Made in VA Biennial¬

Every other year, we’re dedicating an expanded gallery space to the juried exhibition, enabling the Museum to showcase a wider range of artistic voices and visions. This expansion also means more prizes and professional opportunities for participating artists.

Now as in 1994, Made in VA reflects the Museum’s commitment to enriching and supporting the artistic communities in our region. This momentous occasion marks a new chapter in the Museum’s long history of fostering creativity and innovation.

JURORS:

A panel of three jurors representing regional and national perspectives reviewed submitted materials and selected 61 artists and 87 works of art from an application pool of 699.

Lauren Leving is a curator and writer based in Chicago and Cleveland. Her work explores how creative practice can expand institutionally rooted understandings of access. Currently, she is curator-at-large at the Museum of Contemporary Art (moCa) Cleveland; associate curator for the Orange County Museum of Art’s 2024 California Biennial; and co-curator of Everlasting Plastics, originally presented in the U.S. Pavilion during the 2023 Venice Architecture Biennale. Since joining moCa in 2019, Leving has organized projects including the Getting to Know You residency, which supported the production of Messages to Authorities (Go Away!), a largescale textile commission by Aram Han Sifuentes and Don’t mind if I do, a group exhibition stewarded by Finnegan Shannon.

Previously, she was a curatorial fellow at Hyde Park Art Center and exhibitions manager for Wrightwood 659, and she has curated exhibitions at spaces including ACRE Projects, Material Exhibitions, Co-Prosperity Sphere, and the Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art. Leving holds an MA in Museum & Exhibition Studies from the University of Illinois–Chicago and a BA from Tulane University.

Maya Brooks is the assistant curator of Contemporary Art at the North Carolina Museum of Art and Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art, an intermediary position that forges her passion for technology with art history through exhibition curation and interpretation. Brooks’ professional mission is to provide equitable museum experiences for diverse populations. Overall, she strives to restore access, inclusion, and agency in the museum field for historically marginalized communities.

Heather Hakimzadeh is the juror and site curator for the exhibition and the Senior Curator and Special Projects Manager at the Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art (Virginia MOCA). Since her tenure at Virginia MOCA, she has organized over 50 exhibitions ranging from local to internationally recognized artists. Hakimzadeh’s recent exhibitions include She Says: Women, Words, and Power, Inka Essenhigh: A Fine Line, and Wayne White: Monitorium. She wrote essays for both Inka Essenhigh’s monograph and the catalogue that accompanied the seminal group exhibition, Turn the Page: The First Ten Years of Hi-Fructose. She earned a BS from Carnegie Mellon University, a BA in Art History from Old Dominion University, and an MA in Art History from the George Washington University.

Made in VA Biennial is on view July 12, 2024–January 5, 2025.

JUROR-AWARDED PRIZES

The Goode Prize | $10,000

The Goode Prize winner will also have a solo exhibition that will run concurrently with the 2026 Biennial and will have an individual virtual studio visit with each juror. We express our deepest gratitude to the Goode Family for their vision and generosity. Their unwavering support makes this transformative prize possible and further illuminates the brilliance of Virginia’s artistic landscape.

2nd | $3,000

3rd | $1,500

Honorable Mentions | $750 (3 awarded)

SPECIAL PRIZES

Director’s Prize | $1,000

People’s Choice | $750

EVERY SELECTED ARTIST

Opportunity to participate in a virtual group studio visit with a renowned artist selected by Virginia MOCA

Virginia MOCA Individual membership