Riverviews celebrates the work of nine emerging writers from Randolph College’s Creative Writing Program.  Come out on Febraury 16th at 7:30pm to support these new voices that are appearing on the Lynchburg literary scene.

March 29th at 7:30pm, we will be joined by LuAnn Keener-Mekinas.  LuAnn writes poetry that is concerned with the environmental crisis and the remaking and spiritualization of our relationship with the natural world. She has also written memoir, fiction, and poetry for children. Formerly a college English professor, she became a licensed clinical social worker in 2000 and worked intensively with emotionally disturbed children in residential treatment.

On April 19th, we will be read to by Ron Coleman and Casey Clabough.  Ron Coleman is a local African American poet who will read from his newly published first book of poems, VersUS.  Casey Clabough is the author of six books, including most recently Confederado: A Novel of the Americas, from which he will read.  He serves as literature section editor of the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities’ Encyclopedia Virginia and as editor of the James Dickey Review, the sole professional academic journal of Lynchburg College.

May brings more than Spring flowers. Join us on May 19th as we try out an entirely new format. Readers, both pro and amateur, will read while visitors relax in lounge-like environment. Drop in, drop out, come as you are. Food, drink, music, poetry social hour.

The James River Council for the Arts and Humanities will present the first annual Voice of the Arts & Humanities Awards at a ceremony on Saturday, February 18, 2012, starting at 6:30pm at the Holiday Inn Lynchburg.

The awards program, sponsored by CENTRA, recognizes exceptionally creative, innovative and inquisitive individuals and organizations whose achievement in the arts and/or humanities have distinguished them and enriched the lives of the citizens of Central Virginia. They further spotlight the creative spirit within our area and how the arts and humanities enrich us individually and contribute to the overall quality of life in our communities.

Nominees were submitted from within the James River Council service area, including the cities of Lynchburg and Bedford and the counties of Amherst, Appomattox, Bedford and Campbell.  The winners will be announced at the ceremony on Saturday, February 18, 2012, starting at 6:30pm at the Holiday Inn Lynchburg.  The Award, itself, is an original art piece by local stained glass artist Denise Ehlers. The design symbolizes the James River and the Blue Ridge Mountains that connect our communities of Central Virginia.  Click here for information on how to purchase tickets to the event.

And the Nominees are:

Who should attend? Artists, board and staff members of Virginia arts and humanities organizations and tourism departments, arts educators, arts advocates, city/county offices of economic development, city/county elected officials, and anyone who believes in the power of the arts to transform our environment and economic vitality.

About The Arts Ripple Effect
In late 2008, leaders of  ArtsWave, a Cincinnati, Ohio non-profit arts organization, embarked on a year-long research initiative designed to develop an inclusive community dialogue leading to broadly shared public responsibility for arts and culture in the region. Their research report, The Arts Ripple Effect: A Research-Based Strategy to Build Shared Responsibility for the Arts, is designed to develop a communications strategy that would yield a broad sense of shared responsibility for support of the arts—not just with those who already feel positively about the arts, but also those who are not arts insiders. The research creates a lens and compelling messages that position the arts as a public good. Waller will discuss the research, how we can use these messages as advocates for the arts, and for our community.

What: Margy Waller, Special Advisor, Arts Wave, Cincinnati, OH

Where: Academy of Fine Arts Joy & Christian Lynch Warehouse Theatre

When: Tuesday, March 6, 2012, 5:30 – 7:30pm

This event is free and open to the public!

For further information, please contact Krista Boothby, JRC Executive Director at director@jamesriverarts.org

Each January, Riverviews works hard to welcome the new year with a unique, precedent-setting show.  This year, we welcome the video installations of internationally renowned artists, Sandra Gibson and Luis Recoder in Cinématographe.  The show will open with a First Friday reception on January 6^th and will feature an artists’ talk the following Friday, January 13^th.

First Friday Opening Reception: January 6^th, 5:30-8:00pm

Sandra Gibson and Luis Recoder have exhibited their work at major international art museums, galleries, and film festivals such as the Whitney Museum of American Art (NY), Light Industry (Brooklyn), Redcat (Los Angeles), Conversations at the Edge (Chicago), Ballroom Marfa (Marfa), Sundance Film Festival (Park City), Toronto International Film Festival (Toronto), International Film Festival Rotterdam (Rotterdam), MuHKA (Antwerp), Serralves Museum of Contemporary Art (Porto), and Image Forum (Tokyo). They are currently artists-in-residence at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts.

One of the first motion picture cameras ever to be invented doubled as a film projector. This “primitive” apparatus was given the name Cinématographe in 1895 by its founders, Auguste and Louis Lumière. Camera and projector in one, the same strip of celluloid film was exposed, printed, and projected in the selfsame machine. The title of this exhibition borrows the original model of the cinema as a multiple and complex idea that perhaps foreshadowed movements and practices in the contemporary field of “expanded cinema.”

Gibson and Recoder describe the installations in their own words:

In our installation work, we use projected light to articulate space and time. Film projectors and celluloid are the material base of our constructions in light and shadow, the elemental properties of cinema. These things are deeply imbued with a history of viewership in the dark of the theater. To remove it from darkness is to flood this history and cast a certain illumination upon it. A certain exposure. Light spills in the shifting of film from its native darkness in enclosed chambers (camera obscura) to the uncanny openness and defamiliarized illumination of installation. We are exploring the shift, elaborating the displacement, recasting the light mechanics of a peculiar estrangement of the medium. The art of cinema, yes. But more timely: the becoming cinema of art. That is the coming attraction for us.

This exhibition will be on view through February 19, 2011

Open to u.S. residents, 18 years or older, working in the following disciplines; painting, sculpture, drawing, printmaking, fiber, glass, ceramics, wood, metal and mixed media. No photography accepted. All work submitted must be original (no reproductions), not done under supervision, not made from kits or patterns. All work must be suitably prepared for installation. The curator reserves the right to deny entry if any work is deemed not suitable for display or too difficult to install. Entries must have been completed after January 1, 2010, and not previously exhibited in a lynchburg juried art show.

We have had a very successful two years (2010  2009) and are excited about what this show has in store.   Our show is open to all Virginia residents and will culminate in an artists reception on November 2nd, when our juror will share her insights and award 1st ($1000), 2nd ($500), and 3rd ($250) prizes.   This usually turns out to be our biggest party of the year, with artists gathering from Charlottesville to Northern Virginia to Norfolk, and all points in between.

Our juror this year will be Caroline Cobb Wright of the Visual Arts Center in Richmond. Caroline received her BA from Washington & Lee University and her MA from University of Virginia. She has worked at the National Gallery of Art, Monticello, and is currently the Director of Exhibitions at the Visual Arts Center in Richmond. She has served on the board of Second Street Gallery and is a Governor-appointed board member of the NC Museum of Art, where she approves museum acquisitions. Also a practicing artist, Caroline maintains a studio in Richmond, VA. As an artist and as an exhibition director, Caroline is intimately familiar with a wide variety of media and subject matter.

Please join us as an artist or as a visitor!

Calendar:

October 3rd (5pm)—DEADLINE for submissions
October 14th——–notifications sent out
October 24-26——-accepted artwork to be delivered (other arranged may be made if necessary)

November 2nd——-Artists reception, Juror’s talk, and prizes awarded
November 4th——-First Friday opening
December 18th——show closes

INFORMATION

ENTRY FORM

• Online   http://www.riverviews.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/LOWRESJuriedArtFormInsideFINAL2011.pdf  OR
• email erin@riverviews.net for information (we can email you or send the form or you can stop by to pick it up.)

SUBMISSIONS

• send submissions to erin@riverviews.net   OR
•  mail cd with images to: Erin Stover, 901 Jefferson St, #113, Lynchburg, VA  24504

ENTRY FEE ($35)

• send check made out to ”Riverviews” to Erin Stover, 901 Jefferson St., #113, Lynchburg, VA  24504  OR
• pay fee online via paypal below

 QUESTIONS?

• please call at 434-847-7277   OR
• email erin@riverviews.net

Lynchburgs’s thriving arts and cultural community  on the first Friday of each month for this free self-guided experience held rain or shine between 5:30pm-8:00pm.   Jump on the historic trolley for a ride throughout all the venues.

Lynchburgs’s most popular arts and cultural program showcases nearly 15 unique creative venues in Downtown Lynchburg and in the Rivermont Area.  First Fridays showcases diverse galleries,  shopping, cultural organizations, and independent studios.

5-8PM

This fall, we will celebrate one of Lynchburg’s most prolific and beloved folk artists, Willie Shouse.  Shouse produced hundreds of his trademark paintings throughout the course of his life.  Much of his imagery focused on scenes and gatherings of people, both real and imagined.  Shouse had a very unique perspective on the world around him and conveyed it through loose, abstracted, and very colorful works. This exhibition will serve as a retrospective of the work of a man whom many still remember as a quintessential Lynchburg personality.

10 Year Vision/Action Plan

By the JRACD Planning Group[1]

Updated 6-20-11

Vision: The James River Arts & Culture District will be a visually and actively vibrant area of downtown Lynchburg where business and residential life come together through arts and culture.  The District includes three connected areas: Downtown, Rivermont Avenue to Cabell Street, and Fifth Street. (See city ordinance and district map for more details).

Vision Plan:

• Communications: Ways to disseminate information to the public regarding the JRACD
  • Competition to create logo
  • Physical markers – signs designating the JRACD
    • District designation flags – color coded for each of the three mini districts
  • Brochure – includes information regarding restaurants, shopping, district sights/sites, and other information deemed necessary
    • Include map – depicting the JRACD and its amenities
    • Info regarding BPOL tax abatement and other available incentives
    • Arts related business would be part of First Friday events
  • Information locations (Kiosk/ Visitors Center) – place with which to disseminate information; (possibly called art boxes)
  • Encourage LL, JRC, and CVB to add JRCAH pages to their web sites
• Events: Happenings in the James River Arts & Culture District to bring visitors and residents to the downtown area.
  • Festivals – bring arts, bateau, beer/wine and music festivals to Riverfront Park
  • Maintain and grow First Fridays – Facilitate the expansion of First Fridays with district organizations and businesses – especially kid & elderly activities earlier in the day
  • Street musicians – encourage and/or facilitate a musical street scene
  • Kids projects – create  and/or facilitate events for parents to bring children to the district area
  • New Year’s Eve/First Night Festivities – create and/or facilitate a yearly downtown event free and open to the public
  • District arts & cultural organizations – work with these organizations to strengthen their programs
  • Maintain Get Downtown – work with Lynch’s Landing to make this event a continued success
• Attractions: Features or venues in the James River Arts & Culture District that will draw attention to the area or can be used for events.
  • Riverfront Park – make use of the park for more events and public art
  • Public Art Features – encourage and/or facilitate the erection of outdoor art
    • 5^th Street Roundabout – work with 5^th Street CDC to commission a public art project for the circle and four corners of the roundabout space
    • Water Fountain – give the fountain a more visually enticing structure with which to lure people to the riverfront area
  • Artist Galleries – encourage the opening of art galleries by and for artists
    • Encourage city to give property tax break to landlords who rent to galleries
  • Concert Hall – encourage and/or facilitate the building or renovation of a downtown property for a public city concert hall
    • Encourage and/or facilitate the completion of the Academy of Music Theater
  • Encourage the completion of the Lower Bluffwalk project and promote and encourage its role as an arts venue
• Aesthetics: Visual indications of the James River Arts & Culture District that contribute to the attractiveness of the area.
  • Public Art projects – encourage and/or facilitate the creation of public art projects
  • Streetscape:
    • Flower containers – creates a more inviting and cheerful tone to the district
    • Public Benches – create places for conversation and relaxation
    • Street lighting – make the streets more inviting during evening hours
  • Open venues: develop best practices to encourage restaurants, shops, galleries, museums, residences, theaters to remain open longer and/or have more performances/events
• Funding: Means with which to accomplish the goals set out in this plan.
  • Grants funded by city amusement tax collections in the District and administered by the Office of Economic Development
  • Other grant sources such as the Virginia Commission for the Arts, the Greater Lynchburg Community Trust, and any other city appropriations
  • Capital Improvement funding from the City of Lynchburg in accordance with the Downtown Master Plan

• Partners: The Planning Group recommends the following organizations/individuals for partnerships –

The James River Council for the Arts & Humanities, Lynch’s Landing, Restaurant & Retail Assoc., Convention and Visitors Bureau, district businesses, district residents, City of Lynchburg through its Office of Economic Development and other agencies such as Parks & Rec., district arts & cultural organizations, and any other entities that affirm these goals for the district.

It’s that time again.  Time to commit to your number of pages in the Lynchburg Arts magazine!
This magazine is a great way to get share information about nonprofit arts & cultural organizations for just $150 a page. (There has been a $25 increase). For those of you who are new to this opportunity, this great price gets you a full color 5.5″x8.5″ page with which to inform the public of the mission of your organization with pictures and dates of events. These events are also listed in the calendar at the back of the magazine, but need to be submitted separately. Contact Krista Boothby, JRC Executive Director for more information.

For-profit businesses may also take space in Lynchburg Arts to reach cultural consumers and travelers in the area.

Download the Media Kit