University of Virginia's Arts Grounds To Host April 'Final Friday' Celebration

April 18, 2012 — On the last Friday of each month, the University of Virginia's Arts Grounds is enlivened by the rich diversity of the arts with exhibitions, performances, lectures and concerts. On April 27, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m., the University will host its last Final Friday of the academic year.

The scheduled events include:

• Work by fourth-year studio art majors and Aunspaugh Fifth-Year fellows will be showcased on all three floors of the Studio Art Department's Ruffin Hall. The exhibit includes works by students in new media, cinematography, photography, printmaking, sculpture and painting.

Fourth-year Chloe Skye Delaney's photography show, "Shrines," is one of the Ruffin exhibits. "My interest in people's curation of their belongings led me to 'Shrines,'" she said. "The objects I photograph exist as an extension of the owner's personality, and become enshrined through their selection, organization and the act of being photographed."

• The Studio Art Department will also feature the work of its first painter-in-residence, Samira Abbassay, an Arab-Iranian whose work deals with women, war and identity. She has been in residence since April 1, creating her own work and interacting with students.

The public is invited into Abbassy's studio in room 323 of Ruffin Hall to view the paintings she has been creating during her residency. Her work uses self-portraiture as "a way of defining myself in a constantly shifting cultural context," she said.

• The Garden at Eunoia, next to the Elson Student Health Center on Jefferson Park Avenue, will exhibit the paintings of third-year arts administration major Mary Adams Bode, with a reception from 7 to 9 p.m.

• The U.Va. Art Museum will feature five exhibits: "The Adoration of the Magi by Bartolo di Fredi: A Masterpiece Reconstructed," "100 Years of Photography," "Curators Choice: People Places and Things," "Master Printmakers: The Italian Renaissance and its Modern Legacy" and "Tom Burckhardt: Paintings." This month, the museum will host a live broadcast by the radio station WNRN, 91.9 FM. As part of WNRN's "Bonnaroo Road Show," the station will be taking entries for a chance to win tickets to the Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival.

Museum Final Friday's are held from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Admission is free to museum members and U.Va. students with a U.Va. email address and $3 for non-members.

• The University's Fiske Kimball Fine Arts Library features a unique, interactive public viewing space called "The Niche" – a comfortable viewing area for new media and video art. On April 27, The Niche will present "In Still," a 27-minute video by artist Ron Lambert, who described it as "a non-narrative work dealing with landscape imagery and the loss of specificity of place as our culture becomes accepting of forms of simulation. The piece questions if we are losing something as we quicken our pace, or if new ways of experiencing life are gained."

More information can be found on the library's blog site.

• The McIntire Department of Music will showcase the University Singers presenting "Mendelssohn's Elijah with Orchestra and Soloists" at 8 p.m. in Old Cabell Hall. Tickets are $15, $5 for students (free for U.Va. students with advance reservations), and can be obtained here.

• Finally, the U.Va. Department of Drama will present its final performance of the year, "Romeo and Juliet" by William Shakespeare, directed by Brantley M. Dunaway. The performance will be held at Culbreth Theater at 8 p.m. Tickets are $14 ($12 for U.Va. faculty/staff, U.Va. Alumni Association members and seniors, $8 for children, free for U.Va students with advanced reservations).

For information, contact Lindsey Helper at 434-243-8446 or ljt4b@virginia.edu.