Get smart about art
Navigating the First Fridays art walk can be a task if you have particular tastes. For sheer volume, you can’t beat the McGuffey Art Center, where 20 resident artists regularly open their studios for a first look at new works.
Second Street Gallery showcases contemporary art in a unique light, hosting monthly yoga nights with live music.
If you’ve got a soft spot for the classics, check out the landscape and still life paintings at Warm Springs Gallery or Les Yeux du Monde.
For an international flair, the Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection is the only museum in the U.S. devoted to the work of indigenous Australian artists.
Go ahead, be board
Hey, you! Yeah, you, focused on your smart phone. How ’bout a little old-fashioned human interaction in the new year? Try a family (or friend) game night once a week. We suggest Apples to Apples word association game as a good start for kids 8 or 9 years old all the way up to adults.
Grow your circle
Think of Charlottesville as a big neighborhood, teeming with potential new best friends, and 2015 as the year you finally meet some of them. Lucky for you, Cville TimeBank not only makes that easy, but you might get your house cleaned or learn how to can tomatoes in the process.
According to Kathy Kildea, Cville TimeBank’s vice president, timebanking is a way of giving and receiving while also getting to know your neighbors. The organization trades in hours instead of cash, and you earn time by offering other people services such as garden design, bicycle repair, fermenting instruction, child care, pet sitting, sewing and wedding planning—to name just a few of the items on Cville TimeBank’s exchange list. One hour spent helping (and getting to know!) somebody else earns you one hour in return.
“I’ve met some interesting, fascinating, warm-hearted people that I never would have crossed paths with” without the TimeBank, Kildea said. “It’s opened doors to new friendships and relationships.”
The Cville TimeBank, which currently has about 150 members, is open to anyone, but before you can join, you have to attend an orientation session (the next one is scheduled for January) and set up a profile. Once your account is authorized, you have a green light to browse the TimeBank’s list of services and post your own.
“We are all in our own little homes, living our own little lives, and sometimes we don’t realize that something that seems mundane to us could be helpful to somebody else,” Kildea said. “There is no limit on what can be exchanged; we’re only limited by what our members can do.”
For more information, visit cvilletimebank.com.
Be a squeaky wheel
Whether you’ve got a beef or just want to see how the sausage is made, there’s no better way to start understanding the inner workings of the city—or county—where you live than slipping into a seat at a public meeting. The Charlottesville City Council meets at 7pm in Council chambers at City Hall on the first and third Mondays of the month, and you can get a rundown of what’s happening ahead of time by looking at the agenda at charlottesville.org/council. The Albemarle County Board of Supervisors meets midweek at least twice a month, but the schedule can vary; check out albemarle.org/calendar and albemarle.org/agenda to get the when and the what ahead of time.
If you want to get even more local, try your neighborhood association meeting. Contacts for city neighborhoods are at charlottesville.org/nds.
Adopt a furry friend
Some vets discourage getting a new pet around Christmas time, but the post-holiday lull may be the perfect time to bring home a four-legged pal. The Charlottesville Albemarle SPCA is never short on critters that need homes, but here are a few other local options:
Virginia Paws for Pits (virginiapawsforpits.org), the Shenandoah Valley’s “bully breed” rescue.
Extra Mile Dog Rescue (extramiledogrescue.org), a Central Virginia organization that rescues dogs earmarked for euthanasia.
Cat Adoption and Rescue Effort (care-cats.org), a Henrico County-based 501(c)(3) that rescues cats and kittens from euthanizing animal shelters.