The future of the Violet Crown cinema on Charlottesville’s Downtown Mall seemed bleak this past February when the Board of Architectural Review granted Heirloom Development approval to demolish the structure for a residential building. “The prospect of losing this cultural asset for the Virginia Film Festival, the community, and for the city itself was potentially […]
The future of the Violet Crown cinema on Charlottesville’s Downtown Mall seemed bleak this past February when the Board of Architectural Review granted Heirloom Development approval to demolish the structure for a residential building. “The prospect of losing this cultural asset for the Virginia Film Festival, the community, and for the city itself was potentially […]
Whether you embrace artificial intelligence or not, it seems almost mystical in its abilities—despite the fact that it was created by humans. It can also feel unreal that asking ChatGPT to write an email actually reflects billions of dollars, millions of gallons of water daily, and countless jobs being streamlined out of existence. Award-winning journalist […]
Monica Ong is a visual poet and author of the new book Planetaria. With a focus on family and diaspora as well as astronomy, the poems in Planetaria are tactile—not just visual but multidimensional. The book features a poem that takes the form of a wheel that’s viewed through a View-Master toy, a poem with […]
Friday 10/3 through Friday 11/21 Second Street Gallery presents two new exhibitions exploring the passage of time and its effects on aesthetics and materiality. In the Main Gallery, “Time and Again” features mixed media and installation pieces by JMU professor Corinne Diop, who works in photo-based processes. In the Dové Gallery, “What Remains” features mixed […]
Virginia Film Festival Executive Director Jody Kielbasa and Artistic Director Ilya Tovbis appeared on the Paramount stage on Tuesday evening to announce the 38th Annual Virginia Film Festival. The 2025 VAFF program features more than 120 films from Hollywood giants, Virginia and international filmmakers, plus topical documentaries, and a wide range of special guests across […]
In a performance that combines elements of opera, gospel, jazz, dance, and theater, Victory Hall Opera presents Gullah Meditations—the first significant new arrangements of “unknown” Gullah Geechee spirituals in 100 years. Tenor Victor Ryan Robertson and his collaborator, pianist Adrianne Duncan, produced the new arrangements based on 19th-century spirituals born out of the distinct culture […]
Chet’la Sebree is the author of Blue Opening, a poetry collection published earlier this month, as well as Field Study, winner of the 2020 James Laughlin Award from the Academy of American Poets, and other work. She is an assistant professor at George Washington University and teaches in Randolph College’s low-residency MFA program. She spoke […]
Some childhood interests turn out to be just a passing fancy. But that was not the case for Fiona Balestrieri when she was a young musician. “My first instrument was actually the fiddle,” she says. “I only played that for a year because I discovered the Irish flute. … The sound of the wooden flute […]
The Second Saturday Music Series presents genre-blending pianist, composer, and storyteller Katherine Nies for an evening of outdoor arts and entertainment. Nies combines classical, folk, and improvisation into a sound that feels both timeless and otherworldly, drawing inspiration from her mother’s Peruvian and Puerto Rican folk songs on guitar and her father’s late-night jazz piano, […]
The Charlottesville Chamber Music Festival celebrates its 26th season with a series of concerts including a free community performance on September 12. The eclectic program for strings, clarinet, and piano features music from Brazil as well as short works by classical composers Niccolò Paganini, de Beriot, Rebecca Clarke, Osmo Vänskä, and others in a one-hour […]