Environment and Object - Artists and Issues @ VCU Grace Street Theatre

Time and Location	Thursday, September 8 5 - 6:30 pm VCU Grace Street Theatre 934 W Grace St Richmond, Virginia
	VCU Anderson Gallery
	With artists Viye Diba and Bright Ugochukwu Eke, exhibition co-curators Lisa Aronson and John Weber and VCU Professor of Art History Babatunde Lawal. In conjunction with the exhibition "Environment and Object, Recent African Art," on view at VCU's Anderson Gallery September 9 - December 11. Panel discussion and exhibition are free and open to the public.

Elvis at 21

Alfred Wertheimer "The Kiss" (detail)

DEC 24, 2011 – MAR 18, 2012


Forty dramatic black-and-white photographs taken by Alfred Wertheimer in 1956. The photographs feature Elvis Presley on the brink of international superstardom — including intimate images taken in Richmond. RCA Victor contracted Wertheimer to shoot promotional images of Elvis, who had just been signed to record for the label. Wertheimer was given total access to Elvis on the road, backstage, in concert, in the recording studio and at home in Memphis.

"Henri Cartier-Bresson was known for photographing what he called the 'decisive moment,' that moment when everything falls into place," says Wertheimer. "But I was more interested in the moments before or after the decisive moment."

The For more information on Elvis at 21 visit the VMFA here.

"Wheels On The Bus" Bar Crawl - A 2BNB Benefit

	Cocktails For A Cause is hosting a bar crawl to benefit the free weekend bus line To The Bottom And Back and their effort to prevent drunk driving. Sunday, August 28 11am - 9pm Tickets will be sold for $25 per person (all proceeds going to 2BNB) which includes: -2 Beer Tickets per person per bar -TShirt with all participating bar and sponsor logos (while supplies last) -Wrist bands for drink specials at each bar -Transportation between bars -1 raffle ticket for prizes Join us Sunday August 28th starting at The Republic (parking available in Pleasants Hardware lot across Broad) at 11:30am for brunch with 2BNB Buses taking us on the following bar lineup: -Republic -Bandito's -Starlite -F.W. Sullivan's -Delux -BlackFinn -Cha Cha's Cantina -Returning to Republic Buses will depart Republic between 12:30-1pm so be sure to be there BY 12:30 and not be left behind! Each bar stop will be an hour with a "Round Up Raffle" to signal the departure to the next bar. Raffle prizes and specials have been donated in thanks to our wonderful Sponsors: Loveland Distributing Southern Wine and Spirits Hot 100.9 103.7 The River Red Bull Raffle Prizes include: Concert tickets, Richmond NASCAR Race tickets, a beach cooler, Golf equipment (putter, drivers, etc.), Margarita Dispenser, and more. Drink Specials at each bar: $2 Miller Lite or Coors Light Draft $3 Blue Moon drafts $5 Ciroc Red Berry $5 Vegas Bombs $5 Red Bull Vodkas To purchase tickets contact: cocktailsforacause@hotmail.com

Groovin in the Garden

Gillian Welch and David Rawlings

The Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden

Friday, August 19 · 5:30pm - 8:30pm
1800 Lakeside Ave, Richmond, VA 23228 · Get Directions Groovin' in the Garden is one of Richmond's best concert series in beautiful settings, Maymont & Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden! For more information visit this link.

Good Art for a Great Cause

	Join artist Steve Hedberg for the opening reception of "Land & Sea" at The Gallery at UNOS. A series of landscapes and seascapes, along with another 15 existing works will be on display at UNOS Gallery. The show will run through Oct. 29. Steve will donate 30% of sales to UNOS, a national non-profit organization based in Richmond that helps save lives by managing the organ donation system, which includes transplant waiting lists, organ matches and transit, along with educating and advocating the importance of organ donation. Also featuring works of transplant recipient Marian Bowers, a Petersburg resident who sketches in pencil and illustration markers. He has produced a piece a week during his recent battle with Hodgkin's lymphoma cancer. Opening reception: Friday, September 2, 5-8 p.m. First Fridays reception: Friday, October 7, 5-8 p.m. The Gallery at UNOS, 700 N. 4th Street, Richmond, VA 23219 Free Parking. Open to the Public. Invite your Friends & Family. To view Hedberg's paintings, visit http://www.stevehedberg.com/

2011-2012 Firehouse Theatre Season

Cat On A Hot Tin Roof

by Tennessee Williams

September 15 - October 8, 2011

A Proud Part of the Tennessee Williams Festival
Directed by Rusty Wilson
In Cat On A Hot Tin Roof, a powerful Southern family gathers at a birthday celebration for patriarch Big Daddy, who does not know that he is dying of cancer. In a scramble to secure their part of his estate, family members hide the truth about his diagnosis from him and Big Mama. Front and center as tensions mount are alcoholic former football hero Brick and his beautiful but sexually frustrated wife Maggie “the Cat”; as their troubled relationship comes to a stormy and steamy climax, a shockwave of secrets are finally revealed. Brimming with the playwright’s trademark emotional intensity and insightful wit, Cat On A Hot Tin Roof is an American treasure. Don’t miss of Tennessee Williams’ rich and timeless family portrait.

The reception following the Opening Night performance will be catered by Sticky ToGoGo!

Meet the talented Cast and Crew!

Join us for martini nights generously sponsored by SKYY Vodka and Wild Turkey Bourbon September 29-October 1st.

More information

Why Torture is Wrong, and the People Who Love Them

by Christopher Durang

November 10 - December 3, 2011

Directed by Billy Christopher Maupin
Christopher Durang turns political humor upside down with this raucous and provocative satire about America’s growing homeland “insecurity.” Why Torture is Wrong, and the People Who Love Them tells the story of a young woman suddenly in crisis: Is her new husband, whom she married when drunk, a terrorist? Or just crazy? Or both? Is her father’s hobby of butterfly collecting really a cover for his involvement in a shadow government? Why does her mother enjoy going to the theater so much? Does she seek mental escape, or is she insane? Homing in on our private terrors both at home and abroad, Durang oddly relieves our fears in this black comedy for an era of yellow, orange, and red alerts.

“Durang’s funniest play! Don’t feel guilty about laughing so hard at this hilarious new comedy.”
-Ben Brantley, The New York Times

“A smashing new play with a serious taste for the blissfully, unapologetically silly! The entire ensemble, with the hilarious Kristine Nielsen, never misses a beat.”
-John Heilpern, The New York Observer

“You may laugh yourself silly! This carnival of lunacy swept me into its joyous whirligig. Laura Benanti offers more than a star turn; I’d call it a constellation.”
-John Simon, Bloomberg News

“A hilarious, topsy-turvy look at a world that is definitely off-kilter.”
-Mike Kuchwara, Associated Press

More information

You Don’t Know Me: A Trio of One-Acts

by Adrienne Kennedy and Israel Horovitz

February 16 - March 10, 2012

Ohio State Murders by Adrienne Kennedy
Beirut Rocks and Security by Israel Horovitz

Three one-act plays take an intriguing look at the destructiveness of prejudice in society. An African-American writer unravels a dark mystery stemming from her 1949 studies at Ohio State, an immigration agent confronts an Iranian woman and her son at Newark Airport, and two American students, one Jewish, the other a Palestinian-born Arab, clash heatedly in a Beirut hotel room.

More information

Dessa Rose

by Lynn Ahrens, Music by Stephen Flaherty

May 2 - June 1, 2012

Based on the Novel by Sherley Anne Williams
A Co-Production with Richmond Center Stage
CenterStage and the Firehouse House Theater Project come together to present Dessa Rose, a musical full of love, laugher, hope and a pair of two unlikely heroines. One is a fallen lady of society abandoned by her husband, the other a pregnant slave sentenced to death on the gallows. When circumstances thrust them together, they form an uneasy alliance in an attempt to secure them both their freedom and that of their infant children. The journey proves treacherous, and their lives become further intertwined. The women are forced to transcend racial barriers. They forge a true friendship that makes them realize they have far more power together than they ever would alone. Based on imagined details of real events, this dangerous adventure of a musical brings celebrates life in all its joys, triumphs and challenges.

More information or to purchase tickets visit the Firehouse Theatre Project link on the right.

Virginia Artists featured in Pushing Boundaries Exhibition at The Linden Row Inn

PUSHING BOUNDARIES:
Art as Metaphor in Love and War
Summer - Fall 2011

Pushing Boundaries: Art as Metaphor in Love and War, 1708 Gallery’s latest satellite exhibition at Richmond’s historic Linden Row Inn, features artists from across Virginia. Curated by local artist and 1708 Gallery Board Member Amie Oliver, Pushing Boundaries will be on view through the month of October. The proceeds from all art sales benefit the artist and the exhibition programs of 1708 Gallery, with the exception of Roberto Ventura and Joshua Poteat’s “For Lucy and Yardsale.” The proceeds from the sale of this installation will be donated to the Daily Planet, a non-profit organization that provides services to those at risk of, or experiencing, homelessness.

CURATORIAL STATEMENT:

“Pushing Boundaries: Art as Metaphor in Love and War" consists of painting, prints, sculpture, drawing and installation work by artists who contribute to the rich cultural landscape in Virginia. This exhibition coincides with the 150th anniversary of the American Civil War and presents artists who push the boundaries of their medium and as well as reveal personal interpretations of themes embedded in our history, landscape and literature.

Boundaries are often referred to as something that indicates the farthest limit, as of an area; border in the context of team sports as well as national defense. The department of defense determines a boundary to be a line that delineates surface areas for the purpose of facilitating coordination and deconfliction of operations between adjacent units, formations, or areas on land or in airspace.

Other references to this term explore the importance of setting personal boundaries. It is a term which refers to the political, personal and public space and one which has resulted in physical and symbolic lines of demarcation that have inspired some of the greatest propaganda, cartography and historical dramas the world has ever known.

Line, and its implied role in the sand or on the map, is an elemental component for each of the artists presented here.Genesis Chapman's (Bent Mountain) ink drawings of Bottom Creek are a primary example of this duality with each strata of earth implying a generation of farmers, fathers, sons, mothers and daughters. Chapman's sense of "loss" and his investigation of its "sense of place" are evident with each mark of his pen or brush.

Ed Dolinger (Roanoke) created a series of mixed media paintings which imply maps, parables and theorems on fields of color. The history of the surface sets the tone of each panel and our reading of it. Kris Iden (Charlottesville) has created the series of color intaglio printed titled "…the world is round" inspired by the Gertrude Stein children's book of the same name. This poetic sequence of 15 prints emphasizes the circularity of time and identity and the ability for each to fold it back upon itself. Iden explains "This intensely personal work is a reflection of the feelings of being caught between two cultures, two dearly held landscapes, and the process of constructing an intimate hybrid-geography." Greg Kelley's (Richmond) mixed media sculptures are totem like "combines" which reflect a hybrid iconography of our history and culture.

Joshua Poteat and Roberto Ventura (Richmond) created the installation "For Lucy and Yardsale". They present fragments of Poteat's poetry as an unconventional memorial consisting of wooden strips of text, collage, light boxes and other media. This work is an ode to the relationships that form and are lost within the invisible boundaries in which Richmond's homeless residents reside.

-Amie Oliver, 1708 Gallery Satellite Exhibition Liaison and Curator

For more information on the artists or 1708 Gallery's Satellite Exhibition Program visit this link.

New Independent / Global Cinema Screenings at the Grace Street Theatre

FREE CINEMA for all!

All screenings are free and open to the public on a first-come basis.

VCUarts presents Cinematheque

Feature films will be projected using 35mm via VCUarts state-of-the-art system.

The Grace Street Theater

934 W. Grace Street.

RIchmond VA 23284-3048

Phone: (804) 828-2020

Fall 2011 Screenings

THE ISLAND (OSTROV)
by Pavel Lungin – September 6, 2011 – 7pm
Area: World Cinema/Russia

THE WINDOW (La Ventana)
by Carlos Sorín – Sept. 13, 2011 – 7pm
Area: World Cinema/ Argentina

SITA SINGS THE BLUES
by Nina Paley – Sept. 20, 2011 – 7pm
Area: Animation

WHITE MATERIAL
by Claire Denis – Sept. 27, 2011 – 7pm

Area: The Masters

NOSTALGIA FOR THE LIGHT
by Patricio Guzmán – Oct. 18 – 7pm
Area: The Masters/Documentary

HUKKLE (Hiccup)
by Gyorgy Palfi – Oct 25 – 7pm
Area: Open Vault/Art Cinema

CERTIFIED COPY
by Abbas Kiarostami – Nov. 8th – 7pm
Area: The Masters/World Cinema

LE QUATTRO VOLTE
by Michelangelo Frammartino – Nov. 22 – 7pm
Area: World Cinema

MOTHER AND SON
by Aleksandr Sokurov – Nov. 29 – 7pm
Area: Open Vault/ Art Cinema

A SCREAMING MAN
by Mahamat-Saleh Haroun – Dec 6 – 7pm
Area: World Cinema

African Tinged Jazz by the Tim Harding Quartet

Saturday, August 20 8pm - 11pm
Location	CrossRoads Coffee & Ice Cream LLC 3600 Forest Hills Ave. Richmond, VA 804-231-2030
	Harding will be joined by Charles OJ Hunter , who has collaborated with Nina Simone, Hamiet Bluiett and Olu Dara over the years, on piano, Wayne O'Bryan on bass and Hunter Duke on drums. Performing: Songs from Hardings time with Hotel X, as well as a few choice tunes by Abdullah Ibrahim, Salif Keita and Pharoah Sanders.

POSTPONED DUE TO IRENE~ Inclement Weather alert: Monster Drawing Rally @ 1708 Gallery on Saturday, August 27

New Date TBA!

Time and Location	3:30 - 9:00pm 1708 Gallery 319 W. Broad St. Richmond, VA 804-643-1708
	1708 GALLERY'S 2ND ANNUAL LIVE DRAWING EVENT Part performance, part art-bazaar, Monster Drawing Rally is a rare opportunity to watch your favorite local artists at work. The event will consist of 4 one-hour shifts with up to 14 artists drawing simultaneously per hour. Watch art come to life then purchase the completed works for only $65. Come hungry and enjoy Nate's Tacos for dinner with a selection of cold Virginia micro brews on tap! Kids can take part in the action by creating art of their own at the wall-sized coloring station. All funds raised support 1708 Gallery, a non-profit space for new art. ADMISSION: $5 Donation, Kids 12 and under are free. Sign up for a 1708 membership at Monster Drawing Rally and receive $20 off one drawing! Visit www.1708gallery.org for more details!