RICHMOND, VA.- Ashley Kistler, whose career in galleries began 25 years ago at Virginia Commonwealth University, has returned to the university to take over as the new director of the VCUarts Anderson Gallery.

Kistler most recently served as curator for nine years at the Visual Arts Center of Richmond, where she helped the facility’s exhibition space develop into one of the city’s vital cultural offerings. During her tenure, Kistler organized several exhibitions that were held jointly with VCU departments or that featured accomplished VCU faculty members or alumni, such as a 2007 mid-career survey of sculpture professor Elizabeth King’s work and a 2005 exhibition of the work of printmaking professor Barbara Tisserat.

“I have long enjoyed working with artists from VCU and I am grateful to be a part of the dynamic creative environment at the School of the Arts,” Kistler said. “The Anderson Gallery has a strong history of presenting compelling art in a mixture of media. It is an exciting place to be.”

Kistler first worked at the Anderson Gallery in the early 1980s as an intern while she pursued a master’s degree in art history and museum studies at VCU. She also started as a gallery assistant at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts and subsequently spent 18 years at that museum in a variety of capacities, including a stint as the associate curator of modern and contemporary art.

Kistler was recognized for her contributions to the arts in Richmond in 2006 when she was awarded the Arts Innovator Award of the annual Theresa Pollak Prizes for Excellence in the Arts, which honor the city’s top artists.

“Ashley has long been an integral part of the Richmond arts community and we are fortunate to have her at VCU,” said Richard Toscan, dean of the VCU School of the Arts. “Her gifts as a curator and a manager make her an ideal fit for the Anderson Gallery.”

The 2008-09 exhibition season of the VCUarts Anderson Gallery will open on Sept. 19 with two simultaneous shows: “The Divas and Iron Chefs of Encaustic,” which features the work of eight artists employing the ancient techniques of encaustic painting, and “Landscapes without Memory,” photographs by the Spanish artist Joan Fontcuberta. The Anderson Gallery permanent collection features more than 5,000 pieces, including works by such artists as Winslow Homer, Pierre Auguste Renoir, William Wegman, Andy Warhol and Henri Toulouse-Lautrec.