Mark Tomasko works to preserve the art of engraving

I’ll be honest, I was an avid coin collector as a kid, but it was never about the art. The intricacy of the designs on coins or the colors of ink used on bills are often an afterthought. For me collecting was about rarity. I wanted to be the only person in town with a […]

July First Fridays Guide

First Fridays is a monthly art event featuring exhibit openings at many Downtown art galleries and additional exhibition venues. Several spaces offer receptions. Listings are compiled in collaboration with Piedmont Council for the Arts. To list an exhibit, please send information two weeks before opening to arts@c-ville.com. First Fridays: July 4th, 2014. C’Ville Arts 118 […]

Kluge-Ruhe presents new works in renovated galleries

After an extensive renovation, the Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection has unveiled two new exhibitions in its redesigned galleries. “Art and Country,” on view for the next year, provides a crystallization of Aboriginal art through the framing of basic questions. The exhibition’s design will remain while the work will be rotated out yearly so that treasures […]

Album reviews: Linkin Park, Grandpa Egg, Umphrey’s McGee

Linkin Park The Hunting Party/Warner Bros. Somewhere along the way, the band Linkin Park became viewed as a formulaic one-trick pony. Pair up Chester Bennington’s throat- scraping screeches with raucous guitars and drums, occasional scratches and raps from Mike Shinoda, repeat, and call it good. And while this might have been true at the start, […]

ARTS Pick: The Whiskey Gentry

Summer would be incomplete without a high-energy, foot stomping country concert, and The Whiskey Gentry is up to the task. In 2009, husband and wife duo Lauren Staley and Jason Morrow teamed up to form an innovative bluegrass band. Soulful vocals, punk-inspired beats, and lively performances define the group of talented musicians as pioneers in […]

ARTS Pick: Devon Sproule

Nothing epitomizes a longing for Old Virginia more than fine local wine combined with Blue Ridge folk music—and the songs of Devon Sproule are a perfect testimonial. The formerly local singer-songwriter pieces together elements of folk, country, pop, and jazz to create an authentic, simple sound set off by sweet, honest vocals that evoke the countryside’s pastoral […]

Film review: Obvious Child reflects a woman flawed and whole

Let’s answer your most pressing question about Obvious Child: Yes, Paul Simon’s song “Obvious Child” appears in the movie. Twice. Unless you’ve been avoiding press about movies since January, you know Obvious Child is a romantic comedy in which the main character, Donna (Jenny Slate), has an abortion. But that’s not entirely what the movie […]

Tupelo Press Teen Writing Center unites creative youth

It takes a village to raise a writer, or at least it did in my case. When I was in eighth grade my best friend applied to a local performing arts high school, where she was accepted as a creative writing major, and I—propelled by love of adjectives and X-Files fan fiction—did the same. Four […]

ARTS Pick: Nat Baldwin

Tenure under the tutelage of jazz legend Anthony Braxton and a decade onstage with the Dirty Projectors has helped Nat Baldwin become a premiere player in the avant-garde jazz scene. His songwriting bears the heavy weight of melancholia—a haunting and foreboding tone that is carried by gravelly vocals over a bowed upright bass. Baldwin’s ominous timbre […]