Programs

Directed by ethnomusicologist & Africanist Michelle Kisliuk This ensemble focuses on traditional music and dance forms from West Africa (Ghana, Togo) and Central Africa (BaAka pygmies). The group develops tight ensemble dynamics, aural musicianship, and a polymetric sensibility, and performs several times per year.

This annual lecture and award ceremony recognizes a nurse historian that has contributed significantly to the public's understanding of nursing history and the development of the health care system.

The Albemarle Ensemble, a woodwind quintet made up principals from the Charlottesville & University Symphony Orchestra, has been in residence at the University of Virginia since 1987. The group has performed throughout the eastern United States. They received a Virginia Arts Grant for educational programs and other grants for their recording and touring projects. The Ensemble appears on the CDs American Camerata Performs and Harlequinade, Wind Music by Walter Ross. High Performance Review magazine described their playing on their most recent recording as “splendid ... with spirit and understanding” and the Washington Post spoke of the Ensemble’s “ease, wit and spontaneity.”

All America Reads (AAR) is an ongoing nationwide project designed to encourage reading and discussion. The project selects a novel and provides numerous lesson plans and resources for educators and students.

"America in the 1930s" offers a substantial collection of film, print, audio media from the Depression-era U.S., as well as an archive of art objects, achitecture, and design from this historical period.

Through the annual American Sign Language and Deaf Culture Lecture Series, the general public has an opportunity to learn about sign language and deaf culture from prominent scholars. A list of past lecturers and discussion topics is posted on the UVa American Sign Language Program's Web site. Videotapes of past lectures are available in the Robertson Media Center at UVa's Clemons Library.

Held each Columbus Day Weekend, ArborFest is the Arboretum’s fall festival and plant sale. Hours are 9 to 4:30 both Saturday and Sunday, rain or shine.

McCormick Observatory is open to the public on the first and third Friday night of each month, except holidays. Weather permitting, visitors can view celestial objects through the historic McCormick Refractor and two smaller telescopes. Visitors can also see presentations by the Astronomy Department faculty and exhibits.

Athletic camps for kids are run by coaches of UVa athletic teams each year on the University's grounds in Charlottesville.

The Big Sibling program seeks to develop long-term relationships of friendship and trust between community volunteers and children that live in the Charlottesville-Albemarle area.