Ashley Kistler has been Curator of the Visual Arts Center of Richmond (formerly the Hand Workshop Art Center), since 1999. From 1984-1999, she served as Associate Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. Since joining the Visual Arts Center, she has organized more than fifty exhibitions and a wide array of special programs, from symposia and artists' residencies to numerous film/video programs and performing arts events. Her exhibitions, some of which have traveled nationally, have featured the work of regional, national, and international artists in solo and thematic presentations. Kistler received a BA in Art History from Dickinson College and an MA in Art History and Museum Studies from Virginia Commonwealth University.