For Artists & Arts Organizations

Roundtables & Networking

Creative Conversations

PCA is launching a new series called Creative Conversations, a forum for arts-related idea exchange and collaboration. The goal of the program is to bring arts organizations, artists, arts educators, and community leaders together in person to develop strategies for strengthening the arts in our community.

The 2008-09 series will cover three topics of discussion:
Arts Education and Our Community, September 30, 2009
Marketing Charlottesville as a Creative Community, January 13, 2009
Creating Community-Wide Access to the Arts, April 21, 2009

Community members will be invited to participate in particular Creative Conversations based on their involvement in relevant topic areas. If you would like to be involved in a specific conversation, contact info@charlottesvillearts.org.

Listen to the podcast of the first Creative Conversation on Arts Education and Our Community below. The podcast was graciously made possible the Charlottesville Podcasting Network.

Podcast produced by Charlottesville Podcasting Network * Player by Odeo

Art Drinks at Zinc!

On the second Wednesday of every month, PCA hosts an informal gathering of artists, arts organizations, and arts enthusiasts at Zinc bistro from 5:30 – 7:30pm. Stop by Art Drinks at Zinc to enjoy lively conversation and networking, as well as drink specials and the chance to win art objects and more in the nightly drawing!

Publicity Services

Dean Dass and Clay Witt, 2006

The thriving arts community in Central Virginia is a major contributing factor to our region’s outstanding quality of life. Piedmont Council of the Arts’ services focus heavily on promoting artists and arts organizations and providing residents and visitors with up-to-date information on the numerous cultural opportunities available here.

We support our artistic community by offering the following publicity services to artists, arts organizations, and cultural projects in the Charlottesville area:

Online Directory Listings

If you are an artist, arts organization, venue, or arts education provider in the Central Virginia area, we want your listing information! PCA strives to keep our Directories as comprehensive and up-to-date as possible.

Email info@charlottesvillearts.org to update or add your contact information to the PCA Directories.

Event Publicity

Photo by John Mitchell. Courtesy of Second Street Gallery.

PCA’s Arts Calendar is the go-to web resource for arts events in Central Virginia. With over 500 events per month, and event listings up to one year in advance, no other website has such a comprehensive arts calendar. To submit an event to our Arts Calendars, email calendar@charlottesvillearts.org.

PCA’s bi-weekly email newsletter, The Arts In Your Inbox, highlights five upcoming arts events in our area. Directly reach our growing list of recipients by submitting an event for inclusion in the newsletter. PCA Members are given priority consideration, but we strive to feature a wide range of arts events in The Arts In Your Inbox.

Award Recognition

Piedmont Council of the Arts recognizes the talented artists and arts organizations through local and state Arts Awards celebrations. Awardees are nominated from the community at large and recognized at an annual special event. For detailed information on this program, please visit the Arts Awards section of this website.

Fiscal Agency Program

Through the Fiscal Agency Program, PCA supports emerging arts groups by allowing them to apply for grants and solicit tax-deductible donations using PCA’s 501©3 nonprofit status. Intended to encourage growth and independence in the creative sector, the program supports groups for a limited time, and sponsorship is reevaluated on an annual basis. The Fiscal Agency Program currently supports two dynamic arts projects in our area: From Inside Out and Kid Pan Alley:

Kid Pan Alley is a nationwide program bringing professional songwriters into classrooms to inspire kids to use their imaginations—to be creators, not just consumers. Started by Paul Reisler, Kid Pan Alley has written over 900 songs with over 18,000 children. PCA’s Fiscal Agency Program provides support for Kid Pan Alley’s extensive work in Charlottesville-area schools.

From Inside Out is a visual arts education initiative for the inmate population of Central Virginia. Recently awarded a Bama Works grant from the Charlottesville Area Community Foundation, From Inside Out is growing and developing at an exciting rate under PCA’s Fiscal Agency Program.

In the past, PCA’s Fiscal Agency Program has supported:

The Charlottesville Chamber Music Festival
The Side Show Opera Company
The Acting ACE Play on Lewis and Clark
Zona Latina, a Spanish language television program

PCA is not currently accepting applications to the Fiscal Agency Program. For questions or more information, contact director@charlottesvillearts.org.

Ticket Distribution Services

PCA is in the exploration phase of a ticket distribution service for arts organizations and community members in the Charlottesville area.

As a pilot project, PCA is assisted the Festival of the Photograph in the distribution of hundreds of free tickets for high school students to a special festival event. Working with and through the local public schools and other arts organizations, PCA helped put over 150 tickets in the hands of young people in our community.

If you are interested in working with PCA to distribute tickets to young people or underserved audiences for an upcoming arts event, please contact director@charlottesvillearts.org.

Stay tuned for more information on PCA’s ticket distribution services.

From Inside Out

From Inside Out is an arts education program supported by PCA’s fiscal agency program. The program was formed by Rose Hill and Lindsay Michie Eades, who have been teaching art classes to male and female inmates at the Albemarle Charlottesville Regional Jail in Virginia since 2005. The goal of FROM INSIDE OUT is to expand these classes to six prisons in Central Virginia.

Project Goals

In addition to providing 14-week classes in regional jails and prisons, FROM INSIDE OUT aims to offer ongoing exhibitions of inmate art to the Charlottesville area. Artwork is currently on exhibit at Bozart Gallery and Thomas Jefferson Memorial Church. The long-term goal of the project is for Ms. Hill and Ms. Eades to be hired by the Virginia Department of Corrections as art teachers at the six prisons.
None of the prisons have an arts program at their facility and are often very limited in the programs they provide to inmates due to a shortage of volunteers. For every forty volunteers for programs at the male prisons there are four hundred at the female prisons. Prison officials and inmates assert that when inmates don’t have a positive creative outlet, they tend to turn inward and become mentally paralyzed or destructive, contributing to the “revolving door” or recidivism problem in the prison system.

Project Outcomes

The art program has been very popular with inmates at the jail and there is always a waiting list to get into the classes. Letters of support from the Director of Programs and Superintendent of the ACRJ have also expressed the value of these classes, for example, in reducing the number of inmate on inmate assaults and inmate on staff assaults. Inmate art exhibitions challenge the public in the way they view art and the way they view people who have been incarcerated. The “Beyond the Bars” exhibition at McGuffey Art Center in February 2007, for example, was the best attended show at McGuffey and received the most publicity in its 30-year history.

“The Art Class is one positive factor in my life. It is also a good feeling to know that even if for one hour someone out there (outside of jail/prison) cares about sharing their time and talent with people that society considers worthless.”
Inmate at Albemarle Charlottesville Regional Jail

Peidmont Council of the Arts!