In 1989 Dr. Debra Jean Ambush came to Farmville to help settle an estate for a recently passed family member. In her family’s farm house was a trunk.  This trunk contained receipts, papers, photographs, and personal correspondence dating back to 1872. For over 30 years these documents, which are an ancestral connection to the artist, have served as vital sources of artistic inspiration and interpretation as she seeks to understand her family’s histories, stories, and memories. Letters from Farmville: Reflections on Ancestral Arrival into Descendant Memory is a four-part exhibition that visualizes African American family history to illuminate the ways in which memory is constructed, lost, and cherished.

The Longwood Center for the Visual Arts (LCVA) welcomes the community to an opening reception on Friday, September 6 from 5:30 – 8 pm; early entry for Friends & Partners at 5 pm. The exhibition will be on view from September 6, 2024—January 21, 2025. Letters from Farmville is made possible in part through the generous sponsorship of Ilsa Loeser and Letterpress Communications.

About LCVA:

The Longwood Center for the Visual Arts presents a rotating program of inspiring and conversation-starting exhibitions. Admission to LCVA and its programs is—and always has been—free for all. It is located at the intersection of Main and Third Streets (129 North Main Street) in Farmville, Virginia. For additional information on these exhibitions or other programs and events, contact LCVA at 434.395.2206 or visit LCVA’s website at https://lcva.longwood.edu/.

LCVA exhibitions and programs are made possible through the generous support of: the Wells Fargo Foundation, the Walter J. Payne Foundation, Anne Carter & Walter R. Robins, Jr. Foundation, Walmart, Navona & David Hart, Century 21 @ Home, Helton House, Haley Auto Mall, Candice Jamison Dowdy ’69 & Charles H. Dowdy III + Northwestern Mutual, Hotel Weyanoke, Lisa & Tim Tharpe, Rock Foundation, Community Foundation for a Greater Richmond, Harriet Butterworth Miller ’51, Joni Beachly + Ironworks Financial, YakAttack, Peachtree House Foundation, Wilma Register Sharp ’66 & Marc B. Sharp, and Mindy & Nash Osborn + North Street Press Club.

Image/Piece Info:
Dr. Debra Jean Ambush
Henrietta’s Agency of the Pen
2023

Cyanotype
17 in. (W) x 21 ¼ in. (H) x 1 in. (D)
Courtesy of Hudson Bigger Ambush Family Archives. © Dr. Debra Jean Ambush