October 31st- November 24th “Conceptual Pigments”: more
ARE YOU READY TO HAVE THE BEST.WEEKEND.EVER.?! more
Join us in celebrating our 3 Year Anniversary at Las Traumadas! We're honored to feature the following bands at Pale Fire: more
Rocktown School of the Arts Presents a Pop-Up Summer Arts Camp in 2021 more
When you see Zaharia Ford-Byrd’s painting, currently housed in the Arts Council of the Valley’s Smith House Gallery, of a Stars and Stripes wrecking ball slamming into a bright, colorful, enlivened house, you might recall artist Hugo Gellert’s image of a strapping, muscular man wielding a sledgehammer over the quaint town beneath him. Gellert’s image, however, was used in a 1946 pamphlet titled “THIS IS IT,” generated by Norfolk’s Redevelopment and Housing Authority to promote the “creative destruction” involved in urban renewal initiatives. The simultaneous resemblance and contrast of these two images highlights an urge to conveniently blur the line between progress and violence. Hearing the voices of the urban residents on the receiving end of the wrecking ball lends the balance needed to understand the consequences of urban renewal and opens a space where it’s possible for healing to begin. more