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A picture of the student event where visitors are seen creating zines at a table, which is covered in various colorful art supplies.
Visual Art

The Growing Zine Scene of Charlottesville

From recent on-Grounds workshops to city-wide festivals, University students and community members all across Charlottesville have begun to embrace the unique medium of zines. The art form can be traced back to the 1920s, when they were used to spread the message of the Harlem Renaissance. Since then, artists have also used zines to speak on crucial subjects such as rights for the disabled, women’s reproductive rights, the dismantling of racial discrimination and more.

https://www.cavalierdaily.com/article/2025/04/the-growing-zine-scene-of-charlottesville?ct=content_open&cv=cbox_latest

Piece by Joan Mitchell on a blue wall at the exhibition, with the wall text to the right.
Visual Art

“Joan Mitchell: Uncovering 100 Years” Is a Fascinating Look at the Complexities Behind Art Restoration

To celebrate the 100th anniversary of the American artist Joan Mitchell’s birth, museums all over — such as the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the Museum of Modern Art and the Seattle Art Museum — are displaying collections of her work. However, along with celebrating the artistry of Joan Mitchell, the Fralin Museum of Art exhibit also centers the process of restoring the artwork itself.

https://www.cavalierdaily.com/article/2025/05/joan-mitchell-uncovering-100-years-is-a-fascinating-look-at-the-complexities-behind-art-restoration?ct=content_open&cv=cbox_latest

A colorful puppet creature is shown in front of the Rotunda at night.
Visual Art

Fantasy Comes Alive at UVA’s Festival of the Moving Creature

Creatures from the sky and the sea met Friday evening on the University of Virginia’s Grounds. Delia, a flying creature, and her aquatic companion Peri marched from Culbreth Theatre to the Rotunda and back as part of the annual Stan Winston and Steven Warner Festival of the Moving Creature.

https://news.virginia.edu/content/fantasy-comes-alive-uvas-festival-moving-creature

A picture of The Merton Spire, which is a tower carved from soft, porous limestone.
Visual Art

So Hoos Asking: What Is a Limestone Spire From Across the Pond Doing on Grounds?

Don’t worry if you’re unsure about the three-ton limestone sculpture in the lower garden of Pavilion VI, why it’s there remains a mystery. The sculpture is the Merton Spire, a really big gift from Merton College, Oxford, that originally perched atop a chapel buttress. A plaque on the piece reads “A pinnacle of Merton College Chapel Tower, erected 1451, presented to the University of Virginia, 1927, by Merton College, Oxford.”

https://news.virginia.edu/content/so-hoos-asking-what-limestone-spire-across-pond-doing-grounds

Ubuhlanti: Solution Oriented Being at The Fralin Museum of Art. Photo by Stacey Evans.

UBUHLANTI FROM SOUTH AFRICA TO UVA: Solution Based Curating at The Fralin Museum of Art

What does it mean to bring the world to UVA? In recent years, “curating” has become a hot-topic everywhere from museums and universities to fine-dining and social network influencers. As consumers, we can now select from a global array of options in every domain of life. While this has made us more attuned to the diversity of “world” experiences, it has also resulted in the inequalities that curator Geraldo Mosquero has identified, between “curated” and “curating” cultures. Bridging this divide has been a central question for Profs. Noel Lobley (music) and Henry Skerrritt (art history) as they developed the Co-Present Art Initiative with Xhosa artist Xolile ‘X’ Madinda in both Makhanda, South Africa and Charlottesville, Virginia.

June 5, 2025
Detail of Autumn Samone's Work
Visual Art

Arts This Week: Ruffin Gallery’s Echoes of the Shadows

The Ruffin Art Gallery graduation exhibition is open until June 6th. The exhibition is a collection of student works curated by two of the department’s graduate students. For Arts This Week, we spoke with Elena Yu Ganiyu Jimoh and Elnaz Latifpour.

https://www.wtju.net/arts-this-week-ruffin-gallerys-echoes-of-the-shadows/

David J. Getsy, the Eleanor Shea Professor of Art History at the University of Virginia, has been awarded a prestigious Guggenheim Fellowship for his work exploring how non-normative genders and sexualities have shaped art and cultural history. Photo credit: Evan Kutsko

David J. Getsy Awarded Prestigious Guggenheim Fellowship

David J. Getsy, the Eleanor Shea Professor of Art History at the University of Virginia, has been awarded a prestigious Guggenheim Fellowship. The honor recognizes his groundbreaking research at the intersection of art history, queer studies, trans studies and performance studies. Getsy's work has significantly contributed to understanding how non-normative genders and sexualities have shaped art and cultural history.

https://as.virginia.edu/david-j-getsy-awarded-prestigious-guggenheim-fellowship

Joe Erdman
Visual Art

A Life Bound to the Arts

The University of Virginia’s longstanding relationship with The Joseph and Robert Cornell Memorial Foundation can be traced back to 1950s New York City and the storied law firm Greenbaum, Wolff & Ernst. Until it ceased operations in 1982, the firm was known for its work representing high-profile literary and artistic clients, such as Tennessee Williams, Carl Sandburg, and Truman Capote. As an estate lawyer with the firm, Joe Erdman (Col ’56) represented novelists and playwrights, including Edna Ferber and Morris West, and the actor Peter Falk. He drew up the wills for Mel Brooks and Anne Bancroft. One of Erdman’s partners, a tax lawyer named Richard Ader, represented the acclaimed artist and filmmaker Joseph Cornell.

https://giving.virginia.edu/stories/a-life-bound-to-the-arts

Creativus III with an illustrated brain in pink
Visual Art

Arts This Week: Creativus with David Glover

This April, the students of Link Studio at Center 1 will present their media showcase Creativus III. Students from the many specialized media and technology pathways at Link Studio will display their creative and innovative pursuits with family, friends and anyone else who would like to come and support their hard work and talent.

https://www.wtju.net/arts-this-week-creativus-with-david-glover/

MaKshya Tolbert (contributed photo)

National Poetry Series Winner is the Library’s Artist-in-Residence

April is National Poetry Month and UVA Library is pleased to announce that poet MaKshya Tolbert, the inaugural Art in Library Spaces Artist-in-Residence, will deliver a talk on place-based poetics and creative process on April 18. Tolbert was one of five winners of the 2024 National Poetry Series competition; her first collection, “Shade is a place,” will be released by Penguin Books in October.

https://library.virginia.edu/news/2025/national-poetry-series-winner-librarys-artist-residence