Arts Council of the Valley Sponsors Art Activities June 14

HARRISONBURG, VA – Visitors to the June 14 Best.Weekend.Ever., coordinated by Harrisonburg Downtown Renaissance, are invited to join Arts Council of the Valley (ACV) for art programming throughout the day, including the inaugural Harrisonburg Chalk Art Festival, Chalk It Up! to the Arts; live music; two artmobiles; and conversations with exhibiting artists. Admission to all included programming is free.

Kick off your arts weekend Friday, June 13, when renowned street artist Jennifer Chaparro offers a free 3D chalk painting workshop (3-5:30 pm) at the Turner Pavilion in downtown Harrisonburg. Learn more at valleyarts.org/chalk-it-up-to-the-arts.

Free Saturday (June 14) festivities hosted by Arts Council of the Valley include:

• 12-5 pm: Opportunities for artists to create their own chalk masterpieces; a community chalk mosaic coloring space; and large-scale feature drawings by experienced street painters Jennifer Chaparro and Robert Mott.
• 12-5 pm: Smith House Galleries exhibitions: Liminal by Keith G. Mills and Seconds Between Time by Peter Schnibbe; with artist conversations from 2-3 pm.
• 12-6 pm: VMFA on the Road: An Artmobile for the 21st Century features a free exhibition, Love, Laughter, Tears: An Artist’s Guide to Emotions. This dynamic compilation of artwork, spanning cultures and time periods, considers the relationship between art and feeling and how artistic depictions of emotions can connect humanity and foster mutual understanding. The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Artmobile will be located just behind Smith House Galleries.
• 1-2 pm: Reggae on the Smith House front porch, featuring iRon Lion.
• 2-5 pm: JMU ArtsMobile, located at the corner of Franklin and Main Street, shares framed images of selected works from the Fall 2022 Savoring the Moon: Japanese Prints of the Floating World exhibition in the Lisanby Museum. Original works in the exhibit, all from the Madison Art Collection, were woodblock prints and ink on paper. Savoring the Moon celebrates the Edo (1603-1868) and Meiji (1868-1912) periods’ specific ideology of finding fulfillment through life’s spectacles and fleeting pleasures, along with the impermanence of beauty.

Thanks to support from the Community Foundation of Harrisonburg and Rockingham County’s Earlynn J. Miller Fund for the Arts, participation in all included programming is free.

Arts Council of the Valley is located at 311 South Main Street in Downtown Harrisonburg, Virginia. Programs are supported in part by ACV 25th Anniversary Presenting Sponsor Kathy Moran Wealth Group, and 25th Anniversary Visionary Sponsor Riner Rentals.

A 501(c)3 nonprofit, ACV is dedicated to cultivating the arts, creating experiences, and connecting communities throughout the City of Harrisonburg and Rockingham County. Since it was established in 2000, ACV has grown into a multi-faceted community organization that fosters innovative partnerships among area businesses, civic organizations, schools, and artists. Today, ACV manages Court Square Theater and Smith House Galleries, funds local art projects through its Advancing the Arts grant program (awarding more than $518,300 since 2001), supports public art initiatives, and coordinates monthly First Fridays of the Valley community gatherings.

ACV is supported in part by the City of Harrisonburg, the Harrisonburg Redevelopment & Housing Authority, and the Virginia Commission for the Arts, which receives support from the Virginia General Assembly and the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency. To learn more, visit valleyarts.org.

This press release was provided by Martha Hemingway at Arts Council of the Valley.