Local artist leads storytelling workshop for LGBTQ youth

For local photographer and illustrator Guillermo Ubilla, making art feels natural. He thinks it sounds cheesy, but he says it’s what he was meant to do. “My art is a combination of skills and experiences I’ve had,” says Ubilla. “It’s a way of expressing myself. I’m privileged to do art, so I want to do […]

Movie review: Shailene Woodley steers the action in Adrift

The will to survive is the single most primal instinct in our nature, one that strips away all of the things we use to define ourselves as individuals. Adrift, based on a true story, follows Tami (Shailene Woodley) and Richard (Sam Claflin) on their struggle to find either land or rescue as they float aimlessly […]

Monticello seniors share inspiration and creativity

Christian Means walks around the halls of Monticello High School with headphones on. He’s not doing it to be antisocial—he’d be happy to pause the music to say hello—but he is doing it on purpose. “I cannot function without having some kind of music playing in my head,” says Means. It helps him focus, helps […]

The Charlottesville Women’s Choir sings for all

In the wake of the 2016 massacre at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Amanda Korman knew what she needed to do. Sing. At a local vigil, Korman sang songs of solidarity, mourning and protest alongside fellow members of the Charlottesville Women’s Choir “to say we do not want this violence in our country. We want […]

ARTS Pick: Husband-and-wife musicians pair honesty with wit

Full-time touring has been known to complicate a musician’s personal life. Add a spouse, a child and a second band to the traveling show, and it sounds pitch-perfect for a reality TV producer. But Eben Pariser—the frontman for Roosevelt Dime and one-half of the duo Goodnight Moonshine with wife Molly Venter, who is also in […]

ARTS Pick: Hit-maker Smokey Robinson shares his talent

From his recordings with The Miracles to his solo work and the numerous hit singles he penned for his Motown pals, Smokey Robinson is responsible for some of the greatest hits of the last century. Immersed in talent at an early age (Aretha Franklin and Diana Ross lived a few streets away), he competed in […]

First Fridays: June 1

The inspiration for many of Regina Pilawuk Wilson’s paintings lies in another art form: weaving. At a roundtable discussion at the Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection, Wilson explains that her people, the Ngangikurrungurr, who are indigenous to Australia’s Daly River region, had passed on fishnet stitches from generation to generation, each community having its own special […]

ARTS Pick: The Paris Opera captures the highs and lows of a season

Filmed during the 2015-2016 season, The Paris Opera captures the highs of acclaimed premieres and revivals, as well as the lows, including several labor strikes, the terrorist attack that killed 89 at the Bataclan and the departure of dancer-choreographer Benjamin Millepied, also known as Mr. Natalie Portman, whom he coached for Black Swan and later […]

Movie review: Solo: A Star Wars Story fills the blockbuster role

Like its title character, Solo: A Star Wars Story often threatens to go wildly off track and ruin everything it has going for it, before it comes back with charm and skill, ready to save the day despite its rough edges. The second, after Rogue One, of the so-called Star Wars anthology films—stories that take […]

ARTS Pick: Charlottesville Symphony scores big with John Williams’ tribute

It’s fairly safe to assume that if you’ve watched movies, you have heard the work of legendary composer John Williams. To honor the soundtrack maestro, Music Director Benjamin Rous leads the Charlottesville Symphony, a blended ensemble of professional, student and community musicians, in some of Williams’ most successful scores. From distant planets in the Star […]