“The Silent Strength of Liu Xia” opened at the Lora Robins Gallery of the University of Richmond Museums in Richmond, VA, on February 28, 2013. Corollary programming included a keynote lecture by exhibition co-curator A. D. Coleman, and a symposium. The museum published a catalogue to accompany the exhibition. The catalogue includes a brief new commentary on Liu Xia’s work by Kathleen Roberts Skerrett, Dean, School of Arts and Sciences, University of Richmond. The Richmond show will run through April 28.
Co-curators Guy Sorman and A. D. Coleman attended the opening ceremonies and participated in the symposium, prior to which Coleman delivered a lecture on Liu Xia’s work. 
Sponsors in Richmond included Virginia Commonwealth University and the First Freedom Center, whose stated mission is “to advance the fundamental human rights of freedom of religion and freedom of conscience.” The FFC’s president, retired U.S. Ambassador Randolph Marshall Bell, also spoke at the symposium, as did Prof. Vincent Wang, Associate Dean of the School of Arts and Sciences and Professor of Political Science, University of Richmond.
Lliu Xia poster, Richmond, 2013.
The university videotaped the keynote lecture and symposium, which it will publish online later this spring. A link to it will appear here when it goes public. (See below for links.) For this exhibition the University of Richmond Museums also subsidized the production and framing of a new set of 18-inch square digital prints of the 26 images in the show. This prints will be available for exhibition at other institutions following the closing of the Richmond show in late April. Materials available from this exhibition:
- Press release from the University of Richmond Museums, January 22, 2013. Click here for PDF version.
- Press release from the Department of Photography and Film, Virginia Commonwealth University, undated.
- Poster for the exhibition.
- Kathleen Roberts Skerrett, “On the Photographs of Liu Xia,” catalogue essay. (PDF)
- A. D. Coleman lecture, “Freedom Reflex: the Photographs of Liu Xia,” delivered at the February 28th opening event. (PDF)
- “The Authoritarian Predicament: Reflections on Freedom and Human Rights in China,” comments by U.S. Ambassador Randolph Marshall Bell, delivered at the February 28th opening event. (PDF)
- Video of lecture and panel, February 28, 2013, posted at YouTube by the University of Richmond Museums. (If video doesn’t show below, refresh this page in your browser or click here.)
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Press response to the Richmond showing has proved favorable. Here are links to some of those reports and reviews, arranged chronologically:
Style Weekly: “China Dolls,” by Brent Baldwin, February 19, 2013. Thorough introduction to the exhibition in this local newsmagazine, including commentaries by Coleman, Sorman, Wang, and others.- RVANews: “The Silent Strength of Liu Xia: rare photos from Chinese dissident,” by Nathan Cushing, February 25, 2013.
- The Contemporary Condition: “The Photographs of Lui Xia,” by Kathleen Roberts Skerrett, February 28, 2013. Substantial post at this blog published by the Dean of the School of Arts and Sciences, University of Richmond. This essay expands on her shorter comments in the exhibition catalogue.
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