Rag Trade looks at the runway from all angles

On varying scales, Charlottesville is home to most of the cultural institutions of a much larger city: theater, opera, art galleries and film. Now we can add fashion shows to that list. On Saturday, Rag Trade brings fashion, music and art downtown to the IX Art Park. Three local designers will be featured amid choreographed […]

Artisans team up to craft Monolith’s handmade knives

Zack Worrell and his team at Monolith Knives are carving out a name for themselves in the handmade knives market. From a studio on Worrell’s Ivy family farm, once owned by Meriwether Lewis, Worrell, Alan Bates and Nick Watson create culinary and field knives. Recently, they have been “breathing life” into folding knives, as Bates […]

Album reviews: Devendra Banhart, Ryley Walker, Gonjasufi

Devendra Banhart Ape in Pink Marble (Nonesuch) Devendra Banhart seems like a good idea. Handsome, talented and raised in Venezuela and Los Angeles by free-spirited parents, Banhart dropped out of art school at 19 to busk on streets, and subsequently came to the attention of Swans’ Michael Gira, who released Banhart’s home recordings to wide […]

Sonya Clark marks slavery history at Second Street Gallery

Sonya Clark’s “Bitter, Sweet and Tender,” currently on view at Second Street Gallery, features sculpture, textiles and photography Clark has created, found or had fabricated. These objects limn a potent narrative encompassing Clark’s personal history and the troubled history of the U.S. and Caribbean centered on the use of people as commodities, examined through the […]

ARTS Pick: Mary Chapin Carpenter

Mary Chapin Carpenter’s genuine approach to songwriting allows the multiple Grammy winner to transcend the boundaries of category. Moving easily between classic country and modern Americana, she recently expanded her musicianship with an album of orchestral music and her new record, The Things That We Are Made Of, was produced by hot hand Dave Cobb (producer of […]

Local bassist joins re-formed Guided By Voices

Just like thousands of small-town music nerds before and after him, Mark Shue spent much of his adolescence in his bedroom in Staunton, cranking Guided By Voices songs on the stereo. He not only listened along, but fantasized about breaking through and earning a devoted following of fans, just like those beloved underground indie rockers […]

ARTS Pick: CIRCIX

Feast your eyes on some of Charlottesville’s most spectacular performance art when CIRCIX comes to town. There will be carnival games, face painting, balloon animals, food and beverages, plus a freak show and performances from fire breathers, jugglers, clowns and Moonlight Circus’ aerialists and acrobats. The fearless Opal Lechmanski will swallow swords and perform the […]

Artist Rosamond Casey explores how technology has touched our lives

The impetus for Rosamond Casey’s latest exhibition, “Tablet and Cloud: Pilgrims in Cyberspace,” was a sight that has become so familiar to us that we often overlook it: the tangle of wires beneath our desks. “The way I usually start is I get fixated on a thing, a material or a form so pervasive in […]

First Fridays: October 7

First Fridays October 7 “I have immense passion for nature and the well-being of our planet, from the tiniest of creatures and flora to the oceans and forest,” says Scottsville artist Sherrie Hunt. “The beauty and mystery of nature feeds my soul and awakens my creative spirit endlessly. On a daily basis, I’m reminded of […]

ARTS Pick: Latin Ballet of Virginia

It may take two to tango, but this time around, the Latin Ballet of Virginia dance company puts classical forms, flamenco and tango to the writings of Edgar Allan Poe, Alfonsina Storni, Pablo Neruda and Federico García Lorca. Poemas melds words with a showcase of contemporary and traditional Latin American and Spanish dance to give […]