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Two trophies both in the shapes of silver microphones, sitting on a wooden table.
Music

WTJU Wins Six National and State Awards for Radio Excellence

June marks the start of summer 2025, as well as awards season for broadcasters. WTJU has just won six awards from the Alliance for Community Media (ACM) and the Virginia Association of Broadcasters (VAB). “We have such a good team of volunteers, students, and staff at WTJU, and we live in such a vibrant place for music, arts, and culture. With those ingredients, we sure do make some tasty radio and podcasts,” said Nathan Moore, WTJU General Manager. “It is buoying to receive award recognition for a few examples of WTJU’s altogether terrific work.”

https://www.wtju.net/wtju-wins-six-national-and-state-awards-for-radio-excellence/

Image Captions Stele of the Nubian soldier Nenu, Egyptian, First Intermediate Period, dynasty 9–10, about 2100–2040 B.C. Painted limestone, Overall: 17 11/16 x 14 5/8 x 2 5/8 in., 31 lb. (45 x 37.1 x 6.7 cm, 14.06 kg). Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Emily Esther Sears Fund. 03.1848. Photography © Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
Visual Art

The Fralin Museum of Art Announces Fall Exhibitions Opening in August Celebrating 90th Anniversary

The Fralin Museum of Art at the University of Virginia (The Fralin/ the Museum) today announced its fall exhibitions schedule featuring new scholarship surrounding the complex interactions between ancient Egypt and Nubia with The World Between, and the contemporary practice of empathy through disability with In Feeling. Having received the exceptional gift of modern Haitian art from Beverly and John Fox Sullivan in February, the slate includes Haiti’s Time, a selection from the collection. Internationally acclaimed artist Pélagie Gbaguidi responds to the paintings in this gift in her multi-media installation—the first of The Fralin’s Commission series. The four presentations open on August 30, 2025.

July 8, 2025
A digital image of a classroom with 4 tables, one with a theatre mask symbol, one with paint brushes, one with a laptop, and one with a pen and paper.
Visual Art

Arts on Grounds: Fun-Filled Fall Semester Courses

Picking classes every semester can feel like a lottery. But whether you are a first-year student looking to explore your options or a fourth-year wanting to take a fun elective, the good news is that the University offers a myriad of arts courses to take that are engaging and enlightening. No matter your major, arts classes can provide a creative outlet and introduce you to valuable new skills.

https://www.cavalierdaily.com/article/2025/06/arts-on-grounds-fun-filled-fall-semester-courses?ct=content_open&cv=cbox_featured

A collage of various photos from student experiences over the summer. Groups of theatre students pose together, a student teaching at an art museum is shown, and a student visiting paramount pictures is shown.
Drama

Students Use the Summer to Pursue Professional Arts Opportunities

Coast to coast, overseas and rooted on Grounds, three current students and one recent graduate have used this summer to unearth their places in the arts. The zeal among students in the University’s arts scene doesn’t fade over the three-month academic break — it carries itself into opportunities wherever they can be found. Discovering that creative careers often reach far from home and far from ideas of traditional artistic roles, these four shared how the arts have shaped their summers — and how their summers may shape their futures. For third-year Education and College student Carlin Lacques, that discovery reframed her perspective on what it meant to work in the arts.

https://www.cavalierdaily.com/article/2025/07/students-use-the-summer-to-pursue-professional-arts-opportunities?ct=content_open&cv=cbox_featured

A photo of William Dozier sitting in front of a wall of bookshelves. He is leaning slightly forward with his hands clasped in front.
Creative Writing

College Students Are Reading Less. This UVA ‘BookTok’ Influencer Wants To Change That

Professors across the country have noticed a troubling trend: College students are reading less than ever, and a recent study found many students enter college with challenges completing an entire book. The reasons why are complex. The rise of digital entertainment and the isolation of the pandemic have played a role, and studies show that 9- and 13-year-olds are reading for pleasure at historically low rates, which could contribute to the decline in college reading habits.

https://news.virginia.edu/content/college-students-are-reading-less-uva-booktok-influencer-wants-change

Jenna Pastuszek is shown singing into a standing microphone with her arms outstretched in front of her.
Drama

Jenna Pastuszek Wants You to "Get Happy!"

Bringing "Get Happy!" to the Virginia Theatre Festival this summer is not just a regular performance for Jenna Pastuszek — it is a homecoming. “As I was building my own professional career … I always thought about Charlottesville,” she said. “That is every U.Va. alum’s constant question of like, how can I get back there?” Pastuszek, an alumna from Class of 2010, will be paying homage to Judy Garland July 24-27 at the Ruth Caplin Theatre, singing the iconic performer’s uptempo medleys & ingénue ballads while also incorporating personal stories in a cabaret performance she has taken to over 10 states and 20 regional theatres.

https://www.cavalierdaily.com/article/2025/04/jenna-pastuszek-wants-you-to-get-happy?ct=content_open&cv=cbox_featured

In a brightly lit room with white walls, many couples are learning to dance tango.
Dance

These Hoos Know How To Tango

Three scientists and a nurse walk into a room and start dancing tango. It might sound like the opening to a joke, but it’s actually the first Charlottesville Tango event of the season – and the University of Virginia community is well represented. Assistant professor of psychiatry David Acunzo, assistant professor of chemistry Jelena Samonina and emeritus professor of computer science Gabriel Robins, along with UVA Health nurse Cristina Ramirez, are devotees of Charlottesville Tango.

https://news.virginia.edu/content/these-hoos-know-how-tango

Amy Griffin leans against a wooden column while wearing a light blue dress and holding a copy of her book, The Tell.
Creative Writing

Alumna’s Book on Uncovering Her Buried Past Makes National Headlines

A literary agent was on the phone with Amy Griffin. She wanted the University of Virginia alumna to pen a volume on women in business. That made sense. After earning a volleyball scholarship and progressing to team captain, she graduated from Virginia in 1998 and charged into a marketing and investing career. In 2002, she married John Griffin, another successful Wahoo. “I think that’s the only reason he married me, because I went to UVA,” she teased.

https://news.virginia.edu/content/alumnas-book-uncovering-her-buried-past-makes-national-headlines

Mary Catherine Dunnigan is given a tour of Shannon library while in a wheelchair, and a man points out areas in the room while pushing her chair.
Architecture

At 103, Former UVA Librarian Revisits a Transformed Main Library

"It doesn’t have that old book smell.” That was one of the first details Mary Catherine Dunnigan noticed as she entered the University of Virginia’s Shannon Library for the first time in decades earlier this month. Dunnigan, who recently turned 103, chose to celebrate her birthday by returning to the University, where she spent years working as a librarian and director of the Fiske Kimball Fine Arts Library. She began working there more than 50 years ago, in 1973.

https://news.virginia.edu/content/103-former-uva-librarian-revisits-transformed-main-library

A gallery of 10 book covers, 5 on top and 5 below, evenly spaced on an orange background.
Creative Writing

UVA Librarians Share Their Must-Read Books for Summer

The extra daylight hours summer brings also mean more time for reading. Whether you’re spending the season by the beach, lounging at a pool or holed up inside with the AC blasting, summer’s more relaxed pace invites you to crack open a book and immerse yourself in a new world.

https://news.virginia.edu/content/uva-librarians-share-their-must-read-books-summer

A book cover with a close up photo of a child's knees, with the word Alleghania in white letters across the front.
Creative Writing

Arts This Week: Michael Snyder’s Alleghania

You’re listening to WTJU Charlottesville. At New Dominion bookshop, photographer and filmmaker Michael O. Snyder will host a book talk where he will speak about his new book, Alleghania. This event takes place Saturday, June 28 from 7pm to 8pm. For Arts This Week, we chatted with Michael Snyder.

https://www.wtju.net/arts-this-week-michael-snyders-alleghania/

A picture of the installation at Visible Records. It is a projection of a woman surrounded by household objects, and it is projected onto various 3D white objects.
Visual Art

Visible Records’ ‘Return of the Triumphal Mother’ Illustrates the Overlap of Art and Life

“Return of the Triumphal Mother” at Visible Records shares a series of new works by Dani and Sheilah ReStack, including a site-specific projection installation. The exhibition by the ReStacks, who are life partners as well as frequent artistic collaborators, “continues their imagining of queer family, desire, relationship and fantasy.” In service of this, the artists engaged in a call-and-response form of production—creating works that are simultaneously distinct and connected—offering audiences a single-channel video projected over an installation, along with a collection of six photograms, a two-dimensional drawing, and a mixed media work combining two-dimensional and sculptural elements.

https://c-ville.com/visible-records-return-of-the-triumphal-mother-illustrates-the-overlap-of-art-and-life/