Big picture thinking

“I’ve been drawing since around the age of 2,” Jae Johnson says. “Growing up, I had an infatuation with drawing cars. Actually, my aunt still has probably 80 percent of my work from when I was around that age.” Today, Johnson’s moved on to bigger things—literally. You can find his mural art gracing walls around […]

Popular opinion

Charles Lewis, Maxicelia Robinson, Troy (Razor) Robinson (pictured above), and Aaron Simmons have a lot to say about local issues, and they put it all on the air with “In My Humble Opinion,” their local talk show/podcast.  Topics tackled by “IMHO” include gun violence, race and media responsibility, the consequences of free speech, incarcerated mothers, […]

Simple pleasures

Good things come in small…galleries? That must be true, because The Little Museum of Art—an effort to reach more viewers during The Fralin Museum of Art at the University of Virginia’s shutdown in the summer of 2021—is a tiny treasure. Artists submit works no bigger than a square foot, which get displayed (and then traded […]

A statue reimagined

Ever since it was awarded the statue of Robert E. Lee by City Council in December 2021, the Jefferson School African American Heritage Center has been laser focused on its “Swords Into Plowshares Recast | Reclaim” initiative, which will transform the two tons of bronze rendered from the statue into a public artwork. The piece […]

Creation station

There’s a restaurant, a coffee shop, an intimate music venue, a gallery, work spaces, and now: a creator hub. Opened in the winter of 2025, Vault Virginia’s Creator Hub offers rehearsal and recording space for everyone from music groups to wannabe podcasters, at $50 per month. As Vault founder James Barton said after its inception, […]