To hell and back
Years before the 2020 pandemic, artist Michelle Gagliano developed a fascination with Dante’s Inferno and set out to interpret each of the poem’s 34 cantos through one painting per week. She completed the project, and exhibited it in 2017. But as the virus and social and political unrest escalated this spring, the work called her […]
Spirit guidance: The catch is in the rye for Square One vodka’s Allison Evanow
It was the middle of the night in 2004 when Square One organic vodka founder Allison Evanow saw her future. Evanow’s career, marketing fine beverages had taken the Waynesboro native to Spain, Mexico, and California, working for the Jose Cuervo family before entering the wine industry in Napa. Maybe it was insomnia, maybe it was […]
Get closer
Mixed-media artist Brielle DuFlon’s work speaks of comfort in bold ways. Imagine putting on your favorite sweater, wrapping up in a fuzzy blanket, or donning a lacy garment. DuFlon takes those emotional aesthetics to a textile reality in her show, “huddle,” at New City Arts. Using repurposed and reclaimed materials, DuFlon’s dramatic pieces are a […]
Cast your eyes on the 2020 Virginia Film Festival
Unprecedented, unexpected, insane…we could go on, but after months of living in a world with coronavirus, a presidential campaign, and a series of transformative social justice movements, well, you get the idea. To combat it all, we’ve been baking, we’ve been Zooming, we’ve been sitting six feet apart at social gatherings. We’re ordering takeout, enjoying […]
PICK: Lost Home, Win Home
For the win: Playwright Shelby Edwards explores the conflicting emotions attached to her native Charlottesville in Lost Home, Win Home. Through the intricate thinking of a chess master, Edwards reconstructs the trauma of the Unite the Right/Neo-Nazi rally that took place here on August 12, 2017. Her expertly delivered solo performance strikes at the heart […]
PICK: Lola Flash
Action shots: Photographer Lola Flash’s art and activism are inextricably connected. For decades her work in genderqueer visual politics has challenged stereotypes and preconceptions about gender, sex, and race. Her exhibition “salt” is part of the Seeing Black: Disrupting the Visual Narrative Speaker Series, and captures women who are over 70 and still thriving in their […]
PICK: Fleabag
Biting humor: If you’ve been binge-watching TV over the last eight months (and really, who hasn’t?), you probably have a “Fleabag” story. Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s clever, outrageous, sex comedy-drama had everyone talking about their own relatable experiences when it jumped from an award-winning one-woman play in London to an Emmy-sweeping Amazon Prime series in 2019. See the […]
The 2020 Virginia Film Festival offers an abundance of virtual and drive-in programming
Due to our need for social distancing, the 33rd annual Virginia Film Festival looks a little different this year, but organizers say that shouldn’t deter anyone from exploring the 50-plus offerings of virtual screenings, conversations, and drive-in movies. UVA Vice Provost for the Arts and Director of the Virginia Film Festival, Jody Kielbasa says his […]
PICK: Food From Our Farms
Rewarding harvest: A salad of autumn lettuces and herbs, Asian pear, toasted pecans, and Surryano ham crisp with nectarine vinaigrette. Empanadas made from Caromont chevre, butternut squash, and heirloom apples. It’s harvest time in the Blue Ridge, and the menu for Food From Our Farms: 2020 Edition features the bounty of the season while honoring […]
Tragedy and joy: Our Time Machine bridges generational divides
The difference between a nice story and a beautiful one is in the way it’s told. When a retired opera director starts losing his memory, and his son creates a play about a child who invents a time machine so his father can relive great moments from his past, that’s a nice story. When the […]
PICK: One Man, Two Guvnors
Lasting laughs: Before he hosted “The Late Late Show with James Corden” and dueted with superstars in his Carpool Karaoke series, Corden was a comedy writer for British television and an award-winning stage actor. He stars as Francis Henshall in National Theatre Live’s HD rebroadcast of One Man, Two Guvnors, a role he reprised on […]
Listening pleasure: Nathaniel Star channels a greater joy on new album Eros
Nathaniel Star is in love. He has a light in his eyes and he is grinning from ear to ear. This is not the giddiness of a new romance or the rose-colored adoration that comes at first sight. Star is in love with his craft, his artform, the feeling that his music brings and how […]
Art emergence: McGuffey’s annual Incubator Studio show cracks open online
For fledgling artists, the Incubator Studio at McGuffey Art Center is an opportunity for growth. Each spring, renting artists Susan Northington and Eileen French select up-and-coming area talent to use the Incubator for a calendar year that runs from July to June, and ends with a group exhibition. “The studio has been set up to […]
PICK: Creative Mornings with Irène Mathieu
Healing words: Creative Mornings has been connecting art and maker communities since 2008. The international series offers unique insights into the topics that bind us, through small gatherings in public spaces around the globe. Pre-COVID, CM promoted a belief in “face-to-face connections, in learning from others, in hugs and high fives,” but it pivots online […]
Pick: Wintergreen Music x Veritas Vineyard
Wine online: Missing summer socials? Wintergreen Music and Veritas Vineyard & Winery are coming together to bring you an evening of virtual wine tasting with musical accompaniment for each sip. Artistic Director Erin Freeman chooses the perfect tunes to match winemaker Emily Hodson’s rosé & petit verdot. Seat yourself outside, chat with other attendees, and […]
Musical journeyman
The range of guitarist Miles Pearce’s talent is as breathtaking as his euphoric playing. He traverses the fretboard through classical, jazz, folk, Hindustani classical, flamenco, Brazilian samba, Argentine tango, South Indian Karnatic vocal, and West African rhythms—and if that’s not enough, he also lists experimental music on his bio. Pearce teaches privately and online, and […]
Pick: Rusty Speidel and Michael Clem
In session: Tracing Rusty Speidel’s music career is like coloring a zentangle. It twists, turns, and flows into many shapes, connects to a greater body of work, and the results are dependably creative and beautiful. Speidel (right) is a session musician, producer, arranger, and a founding member of SGGL (Speidel, Michael Goggin, Tom Goodrich, and […]
Pick: Zoom Comedy Hour
An hour of laughter: These aren’t the funniest of times, but given the circumstances, a little laughter is more important than ever. Comedians Chris Alan and Winston Hodges have you covered with their Zoom Comedy Hour. Beaming live sets and gags online, the popular local comedians bring their regular standup gig to your living room, […]
PICK: Andy Thacker and Brennan Gilmore
Jam it all: It’s tough to summarize Brennan Gilmore’s versatile musicianship. His current group Wild Common blends rootsy, folky, power soul that’s shaped by the varied styles of its seven-plus members. Then you have descriptors such as Arab-Appalachian, raw mountain music, and alt-country-soul winding their way through a music career that Gilmore began on local […]
PICK: Montpelier’s Horticultural History
Planting seeds: Montpelier, the home of President James Madison, and later, the duPont family, is a former plantation dedicated to historical preservation and education, but its events are not just about the past. Montpelier’s Horticultural History offers an exploration of the evolving and very much alive ornamental gardens of the great house. Virtually explore the lush, verdant […]
Culture Pick: Meet the artist
The Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection is checking in with its artists to see how they are faring through the pandemic, what they’re working on, and how their artistic and cultural perspectives shape their experiences in this strange new time. Next in the Meet the Artist series is Julie Gough, a Trawlwoolway artist from Tebrikunna in Northeastern […]
PICK: Kid Pan Alley
Can’t hold it back anymore: Is there a young Stephen Sondheim or Bruce Springsteen at home who’s aching to flex some creative muscle? Or maybe your child is still singing Frozen’s “Let It Go” on repeat. Kid Pan Alley can nurture that love of music through its online songwriting workshops, which are aimed at spurring […]
PICK: Shelf Life
Beach bound: When uber-popular mystery writer Tana French calls your debut novel “a subtle but relentlessly unsettling book,” you know you’ve got what it takes to thrill readers. Tara Laskowski appears in the Virginia Festival of the Book’s streaming series Shelf Life to discuss One Night Gone, a suspense story set in an off-season beach […]
PICK: Community Coloring Book
Like a rainbow: In the search for silver linings during these homebound days, the Community Coloring Book unites us through a collection of designs by local artists. With contributions from Chicho Lorenzo, Sam Gray, Thomas Dean, Bolanle Adeboye, Federico Cuatlacuatl, Charles Peale, and many others, the collaboration is the most recent addition to a series […]
Pick: Craft Cville’s Virtual Pop-Up
Making it interesting: Is your shopping addiction really being served by refreshing that grocery order and impulse buying on Amazon? Sure, Etsy can take you down some twisted, cash-grabbing rabbit holes, but the most fulfilling isolation void-filling purchases may be at Craft Cville’s Virtual Pop-Up. How about a set of magnets that features Tupac and […]
In it together: Life under quarantine in our Italian sister city
Just weeks ago, Caterina Martini was celebrating the first birthday of her daughter, surrounded by friends and family at a large gathering. Hugs and kisses passed freely from person to person. Life changed quickly for Martini and her family on March 10, when the Italian government issued a national quarantine to fight the spread of […]
Screw you: Comedian Lewis Black defies authority and rejects stupidity
When I reach politically enraged comedian Lewis Black by phone on an early February morning following the Iowa caucus, I expect he’ll be ready with one of his signature rants, and after a polite exchange of salutations, he does not disappoint. Black immediately unleashes a torrent of frustrations. Clearly he wants me to listen—which is […]