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RESONATE: A Richmond Podcast Festival

An initiative of the VPM + ICA Community Media Center

 at The Institute for Contemporary Art at Virginia Commonwealth University

The VPM + ICA Community Media Center, launched in 2020, is the result of a unique, innovative partnership between a major public university and a major public broadcaster, both dedicated to growing access to arts and education for all. Within the recording studio and workspace located on the second floor of the ICA at the Dr. Murry N. DePillars Learning Lab, students, media professionals, and community members are learning about podcasting, gaining valuable production skills from experts, meeting other creative storytellers, and getting their voices out into the world.

Podcasting is one of the fastest-growing audio art forms in the world. Podcasts educate, entertain, inform and inspire, but there is one special feature that makes them so powerful: they are the most inclusive and democratic form of documentary storytelling that can be available to all. At the ICA, we believe the art of storytelling should be accessible to everyone, so we can share more stories that matter.

 The VPM + CMC Community Media Center has already made great strides, hosting the inaugural RESONATE Podcast Festival in October 2022. RESONATE put the VPM + ICA Community Media Center on the map as a center for accessible podcast production and education. In 2022 the festival sold out with 280 registrations from podcasting and audio production students, beginners and professionals from across the country. Plans are already underway for the second annual event from November 3 to 4, 2023.

ABOUT THE ICA

The Institute for Contemporary Art at Virginia Commonwealth University presents the art of our time and provides an open forum for dialogue and collaboration across the region and throughout the world. 

Opened on April 21, 2018, the ICA is a non-collecting institution that showcases an ever-changing slate of exhibitions, performances, films, and special programs that translate our world into every medium. Admission is free and open to all. 

Located at the corner of Belvidere and Broad streets, on VCU’s Monroe Park Campus in Richmond, Virginia. The LEED-Gold certified building, the Markel Center, was designed by Steven Holl.

ABOUT THE VPM + ICA COMMUNITY MEDIA CENTER

This publicly accessible recording studio and workspace is located on the second floor of the ICA in the Dr. Murry N. DePillars Learning Lab. The Community Media Center launched virtually in the fall of 2020 and opened for inperson recording and programming in November 2021. 

The VPM + ICA Community Media Center is helmed by Chioke I’Anson, Assistant Professor of African American Studies at VCU and underwriting announcer at NPR. As Director of Community Media, I’Anson will teach a podcasting seminar each semester for students in the Department of African American Studies. 

I’Anson manages a team of VCU students who plan and create a series of community events and youth programs including podcasting and media classes, workshops on podcast development and critique, symposia with invited speakers and mentors, and live podcasting programs. 

He is also director of the ICA’s Levels Up Academy, a summer intensive for participants aged 17 - 22 that teaches audio and podcasting skills. 

THANKS TO OUR RESONATE PARTNERS AND SPONSORS