Arts & Culture

Barbara Kingsolver’s new book, “Partita,” follows on the heels of her Pulitzer Prize-winning 2022 novel “Demon Copperhead.”

In Southwest Virginia, traditional Appalachian string band music has been passed down for generations. Now, students at the Handmade Music School in Floyd County are compiling a songbook of the music that’s played in their community.

It’s been thirty years since a California clergyman coined the term ecotherapy. It refers to the power of nature connection to promote good mental health and a conservation ethic. Now, a Virginia woman is spreading the word with a new book. Sandy Hausman spoke with her and filed this report.

A theater company from Peru will perform a version of Hamlet, featuring eight actors with Down syndrome, blending their own experiences with the words and scenes from Shakespeare.

Tickets for this year’s Virginia Film Festival go on sale October 2nd at noon, and there will be more than 120 movies and documentaries to consider.

This week, Floyd County is hosting 30 artists who are spending the week outside, painting scenes in the Floyd Plein Air Biennial.

About 10% of all people are left-handed, which helps to explain why the melody in compositions for the piano is usually written for the right. But a former professor from Sweet Briar College specializes in works composed for the left. He’ll be performing at Virginia Tech, UVA and JMU later this month.

Two art professors at Virginia Tech have been exploring questions they have about artificial intelligence through a performance piece that will be shown later this week in Blacksburg.

For more than a decade, Virginia’s hosted the Supernova Ska Festival, an event that each year pulls in dozens of performers adhering to the genre’s 1960s origins, as well as newer acts inclined to incorporate punky elements into their work.

When it comes to Hollywood films, we hear a lot of about actors and directors but not so much about producers. The Virginia Film Festival hopes to change that situation by presenting a special award to exceptional producers.