Introducing the Presidents Passport
Sign up for your Presidents Passport and receive a discount on Montpelier admissions, plus more than 50 special offers and travel tips in the greater Charlottesville area.
Use the Presidents Passport website to create your own off-the-beaten-path excursion this spring in Orange and Charlottesville.
The Presidents Passport is free! Look for specials from the Inns at Montpelier, Keswick Hall, the Clifton Inn, and the Omni Hotel, unique restaurants, the Monticello Wine Trail, and artisan studios and shops.
Download your Presidents Passport or pick-up the brochure at Montpelier and create your own keepsake with three unique Presidents Passport stamps from Monticello, Montpelier and the downtown Charlottesville Albemarle Convention & Visitors â¨Bureau (stamps received at ticket counter).
The Presidents Passport is brought to you by a partnership between Montpelier, Monticello, the Smithsonian, Ash Lawn-Highland, the Charlottesville Albemarle Convention and Visitors Bureau, the Virginia Tourism Corporation and more than 50 hotels, restaurants and shops in Charlottesville, Orange, and the surrounding area to bring you savings the next time you visit in 2012.
Visit http://prespassport.monticello.org/sign-up/.
Monticello Road
The Bridge Progressive Arts Initiative is pleased to announce Monticello Road, a celebration of one of Virginia’s most interesting neighborhoods through photography and a series of community events.
Over the course of two years, Charlottesville artist/photographer Peter Krebs has visited and revisited the people and places along the road’s one-mile length from Moore’s Creek to the Belmont Bridge. It is an area that is simultaneously historic and a hotbed of contemporary culture. He talked his way into homes and businesses and set up a series of spontaneous and informal photo booths at which he invited passers-by to pose in exchange for a free print created on the spot. The result is a library of pictures that glimpse into the lives of a neighborhood and that is both comprehensive in breadth and intimate in detail.
“I was astonished by what I learned by doing this project,” writes the artist. “Almost everyone I met was very forthcoming and full of interesting stories. Oftentimes, the people who seemed the most intimidating at first impression turned out to be the nicest. It broke some barriers for me and now I find myself wanting to interview everyone I meet.”
The exhibition, which runs from April 6 to 27, will include dozens of large prints plus a slide show of more than a hundred neighborhood faces. An eighty-page catalog accompanies the exhibition. There will be a corollary series of community events, including a film screening (Still Life with Donuts), youth programs, storytelling, a panel about neighborhood planning, an open house, an artists’ roundtable and more. See full schedule of events below.
“This process has really opened my eyes to how the arts can bring people together,” says Krebs. “I’m really looking forward to everyone meeting one another at at the opening. The events will be a great way to share perspectives and to bring more community voices—and faces—into the arts.”
For more information about events, preview images and profiles of some of the people of Monticello Road, please visit www.monticelloroad.com.
Around the World in 80 Photos
“The Poetic Justice World Tour” was an international creative project by artist Ebony Walden in 2010 that involved extensive travel to 5 continents and 17 countries in just 8 months. Ebony witnessed the beauty and brokenness of the world while volunteering at schools, orphanages, and community centers. Inspired by her travels, she wrote poetry. An integral goal of “The Poetic Justice World Tour” was to utilize poetry to give voice to impoverished and disadvantaged communities around the world. Using her poetry to promote cultural awareness, Ebony seeks to foster a greater understanding of global social justice and poverty.
“Around the World in 80 Photos” will be a multi-media exhibit of photos, poems and videos that capture Ebony’s journey. It will be on display from April 6-30 at CitySpace, 100 5th Street NE (on the Downtown Mall) in Chrlottesville.
In honor of National Poetry Month, the exhibit will also display poems from local youth as part of Arts Inspire: Telling Charlottesville’s Stories, a series of free workshops for youth. A free performance of poems and songs will follow the reception. Proceeds from the sale of photographs from the exhibit will be donated to organizations that Ebony worked with while traveling.
Arts Inspire is funded by the Bama Works Fund of Dave Matthews Band in the CACF, and is part of Charlottesville’s Celebrate250.
For more information, visit www.poeticjusticetour.com or email Ebony Walden at ebony@poeticjusticetour.com.
Initiative to End Use of Antipsychotic Drugs as Chemical Restraints to Nursing Home Residents
Advocates for nursing home residents who have been working for many years to eliminate all misuse of antipsychotic drugs for nursing home residents applaud the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) for a new national initiative to address the drugging epidemic.
CMS’s “National Initiative to Improve Behavioral Health & Reduce the Use of Antipsychotic Medications in Nursing Home Residents” was announced March 29.
“Nursing home staff who take the time to understand what residents are communicating with their behavior can provide care to their residents without using chemical restraints,” said Claire Curry, Legal Director of the Civil Advocacy Program at the Legal Aid Justice Center in Charlottesville, Virginia. “We have seen good care like this in some facilities and know that all facilities can do the same.”
Locally, the Community Partnership for Improved Long Term Care, an initiative of the Legal Aid Justice Center, has focused advocacy and education efforts on the issue of the drugging of nursing home residents. Under the supervision of attorneys Claire Curry and Kathleen Caldwell, law students and members of the Partnership are available to make informational presentations to facilities, family councils, and consumers with an interest in quality long-term care services.