Mountain Strings

The Pro-Art Association is offering these performances, and all events of our 2020-2021 season, at no cost to our community. These performances are supported in part by a grant from the Virginia Commission for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts. For more information about our planned performances, please visit proartva.org, call the office at 276/376-4520, or send an email to pro-art@uvawise.edu.

Picnic with the Arts will continue with two outdoor performances of Mountain Strings this Saturday, June 26. The Symphony of the Mountains' celebrated string ensemble will perform at 3 p.m. at the Cumberland Bowl Park Amphitheater in Jonesville, and at 7 p.m. at the June Tolliver Playhouse in Big Stone Gap. The program will include a variety of styles including Mozart's "Eine Kleine Nachtmusik," Strauss' "Blue Danube Waltz," as well as the music of Leroy Anderson, Georges Bizet, and Fritz Kreisler. Treasured hymns such as "Amazing Grace" and "The Lord's Prayer" will give time to reflect on the difficulties of the past year. The finale of the concert is a medley of Appalachian tunes arranged by local composer Benjamin Dawson including an original work, the "Woodbooger Waltz." Admission to both performances is free, and these events are open to the public. If you plan to attend the afternoon show in Jonesville, we invite you to bring a blanket or lawn chairs to spread out on the park lawn.

Expedition to India

Save the date: July 12th

Children and adults alike are invited to experience an Expedition to India with Surteg Sandhu on Monday, July 12 from 10 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. in the Gilliam Center for the Arts Courtyard at UVA Wise. Participants will engage with East Indian culture through hands-on workshops in Rangoli Art, Bhangra Dance, and a Cultural Showcase featuring demonstrations of traditional dress and greetings.

Surteg has presented over 700 programs in 100+ venues over the last 17 years. The programs cater to grades K-12 in Dance, Visual Arts and Social Studies. All workshops are hands-on, participatory and informational.

India to him is “the living embodiment of thousands of years of cultural and religious heritage: a country of music, dance and Bollywood movies; festivals, anthropomorphic gods and sacred rivers; plains, mountains and plateaus; monsoon rains, crops and green revolution; tremendous Army, Air Force and Navy; education, cricket and nuclear technology; all but 70 years of freedom from British rule, India is 'Unity in Diversity' amongst 35 provinces and union territories, four thousand plus languages and dialects and a unique political process.” The proposed programs represent an avenue to blend that India into various dance and art programs for students of all ages.

Heather Harvey

Be on the lookout for visual artist this week as she begins work on an art installation on the Greenbelt in Big Stone Gap. Harvey has described the goal of the piece as creating “an unexpected moment of surprise that is both eerie and delightful, in order to bring a sense of mystery, joy, wonder, and humor for passing parkgoers.” Heather Harvey is an Associate Professor of Art and Chair of the Department of Art and Art History at Washington College. Harvey creates site-specific installations and objects that straddle traditional boundaries between painting, drawing and sculpture. She is interested in hidden infrastructures and invisible ordering mechanisms – things like gravity, quantum physics, and radio waves, but also the human body, memory, and contradictory emotions like aversion and affection. Her work is suggestive of mental and emotional landscapes and internal unfolding thought processes.