Department of Music

WTJU 91.1 FM, The Bridge PAI, and UVA Music announce a new exhibition and community arts time capsule, We Hope This Art Finds You Well. An opening reception will be held on Saturday, September 11, 5 - 7 p.m. at The Stage at WTJU, 2244 Ivy Road. 

 

We Hope This Art Finds You Well is both an in-person and virtual exhibition that focuses on our local Charlottesville arts scene during the COVID-19 pandemic. The exhibition uses the stories and creations of local artists as a lens to explore creative moments, struggles, pain, grief, humor, and survival in an extraordinarily challenging year. 

"One thing that this project has affirmed over and over is that artists are the soul of our town. They draw us together, keep us engaged, and challenge us to new ways of perceiving. We Hope This Art Finds You Well showcases the way Charlottesville artists supported and inspired each other—and the rest of us—throughout this life-altering pandemic," said Alan Goffinski, executive director of The Bridge. 

The in-person exhibition is located in WTJU's new micro-museum, an antique camper renovated as a gallery space, and parked behind the radio station at 2244 Ivy Road. The exhibition will be open Fridays 10 a.m. - 7 p.m. and Saturdays 10 a.m. - 2 p.m. through mid-November. 

 

The digital exhibition goes live on September 11 at ArtFindsYouWell.org. The website will serve as a living repository of audio recordings, videos, photographs, and text, adding artists and their stories to the web archive throughout the fall. The site will be maintained by The Bridge PAI and WTJU as a long-term COVID arts time capsule. 

 

WTJU will also produce and broadcast a series of Sonic IDs – short, interstitial audio clips featuring a diverse range of local artists’ voices, recounting key memories and experiences. 

"We Hope This Art Finds You Well provides an inclusive platform for community remembering of this pandemic year. This work will collectively help us as a community make sense of the moment we are living through," said Nomi Dave, associate professor of music at the University of Virginia. 

 

The global pandemic has devastated arts scenes everywhere, with performances canceled, venues closed, and artistic livelihoods and opportunities greatly reduced. The scourge of the virus along with a renewed reckoning with racism and white supremacy left many artists feeling exhausted and spent. 

 

Yet the arts have endured and evolved over the past year and a half in creative and resilient ways. Artists have used their creative talents to explore more deeply questions around isolation, community, race, gender, violence, isolation, and community. 

 

We Hope This Art Finds You Well received initial support from the Civic & Community Engagement program at UVA’s College of Arts & Sciences, and is made possible by a Faculty Research Grant for the Arts from the Office of the Provost and the Vice Provost of the Arts. More information at arts.virginia.edu.