Community Calendar

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.)

The winner of six Tony Awards, including Best Original Score, this lush romance unfolds with what The New York Times calls “the most intensely romantic score of any musical since West Side Story.” Mother-daughter duo Margaret and Clara tour Florence in search of the city’s wonders. A fateful moment sparks an intense romance between Clara and a handsome local, Fabrizio. Audiences are swept along a winding road filled with love and longing, where paths twist and diverge to discover new opportunities and a secret kept in the shadows for far too long. Features students from JMU’s School of Theatre and Dance. THE LIGHT IN THE PIAZZA is presented by arrangement with Concord Theatricals. www.concordtheatricals.com. Produced by arrangement with Turner Entertainment Co. Owner of the original motion picture “Light In The Piazza.” Based on the Novel by Elizabeth Spencer. Contains adult content, adult language, and sexual content. Recommended for ages 13 and up.

The Shenandoah Valley Art Center during the month of August, in the Cabell/Arehart Invitational Gallery, is presenting Elizabeth Moss: Passages Through Art, Myth, Magic, and Healing. Moss built a career in arts administration and curatorial pursuits. As a seasoned visual artist, Elizabeth has spent over two decades exploring the power of symbolism, storytelling, and nature through her work. A deep personal vision- one rooted in mythology, sacred imagery, and the organic forms of the natural world are reflected in her work. In her own words, “I have a fascination with symbols and the effect these images can have on the subconscious. Serendipitously, symbols keep showing up in my life, and as a result in my work. My imagination is inspired by myth, sacred icons, the gods and goddesses, masks, and Mother Gaia. Especially by the ocean and the forest. Both provide evocative opportunities to observe the geometry and symbols created by nature. The story is there to be discovered in each line, whorl and tint of color. The artwork I create speaks to the universal connection I feel we all have with each other and the natural world.” The exhibition opening will be August 2, 5:00 – 7:00 p.m. and guests are welcome to meet and talk to the artist The exhibition is open to the public August 2 – September 27, 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.

Thursday’s Painting Group is a meeting of artists who want to paint! Artists bring their own supplies and gather at SVAC on Thursdays, 10:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. at no cost to participants. Take advantage of your fellow painters for inspiration and light critique if you are interested. Come relax, share ideas or techniques, and independently work in the medium of your choice! Please call Shenandoah Valley Art Center if you are interested in joining and reserving a space! (540-949-7662, August 7, 14, 21, 28, 416 W. Main St., Waynesboro 22980)

Building and supporting our community is what we do at the LIFEworks Project! We invite you to shop our client choice grocery outlet today from 4:30pm-7pm.
The River City Bread Basket is located at 505 N. Winchester Ave. in Waynesboro, Va.
Select what works best for you and your family! Grab a shopping cart and not a box!
All items are available while supplies last! Meat, eggs, dairy and more! All FREE!
Call 540-251-2381 to register
We’ll see you soon! #ThriveThursday
#distributionwithdignity #buildcommunity
#foodjustice #empowerment

The winner of six Tony Awards, including Best Original Score, this lush romance unfolds with what The New York Times calls “the most intensely romantic score of any musical since West Side Story.” Mother-daughter duo Margaret and Clara tour Florence in search of the city’s wonders. A fateful moment sparks an intense romance between Clara and a handsome local, Fabrizio. Audiences are swept along a winding road filled with love and longing, where paths twist and diverge to discover new opportunities and a secret kept in the shadows for far too long. Features students from JMU’s School of Theatre and Dance. THE LIGHT IN THE PIAZZA is presented by arrangement with Concord Theatricals. www.concordtheatricals.com. Produced by arrangement with Turner Entertainment Co. Owner of the original motion picture “Light In The Piazza.” Based on the Novel by Elizabeth Spencer. Contains adult content, adult language, and sexual content. Recommended for ages 13 and up.

MBU Undergraduate Theatre Fall Mainstage Production

Big Love

Written by Charles Mee and adapted freely by the cast

Based on The Suppliants by Aeschylus

Directed by Molly Seremet

November 6–9, 2025 (Thursday–Saturday at 7:30 p.m., Sunday at 2 p.m.)

Fletcher Collins Theatre, Deming Hall

In this raucous play with music, 50 brides flee their 50 grooms on their wedding day. The women seek refuge in a villa on the coast of Italy but all is not well. The 50 grooms catch up with the brides and mayhem ensues. The grooms arrive by helicopter in their flight suits and the women wield words (and circular saw blades!) with equal abandon, and love tangles with belonging, agency, and independence In this world of pop songs, wild dances, and chaotic violence, 49 brides kill 49 grooms … and one marries for love. Join us for this re-making of one of the western world's oldest plays to find out just who finds love in a hopeless place.

The Shenandoah Valley Art Center, during the month of September, 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 exhibition Opening Reception will be September 6, 5:00 – 7:00 p.m. and guests are welcome to meet and talk to the artists. The exhibit is open to the public: September 6 - 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.

The Shenandoah Valley Art Center, during the month of July, is exhibiting the artwork of Group 6. This exhibit presents recent work by its six members who are established artists living and working in Virginia, women who meet regularly to show, discuss and critique their work. Primarily known as painters, some in the group also create in collage, vitreous enamel, clay, photography and printmaking. Their work is shaped by an interest in abstraction and a commitment to process and creative inquiry. By choice or necessity, Group 6 artists spend most of their working time alone in the studio, so it’s particularly valuable to gather as a group to exchange ideas and information, provide analysis, offer challenges and encouragement, and build friendships. All group members have studied and /or taught at Beverley Street Studio School in Staunton, and for the past several years the group has met with guest advisors Ron Boehmer and Nan Covert. Members participate in solo and group exhibits nationally and regionally, and their work can be found in public, corporate, and private collections in the United States and abroad. The exhibition Opening is July 12, 5:00 – 7:00 p.m. and an ART Talk with Group 6 is August 13, 2:00 p.m. Come meet Lindsay Freedman, Janly Jaggard, June Jordan, Joan Ranzini, Krista Townsend, and Christine Watts. The exhibit is open to the public: July 12 - August – 30, 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.