We are now in the middle of all the artoberVA craziness and loving it! It’s hard to believe how much has already happened and how much is left to enjoy! Here’s what you have to look forward to and highlights of last week. 

Christina Dick, Founder of Tiramisu for Breakfast Agency and Adjunct Professor of Advertising at VCU, is up this week with her Celebrity Picks! 

• 10/16: VCU Health System Orchestra presents SPOOKTACULAR at Firehouse Theatre – “I had never heard of the VCU Health Orchestra until this year’s artober. It sounds SO wonderful!”

• 10/18-10/20: 48-to-Create at Visual Arts Center of Richmond – “48 to create reminds me of Create-A-Thon at VCU. I love the idea of pushing yourself to see what you can do in such a short amount of time.”

• Open through 10/27: “Tidewater” at Quirk Gallery – “Quirk is one of my favorite places in a Richmond. Before my company got its first office, I loved bringing my laptop to quirk to work over a cappuccino. I LOVE quirk gallery and everything Katie [Ukrop] has done in Richmond.”

It can be easy to forget how many wonderful galleries we have in our region, and many of their exhibits are free to visit! Here are a few suggestions if you don’t know where to begin:

• Holocaust by Bullets at the Virginia Holocaust Museum - The Holocaust by Bullets was the systematic killing of Jews & Roma Sinti which started before the development of the concentration camps. These mass murders took place in Eastern Europe and western Russia (present-day), and continued until Nazi Germany’s surrender in 1945. This exhibit presents the results of Yahad-In Unum’s painstaking research to uncover the largely unknown crimes and their locations and gives viewers a chance to learn about this lesser known as aspect of the Holocaust through eyewitness testimony, photographs, and quotes.

• Unlock all the Doors at ART 180's Atlas Gallery - This year’s annual exhibition by Performing Statistics calls for our community to unlock the doors of potential for our youth. Stop by to see the latest from youth at Richmond Juvenile Detention Center, including photographic posters, a world premiere music video, and a large-scale 3-D mural that imagines a future without youth prisons.

• October Exhibits at Art Works Gallery - Explore a variety of exhibits currently on display at Art Works Gallery. Exhibits include: “Tension” by Michelle McGrath, “Random Shots: Line, Color, Reflection” by Jay Denny, Remembering Bin: A Retrospective of Binford Harrell’s artwork, “Within the Light” by Robin Coker, and the Richmond Camera Club Exhibit.

On Wednesday, October 16, Art on Wheels will be revealing their Community Cubes. For the past year, Art on Wheels has been creating these pieces of public art and now it’s time to see the final product. CultureWorks provided Art on Wheels a grant for this project, so we’re thrilled to see the big reveal! Join us at Strangeways Brewing from 5:30pm to 7:30pm!

We know that everyone is busy experience artoberVA for themselves, so in case you missed it, here are some of the highlights of our week!

On October 6, we had the pleasure of partnering with Better Housing Coalition to bring Ram Bhagat and Drums No Guns to their Claiborne Square community. Drums No Guns brought a powerful peacemaking, community-building drum and dance experience to Petersburg. The looks on the children's faces as they tried something new and experienced art first hand was priceless! Please scroll through the photos above to see the great pictures by Tom Topinka!

The Richmond Night Market was a blast! It was fantastic to see so many people coming out to the 17th Street Market and having a good time browsing the vendors, eating delicious grub, and dancing along to live music. CultureWorks Board Member and River City Tattoo Owner Jessica Simmons is an expert at temporary tattoo application!

Nancy Dufrenne, who created that awesome stop-motion artoberVA video, dropped by the office to pick up some materials and gave us these amazing quilt pieces as a thank you! We just love the little moments like this that remind us of how wonderful the artists in our community are.

And of course, we stenciled everywhere! From Art 180 to the Richmond Folk Festival to Hopewell Arts Fest, arts and culture live here!