Community Partners
Expanding access and experiences through all the arts - inspiring community and conversations.
What does it mean to partner with the Cook Foundation?
The Cook Foundation engages with art and cultural institutions that share our commitment to bringing the arts to all.
Operated by a small and innovative Board of Directors, the Foundation welcomes partnerships with others who have a vision and a passion for art and understand that we succeed by offering art to everyone. The Cook Foundation promotes music, theater, and art through partnerships including the Virginia Symphony Orchestra, Virginia Stage Company, The Chrysler Museum of Art, the Virginia Museum of Fine Art (VMFA), Arts at Abingdon, the Courthouse Players with Missoula Children’s Theater, and many others. The Cook Foundation welcomes inquiries from other groups with an idea for ways to bring people together and uplift the community through the arts.
Virginia Museum of Fine Arts
VMFA’s new state-of-the-art traveling museum and art studio, VMFA on the Road, launched in October 2018. Since then, it has traveled to all corners of Virginia, providing an opportunity for residents of the Commonwealth to see and experience works of art from the VMFA collection up close.
Over 2800 visitors enjoyed the fine art from VMFA on the road here in Gloucester. The art mobile was in Gloucester twice in 2019, first for the Daffodil Festival and then it returned for the Gloucester Arts Festival. We are proud to announce it will return in June 2022 for the Gloucester Arts Festival!
VMFA on the Road: An Artmobile for the 21st Century is coming to a location near you with a new exhibition, Revealing and Obscuring Identity: Portraits from the Permanent Collection. This exciting exhibition of paintings, photographs, and prints explores portraiture through a variety of periods, cultures, and styles.
Throughout history, traditional portraits have typically portrayed the sitter’s wealth, power, attractiveness, and intelligence. Over time, the genre has become more expressive. Many of the works in this exhibition explore themes about the nature of art, the perception of beauty, and the cultural influences on identity. Visitors to Revealing and Obscuring Identity: Portraits from the Permanent Collection will experience the shift in portraiture over the decades.
Diverse works by more than ten artists, including Kitagawa Utamaro (Japan), Gordon Stettinius (American), André L’Hote (French), and S. Ross Browne (American), are featured in the exhibition.
About VMFA on the Road
In 1953, VMFA became one of the first museums in the world to have an Artmobile. For four decades, as many as four Artmobiles toured 59 exhibitions and served more than 2.5 million Virginians. Due to conservation concerns and the fragility of traveling works of art, VMFA replaced the program in the early 1990s with a strategy to develop stronger partnerships with schools, community centers, and museums around the state.
VMFA relaunched its state-of-the-art traveling museum and art studio called VMFA on the Road in October 2018. The climate-controlled 53-foot Volvo trailer includes Wi-Fi to connect visitors with VMFA educators and interactive components to meet their 21st-century expectations. The main attraction of VMFA on the Road, however, is the opportunity for residents of the Commonwealth to see and experience authentic works of art from VMFA’s collection up close. VMFA on the Road is traveling to remote corners of Virginia by way of the museum’s Statewide Partners program, which includes 1,000 locations — from community centers and small museums to colleges and universities.
“We are very grateful for the Cook Foundation’s support of VMFA on the Road, our re-imagined Artmobile for the 21st Century. With their investment, the Cook Foundation continues to nurture the arts in Gloucester while advancing the efforts of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts to enrich the lives of all Virginians through the arts. This is the best form of partnership-one that furthers the missions of both organizations while serving a public good.”
— Alex Nyerges, Director
The Woodville Rosenwald School Foundation
The Cook Foundation grant was matched in the spring of 2023. These funds will be used to complete the kitchen and bathroom renovations, to build a new front porch, a display space, conference room and library. We anticipate this work will be completed summer. The Foundation is deeply grateful to the Cook Foundation, the Gloucester community and our friends and supporters around the country who have contributed to this effort. The Woodville School will be a place where a very important piece of African American history will be preserved and shared.
“The Foundation is deeply grateful to the Cook Foundation, the Gloucester community, and our friends and supporters around the country who have contributed to this effort.”
— Woodville Rosenwald Newsletter
Fairfield Foundation
THE CAPE (The Center for Archeology, Preservation & Education) The Cook Foundation’s support initiated the restoration and perpetual preservation of J. C. “Capt. Jack” Brown’s Edge Hill Service Station. Through the Cook Foundation’s transformative gift, we restored the 1930s landmark into a center for archaeology, preservation and education, providing hands-on learning opportunities for the community. Since opening in 2018, the CAPE has hosted dozens of events including speakers series, artifact washing days, and anchored events on Main Street for Christmas, Halloween, and the Daffodil Festival.
“It means everything to know that you’re not alone. The Cook Foundation gave us the confidence to dream big, take risks, and make a difference in our community.”
— Dave Brown
Artist in Residency
The creation of the Arts on Main Artist in Residency program is the realization of a dream of Adrianne Ryder-Cook Joseph. Sponsored by the Cook Foundation, the program is for invited artists of all disciplines from around the world. Artists enjoy deeply focused time to explore, experiment, and to work independently in the beautiful and serene setting of Goshen estate. While in residency, artists engage with the community adding excitement to our already vibrant arts scene.
Nominated artists from beyond Gloucester are invited to bring their creative energy to us! Our surroundings are exceptional in their beauty, tranquility, and authenticity. By sharing our unique environment with artists from around the world, we hope to nourish those individual artists and foster their connections with our community. Residencies happen throughout the year and for any creative discipline.
The purpose of the residency is twofold. To provide an immersive experience for emerging and established artists, alike, giving them time and space to challenge themselves to reach the next level of their artistic talent and experience. In addition, the program is a catalyst for creativity and new ideas made accessible to the Gloucester community through events that are free and open to the public.
“This exciting new program enables invited artists to bring creative energy to the Gloucester community.”
— Melanie Chambers Hartman, Former Director of the Artist in Residency program.
Art-Loving Community
Support the arts in Gloucester, Virginia.
“Art is one of those few things that has many, many functions in a community. It is often a way to get people to pause and reflect on their lives and the lives of others and what’s important and what is meaningful.”
– Adrianne Ryder-Cook Joseph