It’s been said that cultural life in Hampton Roads began with the arrival of two women: Irene Leache and Annie Wood.

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Note: The pandemic has had a disastrous effect on our local arts community. This month, in honor of our many local artists and performers on pause, Arts Undercurrent with Rebecca Weinstein will take a look back at memorable moments in Hampton Roads arts history. These four special episodes were written by and produced in collaboration with Norfolk Tour Company.

Transcript:

It’s been said that cultural life in Hampton Roads began with the arrival of two women: Irene Leache and Annie Wood.

Leache and Wood met at a school in Westover, and moved to Norfolk in 1871. They came to establish the Leache-Wood Seminary, but their mission soon expanded beyond the classroom to include the cultural enrichment of the city, and their efforts have rippled throughout the years.

In the decades surrounding the Civil War, Hampton Roads lacked an arts community. Leache and Wood tried to fill this void by organizing discussion clubs, plays, and poetry readings for adults in the 1870s and 80s.

After teaching Norfolk’s daughters for two decades, Leache and Wood sold their school and departed for Europe in 1891. There, they lived and traveled for the next nine years, immersing themselves in the cultures of a dozen different countries. They collected handicrafts, folk art, classical replicas, and rare books. They learned dances, languages, and recipes. But their trip was cut short when Leache became sick.

Shortly after they returned to Norfolk, Leache died in 1900. Devastated by the loss of her partner, Wood was determined to preserve Leache’s legacy. In 1901, Wood founded a memorial group in Leache’s honor, a private alumni group of their school that produced lectures, concerts, and oratorios. The club also preserved the art that Leache and Wood had collected in Europe. Among their loftiest goals was to establish a museum in Norfolk.

A group called the Norfolk Society of Arts (NSA) branched off from the memorial in 1920. The NSA fundraised for the Norfolk Museum, while the memorial organized local arts programming. The fruits of the NSA and Leache Memorial efforts were born in 1933 when the Norfolk Museum of Arts and Sciences, now known as the Chrysler Museum, finally opened. It represented a triumph amidst the Great Depression and the fulfillment of a grand vision. The museum dedicated a permanent gallery to Irene Leache, and in 2014, the memorial donated dozens of pieces of art to the museum. Annie Wood committed the rest of her life to the memory of her friend, Irene Leache, and left her entire estate to the memorial when she died in 1940.

Several local arts organizations trace their origins to the memorial and the Norfolk Society of Arts. The Virginia Symphony Orchestra was founded by members of the memorial in 1920. Rose Willis, who was a member of the NSA, founded the Little Theatre of Norfolk in 1926. Florence Sloane, who, along with her husband, built the Hermitage Museum and Gardens, was the chair of the NSA fundraising committee and later became the first director of the Norfolk Museum.

From Irene Leache and Annie Wood, to members of the Norfolk Society of Arts, and influential patrons like Florence Sloane, and later, Jean Outland Chrysler, the women of Hampton Roads worked tirelessly behind the scenes to build an arts community from the ashes of the Civil War. In 2020, the Year of the Woman, let’s honor and remember those who paved much of the way for the rich cultural experiences we now enjoy in Hampton Roads.

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