Craft-A-Buzz Art Hangout

Friday, May 10th from 5-7 pm the Art Hive Creative Reuse and Art Center is also hosting a Craft-A-Buzz Art Hangout where participants can do their own art and craft projects (or not), chat, snack, watch a bad movie, play games, or just hang out. This event is free. for more information you can visit arthive.art.

Mother’s Day Teacup Floral Arrangement and Tea

Friday, May 10th from 3:00-5:00 pm the Art Hive Creative Reuse and Art Center is hosting Mother’s Day Teacup Floral Arrangement and Tea. Attendees can Create a Quince & Burdock fresh cut floral arrangement in a teacup for their mom, with their mom, or for themselves! participants are welcome to wear a hat if they are feeling fancy! Tickets are $45 and for more information you can visit arthive.art.

Staunton Farmers’ Market

Every Saturday ongoing Until September, the Staunton Farmers’ Market is up and running in the downtown Wharf Parking Lot. Hours are from 7am until noon. Attendees can hear live music and shop Farm, Food and Artisan Products from local vendors. For more information you can visit stauntonfarmersmarket.org

Cinco de Mayo Paint & Sip

Sunday, May 5, 2024 3:00-5:00 pm the Art Hive Creative Reuse and Art Center is also hosting a CINCO DE MAYO PAINT & SIP. Attendees will paint a Mexican Mariachi themed guitar and feast on authentic homemade chilaquiles and lime sodas. Tickets are $45. For more information you can visit arthive.art.

Portents & Parallel Realms: Autumn Nolen’s Inaugural Showcase Reception

Friday, May 3rd from 5:00-7:00 pm the Art Hive Creative Reuse and Art Center is hosting Portents & Parallel Realms: Autumn Nolen’s Inaugural Showcase Reception. In this featured body of work, Autumn strives to transcend the boundaries of conventional reality, into realms where volcanoes, comets, and catlike creatures – intersect with the earth and abandoned human objects. Drawing inspiration from folk art and medieval manuscripts, these paintings serve as a gateway to a parallel realm where the tangible and the mystical converge, where the ordinary becomes extraordinary. This event is FREE!

“Little Worlds” and “When I Am Among The Trees”

The Staunton Augusta Art Center announces the opening of Little Worlds, mixed media collage work by Laura Thompson and When I Am Among The Trees, paintings by Jane Skafte, running from May 17-June 22 in the Art Center galleries. There will be an opening reception on Friday, May 17 from 5-7 pm in the galleries. This exhibition is proudly sponsored by Robert Jochen and Christopher Smith. Admission and Opening Receptions are FREE and ALL are welcome.

Embracing Entropy, A Performance/Sculpture/Sound Art Piece

The Staunton Augusta Art Center presents Embracing Entropy, a Performance/Sculpture/Sound Art Piece by R. Mertens on Friday, May 10 in the galleries. Mertens’ wearable and sonic sculptures quietly and grotesquely reveal the body as an object of contemplation to consider the dynamics of decay, self-reflection and recovery. Utilizing wool and steel to create forms reminiscent of internal organs and tumors via crochet, basketry, wet felting, and rust dyeing: objects become extension of the human figure. Amplified bodily sounds pushed to the point of distortion are the pulse and score animating the sculptures and enveloping the performers. Mertens views the body as an archeological site. Scars, stretchmarks, and blemishes can be read like artifacts, glyphs or midden sites and the processes used in his artwork inform its content and metaphors. Raw wool mixed with ungalvanized steel is wet felted; causing the wool to contort in unpredictable ways and the steel to rust. The accumulation of stitches act as cells in the body and felting is the environment that forms us. The random shaping of the felting process is a metaphor for a lack of control and the rusting process leads to the “death” of the form over time. This performance is FREE and ALL are welcome.

Art: A Voice, A Mental Health Show

The Staunton Augusta Art Center commemorates Mental Health Awareness Month in May with Art: A Voice, A Mental Health Show in collaboration with the National Alliance of Mental Illness and Mental Health America in Virginia. This exhibition is, once again, proudly sponsored by Augusta Health. Local and regional artists- from patients and doctors, from nurses to clients- are encouraged to submit their work. Everyone’s work is welcome. The concept of the exhibition is the display the work of artistic participants who utilize the strength of creating artwork as therapy in their journey and recovery. An opening reception is on Friday, May 3 from 5-7 pm in the 2nd Floor Galleries. Openings are FREE and ALL are welcome.