Place as Practice
AMS works across dozens of cities each year. We conduct interviews, analyze markets, build financial models, and develop plans. That work requires us to learn a great deal about the places our clients call home — their demographics, their competitive landscape, their history. But studying a community from inside a consulting engagement is different from stepping into it as a learner.
That distinction is what the Day of Discovery is designed to close. The initiative asks a simple question: what do we notice when we are not here to advise? The program began in Philadelphia in 2025. In February 2026, the full AMS team traveled to Richmond, Virginia for two days of site visits, conversations, and reflection.
AMS has worked in Richmond since 2000, including projects with the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, the Modlin Center for the Arts, and the Richmond Performing Arts Alliance, whose Dominion Energy Center was the site of AMS owner’s counsel work during its design and construction two decades ago. Returning to a place we know professionally, this time as students of it, adds new clarity for tenured team members, and escalates the involvement of newer team members in a place we know well. Building this shared context is critical to the value we provide clients and the corporate culture we model.
Why Richmond
Richmond is not a neutral backdrop. The city has been actively working through its own contradictions for years. As the former capital of the Confederacy, Richmond carries a racial and civic history that is visible in its landscape, its institutional structures, and its planning decisions. Monuments have come down. Neighborhoods have been reimagined. The city’s approach is one of engagement, not erasure.
That history is embedded in physical space. The newly constructed Allianz Amphitheater sits adjacent to the American Civil War Museum, itself on the former grounds of the Tredegar Iron Works — the largest Confederate munitions factory. The Dominion Energy Center faces north on Broad Street, toward Jackson Ward, the historic African American commercial and cultural district that was cut through by the construction of I-95.
At the same time, Richmond’s cultural sector has real scale. According to Americans for the Arts’ Arts & Economic Prosperity 6, the not-for-profit arts and culture industry in Greater Richmond generated $329.9 million in total economic activity in 2022, supporting 6,742 jobs and contributing $82.7 million in local, state, and federal tax revenue. The region’s per capita arts impact is comparable to metros like the Dallas Arts District and San José, California.
The city’s broader economy has grown substantially. Richmond city’s GDP reached $35.1 billion in 2024, up from $21.1 billion in 2015 — a 66% increase in nominal terms. Per capita personal income in the city rose from $49,422 in 2015 to $80,007 in 2024. Leisure and hospitality employment in the Richmond metro have fully recovered from the pandemic and reached a new high of 69,100 jobs in 2025, up from 68,100 in 2019.
Richmond also has an evolving political context. Mayor Danny Avula, who took office in January 2025, has placed arts and culture at the center of his civic agenda, building an arts and culture working group into his transition team.
Who We Met
We designed the visit to span the ecosystem. Our conversations engaged institutions of different scale, mission, age, and governance structure, each offering a distinct perspective on what it means to operate in Richmond right now.
Modlin Center for the Arts, University of Richmond — A university-based presenter navigating the complexities of a dual mission, where they serve the campus community and the broader public. Our morning session with Paul Brohan and Shannon Hooker opened the day with questions about leadership, institutional identity, and what it means to serve audiences based outside the university gates.
Richmond Performing Arts Alliance / Dominion Energy Center — Stewards of a historic venue that AMS helped plan in 2006. Abbi Haggerty, Jen Maddux, and Lacey Huszcza of the Richmond Symphony walked us through the Dominion Energy Center’s next chapter. We heard about their decisions involved in managing a legacy asset in a changing downtown while maintaining relevance for multiple constituent groups.
Virginia Museum of Fine Arts — One of the largest art museums in the country, with free general admission. Our afternoon session with Caprice Bragg and Director Alex Nyerges covered access as strategy. Alex and Caprice shared how structural decisions bore fruit long-term, creating an atmosphere that was more than just inviting, but also welcoming to Richmond’s culturally diverse communities. The team also toured the Giants exhibition, drawn from the collection of Swizz Beatz and Alicia Keys.
Allianz Amphitheater — Richmond’s newest large-scale venue, an 8,000-capacity outdoor facility developed by Live Nation. Rebecca Street and architect Daniel Strait (3North) walked us through the site and facilitated a conversation about what commercial venue development asks of mid-sized cities and the responsibilities that come with it.
1708 Gallery — A long-standing artist-run space on Broad Street, and a member of the mayor’s arts and culture transition team. Lunch with 1708’s leadership grounded everything that came before it. Speaking with Executive Director Emily Smith reinforced the lesson that the health of an arts district is not measured by its anchor institutions alone, but by whether its constituents can sustain, and retain, a creative community over generations.
What We Learned
01 — Engagement is a practice (not just policy)
Every organization we visited had a version of this question on the table: what does it mean to serve your community, and how do you know you’re succeeding? The VMFA’s free general admission policy is the clearest example: access is not a program, it is a structural decision, and its effects on audience composition are measurable. The 1708 Gallery’s presence in a corridor under economic pressure is another: staying is a choice. Across organizations of different scale and budget, the pattern held — the work of community engagement happens in the decisions institutions make about how they operate, not in the language they use to describe themselves. This is something AMS works through with clients in strategic planning: the gap between a values statement and a values-driven operating model is real, and it is closeable — and it is one of the core questions of how arts organizations engage communities.
02 — History is the content (not just context)
In Richmond, the past is not behind you. It is in the building. Sitting in the Dominion Energy Center and hearing its leadership work through the relationship between the institution’s history and its future audience illustrated something the team talks about in planning processes all the time: an institution’s relationship to its own past shapes every decision it makes about what comes next. The same is true of the city. The Allianz Amphitheater sits on historically charged ground. The Broad Street corridor was shaped by decisions made generations ago about where to route a highway, which communities to invest in, and which to displace. Organizations that try to plan without accounting for that history are working with an incomplete map. AMS’s approach to facility planning and strategic planning is built on exactly this premise: you cannot chart a course forward without understanding where you are.
03 — Mid-market cities are where the most consequential questions are being asked
04 — Returning to places AMS knows is integral to our practice
AMS has worked in Richmond across three decades. Several of the organizations we visited are current or past clients. That history informed and enriched the whole event, from planning through our days onsite. The long relationships we were able to tap is part of the value we bring to all of our clients: the capacity to remember what a plan said, its underlying assumptions, and understand at a deep level how organizations have evolved. The Day of Discovery reinforced something we believe about this work — returning to places matters. The follow-up conversation is often richer than the initial one.
What We Carry Forward
Reflections from the Team
“Planning Richmond Day of Discovery gave me a different way to understand a city. I began with the practical questions: schedules, site visits, speakers, and how to create a meaningful learning experience for the AMS team. But the process became more than coordination. It allowed me to see Richmond’s cultural institutions not only as places to visit, but as part of a longer history that AMS has helped shape and continues to learn from.
What touched me most was the openness of the leaders we met. They welcomed our questions, shared their uncertainties, and spoke thoughtfully about how their organizations are adapting to change. Dancing in the museum during Jazz Night was especially memorable. It showed me how a cultural space can hold joy, bring different communities together, and create room for dialogue. As a planner, I was reminded that a successful visit is not only about where we go, but about what kinds of conversations and connections become possible. The experience helped me better understand where we stand, where arts and culture stand, and where people stand in relation to one another.”
— Yuwen Shen
4 years at AMS
About AMS Planning & Research
Founded in 1988, AMS Planning & Research provides strategic counsel to arts, culture, and entertainment organizations across North America. Over 37 years and more than 1,300 client engagements, AMS has guided the development of $16 billion in capital facilities for the arts and worked with organizations from major performing arts centers to community cultural institutions. Learn more at ams-online.com.
