For once, diminutive pop star Sabrina Carpenter might be the tallest person in the room. On Wednesday, the Grammy-winning singer will host the 50th anniversary special of “The Muppet Show” on Disney+. For viewers unfamiliar with the Muppets, it might seem odd to pair a notoriously raunchy celebrity on a show with puppets. But one Muppet expert says it’s actually a great fit.
In winter, the University of Virginia’s Grounds take on a quieter beauty. With the lush foliage of warmer months now dormant, the season invites a closer look at the small details that often fade into the background of daily life. University Communications photographers Matt Riley and Lathan Goumas used this time to turn their lenses toward those overlooked textures, patterns and moments. Take a closer look with them as they share what inspired and captivated them about the subtle details that help define UVA.
This February marks 100 years since the first national commemoration of Black history in the United States. The Association for the Study of Negro Life and History launched Negro History Week (spearheaded by Carter G. Woodson) in 1926. Sixty years later, U.S. Congress designated February as Black History Month. Below, several UVA librarians recommend books, databases, and videos that investigate the significance of the Black experience throughout American history and beyond.
Matt Marshall is a film lecturer, screenwriter, composer, and accompanist. He teaches Cinema as Art and Screenwriting at the University of Virginia and Film Appreciation for Piedmont Virginia Community College’s Prison Education Program. He has been composing and performing live music to classic silent films for over 20 years with the Virginia Film Festival and other venues throughout the Commonwealth.
The Virginia Theatre Festival’s 2026 season will open on Saturday, June 20 with the melodramatic madcap romp, Ken Ludwig’s Moriarty. VTF’s 52nd season runs through July 26 and will also feature the Tony Award-winning musical Disney’s Newsies and Frida…A Self Portrait, a one-woman show that explores and celebrates the life, art, and enduring legacy of legendary artist and cultural icon Frida Kahlo. The Virginia Theatre Festival is a program of the University of Virginia, with support from the Office of the Provost, Vice Provost for the Arts, College and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, Department of Drama, and The Caplin Foundation.
The idea was simple but ambitious: stage an “ABCs” exhibition spotlighting UVA Library collections, entirely curated by Library staff. The exhibition would showcase the breadth of the Library’s holdings, and also serve as a welcome for new University Librarian and Dean of Libraries Leo Lo, who was set to begin at UVA just days before the opening.
Brett Goerl is pursuing psychiatry with a camera in hand. Goerl, currently a student in both the University of Virginia’s School of Medicine and its Darden School of Business, created a photographic exhibit, “Figuring the Sublime,” on display in the UVA Health University Medical Center’s main lobby through March 12, one of six art displays scheduled for 2026.
The 1978 mystery film “Death on the Nile” is based on a novel by the famous British writer Agatha Christie, featuring the Belgian detective Hercule Poirot and set in Egypt. So how did a University of Virginia School of Law diploma end up on one character’s office wall? When UVA Today received the question from Mary Farsetta, a quality improvement coordinator in the Heart and Vascular Center at UVA Health, we knew we had to take a crack at it.
In late January 2021, nearly 800 million shares of video game retailer GameStop changed hands as amateur investors inspired by the WallStreetBets subreddit snatched up its stock, sending prices soaring by as much as 51%. That “short squeeze” – in which the amateur investors targeted hedge fund managers who were betting financially against the flagging retailer – is the inspiration for a novel by University of Virginia alumnus Frank Hamlin.
