PCA Receives BAMA Grant
The Charlottesville Area Community Foundation (CACF) recently awarded Piedmont Council for the Arts (PCA) an $8,000 grant through the Bama Works Fund of Dave Matthews Band in the CACF. This Fund supports charitable programs in the Charlottesville area with particular focus on disadvantaged youth, needs of the disabled, protection of the environment, and the arts and humanities.
PCA will use the funding from the Bama Works Fund of Dave Matthews Band in the CACF to support an upcoming series of exhibitions featuring the work of guest artists working with under-served youth. Each guest artist will design a workshop curriculum within his or her artistic genre and artwork will be exhibited in the CitySpace Gallery, a state-of-the-art downtown exhibition space owned by the City of Charlottesville and managed by PCA.
The exhibitions series, entitled “Arts Inspire: Telling Charlottesville’s Stories,” will build on PCA’s successful Arts Access Project (AAP) and will link to Charlottesville’s 250th Anniversary Celebration, themed “A Year of Stories.”
This project was designed in response to issues that community stakeholders raised in PCA’s Creative Conversation roundtable discussions as well as the AAP’s arts leadership development program (Arts Lead). Low-income citizens in Charlottesville have reduced participation in the arts for a variety of reasons, including lack of early exposure to the arts, lack of arts leadership and encouragement, and lack of resources.
This project will benefit middle-school-aged youth living in low-income areas of Charlottesville by providing them with hands-on arts experiences led by professional artists. It will also share their artistic work and experiences with the broader community, providing them with recognition and encouragement to participate in the arts.
PCA is the designated arts agency of Charlottesville and Albemarle, with outreach to surrounding counties. Established in 1979, PCA now reaches over 150,000 people annually through programs and support services for artists, arts organizations, and their audiences. PCA encourages community-wide access to and appreciation for the arts. Images of the CitySpace Gallery are attached.
For more information about PCA’s programs and services, please visit http://www.charlottesvillearts.org.
New Virginia Travel Guide Available
The Virginia Tourism Office has just released the 2012 Virginia Travel Guide with new destinations, family favorites, wineries and attractions that put love at the heart of every Virginia vacation. New features this year include vacation ideas for all four seasons, a special section on small towns, scenic drives and a listing of the newest attractions to open in Virginia.
Highlights of the 2012 Virginia Travel Guide include:
- Details on the newest attractions and experiences in Virginia including the Patsy Cline Museum in Winchester, new wineries, the Golden Eagle Tree House at Primland, and the upcoming OpSail Virginia 2012 event.
- The best places for families to spend time together including beaches, kid-friendly resorts, exciting museums and camping adventures.
- An entire section dedicated to Virginia’s many beaches, where families can spend a memorable vacation playing in the sand along Virginia’s 3,000 miles of coastline.
- Inspiring scenic drives that traverse Virginia’s beautiful landscape from the Blue Ridge Parkway to the Colonial Parkway and the newly designated Journey Through Hallowed Ground.
- The latest on wine travel in Virginia at the state’s more than 200 wineries.
- Historical highlights including the 150th anniversary of the American Civil War and Emancipation.
- Small town treasures such as old-fashion soda fountains, hardware stores and farmers markets.
- Vacation ideas for each of the four seasons.
- Four different cover designs feature Heartwood in Abingdon, Sandbridge in Virginia Beach, the Bluemont General Store in Loudoun County and Fort Monroe in Hampton.
Visit www.Virginia.org to request a free 2012 Virginia is for Lovers travel guide or call 1-800-VISITVA for more information.