Song and social advance

There might be a few local residents who haven’t yet heard of Victory Hall Opera. But rest assured that opera aficionados nationwide—from the Deep South to the Pacific Northwest—have begun to take notice of the Charlottesville-based company. Victory Hall is turning heads thanks to its embrace of cutting-edge productions, like its latest, a world premiere […]

Next act

Susan Evans knows nothing is permanent in the theater. Nor should it be—theaters must evolve to stay relevant, says Live Arts’ artistic director. “A successful theater is a theater that never stops examining itself,” Evans says. “I think that many theaters get stuck. And it’s easy to get stuck because of money.” Evans got her […]

Sights and sounds

Charlottesville music scene photographer Rich Tarbell’s new book of portraiture is a no-filters cross section of local singers, songwriters, and industry supporters, and it’s a should-have for any Charlottesville audiophile. But let’s get to the part you’ve heard before: The project, like so many other artistic endeavors, was inspired by the COVID-19 pandemic. We all […]

Granular on granola

Brian Nosek is into numbers. He’s also into breakfast. Nosek, a psychologist at the University of Virginia, is a well-known champion of “open science,” a movement to make academic research and its findings accessible to everyone. “A lot of the public perception of psychology is about treatment and management of wellbeing,” Nosek says. “But a […]

Art for heart’s sake

Richmond-based artist Hamilton Glass wasn’t just upset about the George Floyd killing by police in Minneapolis on May 25, 2020. He was upset about the nation’s reaction to it. “I was getting really frustrated about why so many people were now seeing this…as different,” Glass says in the 2020 documentary Mending Walls. “It’s been carnage […]

Off the court

Citizen Ashe, by award-winning director Sam Pollard and Rex Miller, chronicles the life of tennis great and Virginia native Arthur Ashe, a trailblazing figure on the court and activist off. Ashe was the first Black man to win a singles championship at Wimbledon, the U.S. Open, and the Australian Open. He was also the first […]

Open book

The Jefferson-Madison Regional Library is the subject of Free and Open to the Public, a film documenting its 100-year history, and the Maupintown Media production offers something most organizations would rather avoid: an unvarnished look at a checkered past. “The library was looking at its 100 years of service and the current state of public […]

Far out collaboration

Tim Reynolds is busy these days. He’s shredding on tour with Dave Matthews Band while playing Dave & Tim shows in between. He’s dabbling in livestreams, and is only two years removed from his last TR3 album. But when his old Charlottesville friend, Michael Sokolowski, called during the pandemic last year, Reynolds freed up some […]

Truth, be told

The folks behind the art installation known as the Truth Farm want everyone to know the truth about immigration.  But what is the truth? And could there be more than one? Unveiled on Refugee Investment Network founder and managing director John Kluge’s family property within the Trump Winery, the Truth Farm installation first centered around […]

The best gets better

Keswick Hall is no stranger to accolades—the luxury hotel and golf course has received the Forbes’ Five-Star Award, Golf Digest Editors’ Choice Award for Best Golf Resorts in the Americas, and the AAA Four Diamond Rating for its Fossett’s restaurant. But three years ago, the property’s ownership group set out to take it to the […]