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Charlottesville Area Arts Council Planning Project Announces Steering Committee Members

A broad cross-section of artists, cultural workers, and community leaders has been selected to serve on the Steering Committee for the Charlottesville Area Arts Council planning project. The Steering Committee will guide the community-driven process to explore the creation of a future Arts Council for the Charlottesville area. Their role is to provide insight, ensure broad community perspectives are represented, and co-create recommendations for how a future Arts Council can equitably serve the city’s diverse arts and culture ecosystem. The committee members were chosen from a pool of 59 applications submitted by local artists, organizers, educators, administrators, and community supporters.

September 23, 2025
Close up image of Chet'la Sebree smiling at the camera.
Creative Writing

Writer Chet’la Sebree on Poetry and Chronic Illness

Chet’la Sebree is the author of Blue Opening, a poetry collection published earlier this month, as well as Field Study, winner of the 2020 James Laughlin Award from the Academy of American Poets, and other work. She is an assistant professor at George Washington University and teaches in Randolph College’s low-residency MFA program. She spoke to C-VILLE about her new book, its themes of chronic illness and the body, and what it’s like to care for self and others in this moment.

https://c-ville.com/writer-chetla-sebree-on-poetry-and-chronic-illness/

A room with textured wooden-slat walls has a padded nook in the wall for sitting. The lights are a purple/pink hue.
Architecture

UVA Architecture Students Create Humpback Rock-Inspired Retreat

If you can’t go to the mountain to relax, just bring the mountain to you. University of Virginia architecture students and assistant professor Katie Stranix have created a Humpback Rock-inspired reflection room in Student Health and Wellness to offer students a little respite.

https://news.virginia.edu/content/uva-architecture-students-create-humpback-rock-inspired-retreat

A poster board with the colorful letters of the alphabet is propped up in front of a bookshelf filled with books.
Creative Writing

Exploring the ABCs of the UVA Library

A library is home to a host of books, yes, but also artifacts, objects and even movies. The University of Virginia Library’s collection is no different. It contains everything from the earliest printed materials to the Tibetan Book of the Dead to student-made advertisements for something called the “experimental university.” These items, along with roughly 200 others, will be on display for a yearlong exhibition, “The ABCs of the UVA Library,” hosted in the Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library, as well as the Shannon, Clemons, Fiske Kimball Fine Arts, and Charles L. Brown Science & Engineering libraries. The exhibition opens Wednesday, two days after Leo Lo, the new University librarian and dean of libraries, steps into his role.

https://news.virginia.edu/content/exploring-abcs-uva-library

A young adult man with brown hair is making a confused expression, looking off into the distance. The background shows the tops of skyscrapers, from a low angle.
Film

Books and Films for Hispanic Heritage Month

Hispanic Heritage Month, which runs from September 15 to October 15 each year, celebrates the contributions of Hispanic and Latino communities in the U.S. To celebrate this month, we’re recommending a few books and films that highlight different aspects of the Hispanic/Latino experience. All are available through the UVA Library via the links provided. Note that the first two novels mentioned here can be found in the Popular Books collection on the fourth floor of Shannon Library, which features several hundred recent fiction and non-fiction titles, primarily for pleasure reading.

https://library.virginia.edu/news/2025/books-and-films-hispanic-heritage-month?mtm_campaign=em&mtm_kwd=sub

A very dark room with only a black leather couch. Two small rectangular pillows are on the couch, one green and one blue.
Visual Art

The Fralin’s “In Feeling” is a Multisensory Journey Through Disability and Art

“In Feeling: Empathy and Tension Through Disability” at the Fralin Museum of Art does not look like the everyday art exhibit — in fact, upon visiting, museum goers might ask themselves where the art is. The exhibit opened Aug. 30 and explores how we empathize with others, highlighting the experiences of lived disability through different mediums such as space, music, video, text and drawing.

https://www.cavalierdaily.com/article/2025/09/the-fralins-in-feeling-is-a-multisensory-journey-through-disability-and-art?ct=content_open&cv=cbox_featured

Multiple images of UVA singers performing and singing into microphones, collage of various images together.
Music

‘A Small Business’: The Inner Workings of the University’s A-cappella Groups

The 14 a cappella groups on Grounds each have their own unique sound and style, from the Hullabahoos signature robes to Hoos in Treble’s bright pink heels — but one thing they have in common is that they manage the behind-the-scenes logistics themselves. With a variety of concert performances, album releases and busy audition cycles, the a cappella groups on Grounds not only have to sing but also manage their group’s image and schedule.

https://www.cavalierdaily.com/article/2025/09/a-small-business-the-inner-workings-of-the-universitys-a-cappella-groups?ct=content_open&cv=cbox_featured

A movie screen with a woman sitting at a restaurant booth, and we can see the audience watching the screen from a viewpoint of the back row.
Film

Maupintown Film Festival Looks Into History Through the Eyes of Black Filmmakers

The Jefferson School African American Heritage Center hosted the 12th annual Maupintown Film Festival Sep. 5-7. The event primarily showcases the works of up and coming African American filmmakers while also giving a space to talk about the themes prevalent in their films. This year the theme of the festival was “Bold and Beautiful.” A showcase of African American history and culture, the movies shown were mostly documentaries with a time slot allocated on Saturday for cartoons.

https://www.cavalierdaily.com/article/2025/09/maupintown-film-festival-looks-into-history-through-the-eyes-of-black-filmmakers?ct=content_open&cv=cbox_featured

A picture of a small outdoor covered stage at night, with red neon sign at the back that says "CROZET" and has 3 people talking on stage.
Drama

Scapegoat Underground Continues a Staple of the University Comedy Scene

Two University students formed the comedy duo Scapegoat Underground in order to participate in a University stand-up comedy tradition — and this year, they were in charge of planning that same event. Featuring student comedians and drawing in crowds from across the University, Kieran Warner, third-year College and Commerce student, and third-year College student Jack Yasenchok, hosted the third annual Step Comedy Jam Sept. 9.

https://www.cavalierdaily.com/article/2025/09/scapegoat-underground-continues-a-staple-of-the-university-comedy-scene?ct=content_open&cv=cbox_featured

A distant image of the field outside the Drama Education building filled with students and faculty, sitting and working at tables, advertising for arts organizations.

Annual University Arts Welcome Picnic Showcases University Art Platforms

Students and community members filled the Betsy and John Casteen Arts Grounds Sunday, eager to enjoy performances and gain more knowledge on various art organizations. Consistently one of the Art Department’s largest events, the Annual University Arts Welcome Picnic features several organizations, student and local performances and free shirts, bags and miscellaneous items available to all.

https://www.cavalierdaily.com/article/2025/09/annual-university-arts-welcome-picnic-showcases-university-art-platforms?ct=content_open&cv=cbox_featured

A hallway with checkered floors has informative colors panels on both sides of the hallway walls, blue and red colored. This is a picture of the exhibit.
Art History

‘The Surprising Story of Furcy Madeleine’: New Exhibition in Shannon Library Explores the Contradictions of Slavery and Freedom During the Age of Revolution

n 1990, American historian Sue Peabody was researching her dissertation on enslaved peoples’ pre-revolutionary freedom lawsuits in France when she came upon an intriguing story. In 1817 on Île Bourbon (now Réunion), a French-colonized island in the Indian Ocean, a 31-year-old enslaved man named Furcy Madeleine brought legal proceedings before the Saint-Denis District Court against his master Joseph Lory. Furcy’s suit contested his status as a slave and claimed his “ingenuity” — his freedom of birth.

https://library.virginia.edu/news/2025/surprising-story-furcy-madeleine-new-exhibition-shannon-library-explores-contradictions?mtm_campaign=em&mtm_kwd=sub

This is a collection of 10 political cartoons of American Politicians in a black and white grid.
Film

Film Uses UVA Archive to Illuminate the Life of Cartoonist Patrick Oliphant

In August, the Virginia Film Festival welcomed director Bill Banowsky in conversation following a showing of his film, “A Savage Art: The Life & Cartoons of Pat Oliphant.” The film features archival footage and hundreds of Oliphant works, and the showing was a homecoming of sorts, since the University of Virginia Library houses Oliphant’s archive, which was critical in the making of the film.

https://library.virginia.edu/news/2025/film-uses-uva-archive-illuminate-life-cartoonist-patrick-oliphant?mtm_campaign=em&mtm_kwd=sub