C’Ville Art Blog: A Studio Visit with Cynthia Burke

This week we share our studio visit with local artist Cynthia Burke. Cynthia Burke is a local artist who paints in a style similar to that of Alex Gross and Mark Ryden. We visited her in the studio at the McGuffey Art Center to find out more about her work and her artistic vision. Her studio is filled with inspirational […]

Johanna Leech builds a mini-museum of collectables that tell a local story

“I’m an artist…but I’d also identify myself as a collector,” said Johanna Leech. It is precisely this vocation that brings Leech to Charlottesville to participate in The Bridge PAI’s new artist-in-residence program. The 28-year-old native of Belfast, Northern Ireland has spent October scouring the area for kitsch objects, unusual stories, and local hearsay, myths and legends. […]

ARTS Pick: Off the Map

Professional rock climber Mark Synnott has spent a large portion of his life hanging by callused fingertips from some of the most remote cliffs and rock faces in the world. Off the Map features Synnott in the North Face Speaker Series telling personal stories about reaching incredible peaks, from glassy ice walls in the arctic […]

Album reviews: The Head and the Heart, Moby, The Avett Brothers

The Head and the Heart Let’s Be Still/Sub Pop The latest record from this folk/pop/rock band is a beauty. Thought-provoking, well- crafted with great melodies and variety, Let’s Be Still is easy to enjoy. “Another Story” is pleasing piano rock given greater power in lines like “tell you one thing/ain’t gonna change much/the sun still […]

Film review: Ridley Scott directs the grim, stylized thriller, The Counselor

Following a screening of The Counselor, one critic said: “It’s nasty film. Very well made…if that’s what you’re into.” Judging just from The Counselor’s plot (going into business with Mexican cartels), who wrote it (Cormac McCarthy), and its location (the Texas/Mexico border), there should be no mystery as to what you’re in for. But there […]

November First Fridays Guide

Angelo 220 E. Main St. “Recent Paintings by Michael Fitts” on scrap metal panels. 5-7:30pm. The Bridge PAI 209 Monticello Rd. “Virginia is for …” by Johanna Leech. 5-8pm. Boutique Boutique 411 E. Main St. Day of the Dead celebration and Mexican art. 5-8pm. Chroma Projects 418 E. Main St. “Known/Not Known,” with sculpture by […]

ARTS Pick: Crazy for You

Adapted for the stage by notable playwright Ken Ludwig, Crazy for You is set to the music of George and Ira Gershwin, and takes place in the bustling 1930s. Robert Chapel directs the heartwarming tale as it follows the dreams of main character Bobby Child, a playboy and future banker with a musical soul, in a production […]

Ensemble Plus Ultra refurbishes 16th century classical treasure

Ever wonder what Spanish explorers listened to as they mapped the world? Probably not. But worth exploring are the discoveries of Britain’s Ensemble Plus Ultra. The ensemble is an eight-piece consort of chamber musicians that sings early liturgical music, mostly, from the Spanish Renaissance. Founded by Michael Noone in 2001, EPU formed when Noone discovered […]

ARTS Pick: Steel Magnolia

Country-rock duo Steel Magnolia cut its teeth on the national stage with an audition for CMT’s reality show “Can You Duet?” Initially skeptical that the judges would understand its unique twist on country, Joshua Scott Jones and Meghan Linsey walked away with the show’s grand prize, and received further confirmation in 2012 when awarded an […]

ARTS Pick: The Mock Stars Ball

Six local bands go big on Halloween with slick impersonations of popular rock bands at The Mock Stars Ball. The heavy metal-esque Corsair will play all the “hits” by Iron Maiden, and fast-paced Dwight Howard Johnson takes on the Pixies catalog, while Moby and the Dicks (Joe Cocker and Friends), Megaphor (Rage Against the Machine), Sharkopath (The […]