McGuffey Art Center toasts 50 years of collaboration and support

From the moment it opened on October 11, 1975, the McGuffey Art Center was a hit. Half a century later, the vibrant arts organization is still humming along, providing affordable studio space and a supportive environment for artists while delivering art shows, receptions, classes, open studios, and performances to the public.  When William H. McGuffey […]

Can you hear me now? Local podcasters come in loud and clear

Back in 2005, Apple CEO Steve Jobs declared that podcasting was “the next generation of radio.” When the company began supporting podcasts on iTunes that same year (so users could easily download the audio shows onto an iPod, where the name originated), the medium gained steam, and lately podcast consumption has exploded. Last year Apple […]

In a new documentary, UVA students and residents of a juvenile correctional facility connect through Russian literature

When the great classics of world literature were first being written, they were not meant for students or academics decades or centuries in the future. First and foremost, they were meant to foster a relationship between reader and writer. For Andrew Kaufman, who teaches Russian literature at the University of Virginia, that connection came to […]

ARTS Pick: Cirque Italia

Looking for an affordable spectacle? Try the Italian circus that tours city to city, sets up under a giant tent and presents aerial acts, hand balancing, contortionists and mermaids over a 35,000-gallon water tank. Cirque Italia creates a “vivid, dramatic and moving experience” without animals, despite the rumor of a dinosaur appearance. Thursday 7/21–Sunday 7/24. $10-50, […]

Local author Emma Rathbone stays focused with Losing It

Writing a novel isn’t easy by most measures, but it’s said that your second novel is where the anxiety really kicks in. Pressure builds to craft a book that’s readable and critically embraced, without being too similar to its predecessor. Of course, this is even more true if your first was met with popular success. […]

ARTS Pick: Maupintown Film Festival

The Maupintown Film Festival showcases works of historical, educational and social value that address the achievements and plight of the African-American community. Included in the 12-film lineup is local filmmaker (and founder of Maupintown Media) Lorenzo Dickerson’s documentary Anywhere But Here, which examines the cause and effect of mass incarceration, as well as his Color […]

ARTS Pick: Beach Blanket Bingo

The modern convenience of food trucks and a WTJU DJ accompany the Virginia Film Festival’s Moonlight Movies screening of the 1965 teen flick Beach Blanket Bingo. A singer’s agent uses publicity stunts against her will, so Frankie Avalon and his gang of beachgoers must save the day in the fifth installment of the “Frankie and […]

Offstage Theatre recasts The Maids as teenagers

Though Jean Genet’s 1947 play The Maids (Les Bonnes) is known as a sadomasochistic, cruel and absurd work, director Stephen Simalchik says he would describe his Offstage Theatre production as playful before he would call it dark. “Something that is only cruel or shocking I wouldn’t want to spend a lot of time on,” he […]