First Fridays – March 2024

The Academy Center of the Arts is proud to present a new gallery exhibition each month featured in our Academy Galleries.

To see the current exhibits, please visit Artistica.shop

Join the Academy every First Friday of the month from 5:00 PM – 8:00 PM, as we unveil our latest art exhibits, featuring an array of local, regional and national artists presenting their works in various mediums.

The Ann White Academy and Up Front Galleries are both located on the first floor of the Patricia Harrington Gallery Building located at 600 Main Street.

The Ann White Academy Gallery & The Up Front Gallery
Frank Hobbs Retrospective

Frank Hobbs is Professor of Painting and Drawing at Ohio Wesleyan University, in Delaware, OH. A native of Lynchburg, Hobbs had his first formative experiences as a young artist as a student of Linda Williams at E.C. Glass High School. Upon graduation in 1976, Hobbs studied art with Ray Kass, Victor Huggins and Derek Myers at Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University, earning his BA in Art. Graduate studies followed at American University (A.U.) in Washington, DC where he earned his Master of Fine Art in 1984. While at A.U. he studied with Robert D’Arista, Ben Summerford and Jack Boul.

Returning to Lynchburg in 1984, Hobbs began his teaching career at the Lynchburg Fine Arts Center and in the Continuing Education Program at the former Randolph-Macon Woman’s College, now Randolph College. Temporary stints followed at Mary Baldwin College from1985 to1989, and at James Madison University in 1987.

From 1989 to 2003 Hobbs lived and had his studio in the historic Crowle Building in Staunton, VA. With his friends and colleagues Ron Boehmer, Daniel Dempsey and Rosalie White, all from Lynchburg, Hobbs co-founded the Beverley Street Studio School (BSSS) in Staunton, VA in 1992. The school continues to this day, and is now in its 32nd year. In addition to teaching painting, drawing and printmaking at the BSSS, he also taught drawing at Washington and Lee University and Virginia Military Institute. From 2004 to 2006 Hobbs lived in Richmond, VA, before taking a one year Artist in Residence position at Colby College in Maine. He moved to Delaware, Ohio to take the position at Ohio Wesleyan University in 2007.

Hobbs’ paintings have been exhibited both in the U.S. and abroad in Italy, as well as in Ankara, Turkey, Phnom Penh, Cambodia, and Bermuda, through the Arts in Embassy Program of the U.S. State Department. His work is in numerous public and private collections internationally. The artist has received fellowships and grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Virginia Commission for the Arts, the Vermont Studio Center, and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. Most recently, Hobbs is the recipient of an Individual Excellence in Art Award from the Ohio Arts Council.