoot, Shop Two Three, has opened on Hull Street, two blocks away from the studio, and features art and clothing designed by member artists and collaborative work from visiting residents. The shop continues the studio’s tradition of hosting community events, such as the Silent/Film Revival, a retro VHS pop-up market, and this past summer’s launch of the Oregon Hill Review.
Staying focused (and creative) during a time of financial uncertainty, Studio Two Three is still living up to its mission statement — making art and making change. But the canvas is so big now that a steamroller can barely cover it.
“It seems like a silly, inane kind of mission statement,” Fowler says, “but it signaled to potential board members and people who are going to join that they had to get comfortable really quickly with an organization that was going to use its voice for social change.”
During a time of alarming national division, Studio Two Three provides a haven where “people really do show up and support each other,” Hawkins adds.
“It’s about staying hyper-locally focused and making sure that we are picking the right battles and supporting one another as much as we can,” she says. “There’s a feeling of solidarity here, of knowing that you’re not alone and there are more of us out there.”
Studio Two Three staff
Ashley Hawkins, Executive Director
Kate Fowler, Director of Community Partnerships & Development,
Barry O’ Keefe, Director of Artists & Spaces
KB Brown, Studio Manager
Studio Two Three Board of Directors
Ram Bhaghat, Mitch Crowder, Aimee Joyaux, Kelli Lemon, Christopher MacKenzie, Margaret Meehan, Justin Owen, Joseph Papa, Charlie Schmidt, Danielle Wang, George Webster, Faith Wilkerson and Janet Woodka.
