Registration Policies

Course Fees

Our course fees are made up of tuition, studio fees and supply fees. Tuition helps us pay our instructors, studio fees cover wear and tear on the building and its equipment and supply fees cover the cost of supplies specific to your course. In some classes, you may be asked to purchase or bring in from home additional materials for your personal use. Remember, in addition to early registration and other great benefits, VisArts members always receive 10% off tuition.

Refunds

We know life happens. If you need to drop a course, for any reason, we’ll issue you a refund provided you make your request by at least ten days prior to your class start date with one exception: requests to drop from an onsite Artventure class must be received 14 days prior to the class start date.  Refunds are subject to a $25 drop fee. All refunds will be processed within 10 business days.

If you or an immediate family member becomes sick or injured, preventing you from completing your class, and you do not otherwise qualify for a refund, please reach out to us via e-mail at [email protected]. We would be happy to work with you to offer a partial refund or transfer to another class under a medical waiver.

All students are expected to adhere to our COVID-19 Safety Guidelines as well as other policies and posted signage.

Transfers

You’re welcome to transfer from one course to another, provided there’s room in the class and your original course start date is at least 10 days in the future. For ArtVenture, the transfer request must be made at least 14 days in the future.  All transfers are subject to a $25 transfer fee.

Waitlists

If the course for which you wish to register is full, you may opt to join the waitlist. We will notify you immediately if a seat becomes available. After we notify you (by phone or e-mail), you have until the end of that business day to register for the class or forfeit your seat. When a course starts in fewer than 14 days for an ArtVenture class or seven days for all other classes, we email all students on the wait list at once. The first student who responds gets the seat.

There is no waitlist for Second Fridays classes.

Late Registrations

We discourage students from registering for a class after it is already underway as doing so can disrupt the class and be a detriment to the student. Late registrations are only allowed with the permission of the instructor and never result in a prorated course fee. Late registrations cannot be processed online; please contact the front desk for more information.

Substitutes

We may, on occasion, need to substitute a course instructor. All of our instructors are talented artists and teachers, and the substitution of an instructor, even if made within seven days of the course start date, is not grounds for a refund.

Cancellations and Closings

We reserve the right to cancel any class with insufficient enrollment. If your class is canceled, you will be offered the opportunity to transfer to another class, if one is available, or receive a full refund for the cost of the class. All transfer fees and drop fees are waived in this case.

For the safety of students and staff, we reserve the right to close our facility in cases of inclement weather or other emergencies. We always try to email affected students as soon as possible. All closures are also posted on VisArts’ website and on our social media accounts. When the Richmond area is hit with overnight storms, we do our best to announce closures by 6:30 a.m. If we believe severe weather will affect our evening classes, we try to make a determination by 4 p.m.

If your class is canceled due to facility closure, our education coordinator will work with your instructor to schedule a make-up class. Pro-rated refunds are not available to students who cannot attend the make-up class. If a class is affected by a large storm system or multiple winter storms and several meeting dates are canceled, it may not be possible for us to make up each missed class. No pro-rated refunds are issued in that case.

Working in Our Studios

VisArts’ Studio Access Program offers affordable access for adults ages 18+ to 17 to professionally equipped studios designed for a variety of visual art media, including clay, creative writing, digital media, drawing + painting, fiber, flameworking, glass, letterpress, metals, darkroom photography, printmaking and wood.

Students can register at a special rate of $5 per hour to work in VisArts studios. Current students enrolled in an adult multi-week class that is underway will now be eligible to reserve hourly studio access appointments at a reduced student rate of $5/hour. Please read the Studio Access Page for more info.

Further Changes to these Policies

The Visual Arts Center of Richmond reserves the right to modify or supplement these registration policies without notice. It is your responsibility, as a student, to review these policies prior to registering for a course.

Last Updated: 1/26/2023