Community Calendar

Meet the staff writers of the chimney rock chronicle and its founder and editor, tammy f. cullers.

Three Notch'd Road: The Virginia Baroque Ensemble celebrates the opening of its 15th season with cantatas by J.S. Bach.

This season-opening, all-Bach program features two cantatas, along with the organ solo Fantasia in G (BWV 572) and the cheerful instrumental Sinfonia from BWV 29.

Cantata 147 is a mature masterwork from Bach's late Leipzig period and includes the beloved "Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring" melody and festive virtuoso writing for trumpet. Cantata 131 is a setting of Psalm 130, full of pathos, and possibly the very earliest Bach cantata that we have.

Organist and Bach expert Todd Fickley guest directs an ensemble of singers and period instrumentalists that include Steve Marquardt (baroque trumpet) and Gaia Saetermoe-Howard and Sarah Schilling (oboes d'amore and da caccia).

Acclaimed GRAMMY Award-winning mandolinist, singer, songwriter, composer, and MacArthur Fellow recipient of the prestigious “Genius Grant” Chris Thile is a multifaceted musical talent, described by The Guardian as “that rare being: an all -round musician.” Thile is a founding member of the highly influential string bands Punch Brothers and Nickel Creek and has collaborated with numerous luminaries, including Yo-Yo Ma, Fiona Apple and Brad Mehldau. For four years Thile hosted the radio favorite Live from Here with Chris Thile (formerly known as A Prairie Home Companion). With his broad outlook, Thile creates a distinctly American canon and a new musical aesthetic for performers and audiences alike, giving the listener “one joyous arc, with the linear melody and vertical harmony blurring into a single web of gossamer beauty” (The New York Times). Don’t miss this extraordinary solo performance that will take your breath away!

The Shenandoah Valley Art Center, during the month of October, is exhibiting the artwork of Sculptor, Michael Hough and Painter, Dietrich Maune in the 416 W. Main Street Gallery. Michael Hough is a clay and metal sculptor, curator, Professor of Art at Bridgewater College, and gallery director of the Beverly Perdue Art Gallery. At Bridgewater College he teaches, design, drawing, all levels of ceramics and sculpture, as well as a course called Professional Practices (subtitled “everything I wish I had learned about the business of art while I was in school”). He has been an artist, creating ceramic sculpture, pottery, and steel sculpture, for the past forty years. “My love of all things clay and metal began during my second year as an art student at California State University, Sacramento where I eventually earned a BA and MA in Ceramics”. After five years teaching High School art, Michael returned for his MFA from the Rhode Island School of Design (1993). Dietrich Maune’s creative work focuses on our relationships with each other and the world as seen through the relationships of animals and their place in our environment. It often looks at how difference can exist together and how the needs of different species and their desire for each other are mutually beneficial and often supportive. His work has been exhibited in numerous solo, group, and juried exhibitions and resides in the corporate collections of the Greenville Museum of Art, NC; DSM Pharmaceuticals, NC; Green Tree Financial, SD; Pouch Cove Foundation, Newfoundland; Rockingham Memorial Hospital, VA and Augusta Medical Center, VA among others; and in many private collections. Maune received his Bachelor of Fine Arts and Master of Fine Arts from East Carolina University in Painting and Drawing. The exhibit is open to the public: October 1 - October 25, Tuesday – Friday, 10:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m., Saturday 11:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m. at 416 W. Main Street, Waynesboro, VA 22980.

Shenandoah Valley Art Center presents: Compositions that Work with Peg Sheridan. Do you wonder why your paintings don't seem to "pull together" at the end? Would you like to understand how to use compositional tools to make your paintings better? In this hands-on class, you will learn powerful, practical compositional tools that work. Whether you are painting landscapes, figures, still life or abstracts, you will learn how to arrange shapes for better impact and balance. Through guided exercises, you will learn compositions that are proven winners. Peg will provide weekly demonstrations for each of the six weeks of class. She will provide color worksheets, one-on-one help and weekly reviews of student paintings. She has been painting in watercolors for 45 years, and teaching watercolor painting for 35 years, and is known to be the most popular watercolor instructor in the Piedmont/Blue Ridge region. See Peg's work, and more about her classes and materials list at www.pegsheridan.com . (Fee: $250, Tuesdays, September 23, 30, October 7, 14, 21, & 28, 10:00 am – 2:00 pm, at 126 S. Wayne Avenue., Waynesboro, VA 22980, register: www.pegsheridan.com or call SVAC at 540-949-7662)

Mark your calendars! This year's Oysters with Obenshain will be Tuesday, October 14th at the Rockingham County Fairgrounds. Once again, our line up of special guests is going to be great! Stay tuned - more info to come.

The Shenandoah Valley Art Center during the month of October, in the Cabell/Arehart Invitational Gallery, is presenting Elizabeth Wislar’s sculptural assemblage artwork. These pieces blend the joy of gathering and creating new artifacts from reclaimed materials, based on a belief that everything we need already exists. Wislar shares , “The assemblage pieces on display blend my joy of celebrating what it means to Gather with the creation of a new art and artifacts from reclaimed materials. The Gatherer cultivates. The Gatherer cares for the nourishment of people, the histories, the elders, the children, the traditions, the stories, the spirits, the plants, the food, the art, the land, the air, and the water. Let us Gather, collect, cultivate, and tell stories, using what we have gathered.” Wislar is a Multi-Award- Winning Costume professional, a large-scale repurposed textile artist, activist, and instructor. Of Native American ancestry, she is enrolled as a tribal member. The exhibition opening will be October 4, 5:00 – 7:00 p.m. and guests are welcome to meet and talk to the artist. The exhibition is open to the public October 4 – November 29, Tuesday – Friday, 10:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m., Saturday, 11:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m., at 126 S. Wayne Ave, Waynesboro, VA 22980.

Shenandoah Valley Art Center presents: The Artist’s Sketchbook: Foundations in Color, Texture and Techniques with Rainbow Willard. Whether you are just getting started or want to reignite your creativity , this six week class is designed to help artists build technical skill while developing a personal visual voice- all within the pages of a working sketchbook. You will explore foundational techniques like color mixing, layering, and value studies using accessible materials like graphite, colored pencil, and acrylic paint. Each class includes a worm-up prompt, a focused technique or concept, and time for play, exploration, and reflection. This course is ideal for anyone seeking structure inspiration, or a return to joyful artmaking. You will leave with a sketchbook full of creative breakthroughs and a toolbox of techniques to keep your practice going strong. Rainbow Willard is a practicing artist and art educator with a BFA in Art Education from Virginia Commonwealth University. She has experience teaching all ages and specializes in drawing, painting, mixed media, and printmaking. Rainbow creates a welcoming, encouraging space where students can build confidence, explore new techniques, and make art that feels personal and fun.( $175, material fee $10, Wednesdays, 10:30 a.m. – 12:00 p.m., October 8, 15, 22, 29, November 12, 19, register: www.rainbowwillard.com/shop )

Shenandoah Valley Art Center presents: Drawing and Sketching for Painters with John Hancock. Introducing beginners to the basics of drawing, this course begins with essential incremental steps providing students with the basics of drawing from observation with regular practice. You will start with pencil, then move on to using conté and inks. Expect loads of demos and handouts! Students will work on many small projects and exercises but also leave the course with several finished pieces. Let’s explore drawing with an eye greater visual impact and just maybe better accuracy too!
Suitable for beginners and advanced students or artists seeking to brush up on essential skills. Experience the challenges and the joys of drawing in this 6-week, Wednesday afternoon class. Loads of helpful handouts as well as group and personal feedback. (Fee: $295, Wednesdays, September 3, 10, 17, 24, October 1, 8, 1:30 – 4:00 pm, Register: www.johnahancock.com/new-products/drawing-and-sketching-for-painters-at-svac , 416 W. Main St. Waynesboro, Va 22980.)

SHOWTIMES
Wednesday, October 8th at 7:00
Wednesday, October 15th at 2:00

TICKETS - $10

In Oscar®-nominated filmmakers Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady's life-affirming documentary, teenagers converge at a traditional folk high school in Arctic Norway where they must rely on only themselves, one another, and a loyal pack of sled dogs as they all grow in unexpected directions. In Norse mythology, the three "Norns" are powerful deities who weave the threads of fate and shape humans' futures. Today, Pasvik Folk High School in northern Norway aims to produce a similar life-changing effect on its students. FOLKTALES tells the timely and heartwarming story of teenagers who choose to spend an unconventional "gap year" learning to dog sled and survive the Arctic wilderness, in hopes of finding connection and meaning in the modern world. Guided by patient teachers and a yard full of heroic Alaskan huskies, they discover their own potential and develop deep relationships with the land, animals and humans around them. Through intimate verité storytelling and exhilarating cinematography, Ewing and Grady examine humans on the cusp of adulthood, finding themselves at the edge of the world.

Not Rated
Run Time: 1 Hour 46 minutes

Folktales is a visually transporting work of documentary cinema that makes the viewer consider taking such a journey of self-discovery themselves. It looks like a lot of hard work, but also romantic and satisfying.
- Andrew Parker, The Gate

The great satisfaction of this documentary is seeing the troubled children of the early scenes emerge with a maturity and equanimity that comes from pushing oneself past the furthest you thought you could go.
- Ty Burr, Washington Post