Artists-turned-activists typically use their work to amplify awareness about an issue. Increased publicity, the thinking goes, inspires action in the field. But poet Amelia Williams has found a way to leverage art as a direct blocking and delay tactic in the fight against fracked gas pipelines and compressor stations. “In 2014, when we learned about […]
Artist Elsabe Dixon doesn’t remember how she learned to raise silkworms. But after she successfully encouraged 8,000 of them to spin silk in the hollows of her experimental living sculptures, the South African native began to wonder. “I did a little bit of research and realized that I’m a descendant of the French Huguenots, and […]
Right now, there’s a debate raging about the American dream. What does it look like? Who is it for? And what will we sacrifice in order to achieve it? The debate itself isn’t new. Art has always asked these questions. And Live Arts offers a poignant example with Dreamgirls, which caps off the theater’s 25th […]
Like many of us, Matthew Burtner gets nostalgic when he recalls his hometown. “It’s different now than the place I remember as a child,” he says. “In the north, where I was born, the time of ice was a time when you could move across the land. The ice gave you a way across. Otherwise […]
In high school, playwright Samantha Macher staged a revolt. “We got a new drama teacher my senior year who canceled the spring musical because he just couldn’t figure out how to use any of us,” says the self-proclaimed theater nerd. “I wound up writing, directing and producing the spring musical. I was like, ‘Screw this.’” […]
Makers. Mistresses. Proto-feminists. Those are a just a few of the titles reserved for the artists represented in The Fralin Museum of Art’s “Two Extraordinary Women: The Lives and Art of Maria Cosway and Mary Darby Robinson.” Guest curator Diane Boucher explores the work, themes and ideals that united these 18th-century artists, including the political […]
Ever notice how a small shift in perspective can transform the way you think about your job, relationship, insert-your-life-struggle-here? Liz Rodda is a mixed-media artist who sharpens viewers’ abilities to reframe what they see by partnering two totally unrelated works in a mash-up of videos, sound and sculpture. Unlike a traditional collage artist who combines […]
In the art world, every overnight success will tell you there’s no such thing as overnight success. Playwright Sharr White knows this better than most. “I’ve been very lucky that it only took me 25 years to get established as a playwright,” he says with a laugh. “When The Other Place was produced at MCC […]
Contemplation is having a resurgence in the popular consciousness these days, with mindfulness festival studios, pop-up meditation groups and even the University of Virginia’s own Contemplative Sciences Center. But for centuries, artists have practiced contemplation as a necessary companion of creation. “A lot of artists working today like to define contemplativity broadly as a means […]
Art is food for the soul, as they say. So whether you and a date are carving a bit of indulgence into your weekday or celebrating Restaurant Week, take a break between mouthfuls to admire what’s on the walls. At The Local, glossy brick props up the hallucinogenic work of Dave Moore, a Virginia artist […]