Arts & Culture

As Virginia trees burst into flower, as their leaves unfurl, nature lovers delight, but how do trees feel in the spring?  That’s what artist Peter Traub wondered as he created a multi-media work entitled Wood Ear. 

This weekend marks the 150th Anniversary of two history-changing battles fought in the Old Dominion during the Civil War, and there are a number of events scheduled to mark the historic clashes .

The recent discovery of a Fort built by Spanish Conquistadors in what is now North Carolina, almost half a century before Jamestown was settled by the British, is causing some to rethink American history. A Blacksburg historian says southwestern Virginia played a much larger part than many people realize.  

Next month, as it does every year, the Virginia Military Institute will honor ten cadets who were killed at the Battle of New Market - boys who were not supposed to fight, but ended up filling a gap in the confederate line. 

They and 237 other cadets get credit for winning that battle and keeping union troops out of the Shenandoah Valley.  Now they’re the subject of a surprising film - written and produced by a man with no movie-making experience.    

Students of American history learn about the Civil Rights movement in this country – about marches and sit-ins in places like Birmingham and Selma, but at Virginia Commonwealth University there’s a new project underway – an online display of photographs from one of many other cities where such protests took place. 

VCU is hoping the public can help identify participants and share details of what went on.