Central Virginia Times

Piedmont Virginia Community College issued the following announcement on Nov. 29

The Piedmont Virginia Community College (PVCC) Visual Arts Department will hold its fifteenth annual Let There Be Light outdoor exhibition on two nights, at two sites this year. The exhibition features creative illumination through light-centered art installations and performances as the longest night of the year approaches. The first event will take place on the PVCC main campus, as is the tradition, illuminating the grounds surrounding the V. Earl Dickinson Building on Friday, December 10, from 6 to 9 p.m. (rain date: Saturday, December 11, 6-9 p.m.) In addition, on Saturday evening, December 11, from 6 to 9 p.m., Let There Be Light events will be held at multiple locations around Charlottesville’s Downtown Mall (rain date: 6-9 p.m., Sunday, December 12.)

Let There Be Light is free and open to the public. Visitors are invited to bring a flashlight and encouraged to dress as “enlightened beings,” decorating themselves with light to add to the festivities.

The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (VMFA) Artmobile traveling gallery will make a stop at the PVCC campus for the exhibition on Friday, December 10, with its “VMFA on the Road: An Artmobile for the 21st Century” program, featuring “A View from Home: Landscapes of Virginia.” The display explores the diversity and beauty of the Commonwealth’s natural landscapes through the eyes of multiple artists of various styles and periods such as painters Adele Clark and George H. Benjamin Johnson, photographer Hullihen Williams Moore, woodblock printmaker Miwako Nishizawa and others.

Additional exhibition highlights include:

• Veronica Jackson’s “Illuminating BLM and Centering Black Joy” spelling out BLM (the acronym for Black Lives Matter) with glowing, flower shaped lanterns.
• MICE (Mobile Interactive Computer Ensemble) presenting “Glow,” a performance of electronic music manifested in visible light emanating from a cluster of tiled screens that track and animate the sound in real time.
• Emily Wright’s “A Moveable Peace,”  which invites audience members to move together in a dance with candles and other mobile lights from the Ting Pavilion to the opposite end of the Downtown Mall.  

Among the art installations are those that pay respects to the dedication of this year’s Let There Be Light to Beryl Solla, past Gallery Director and Chair of Visual and Performing Arts at PVCC, who paired with husband and curator of the exhibition, James Yates, to bring the event to the community since year one. “Her Light Shines On (a tribute to Beryl Solla)” by returning artist Diana Hale features the artworks of Solla reimagined in light. “Be the Light,” a collaboration that Solla and Yates created together before she passed away, is described by Yates as, “an invitation to us all during these difficult times.” This year Yates is joined by fellow curator and Associate Professor of Art Fenella Belle to bring Let There Be Light to the community.

Other returning favorites include former special effects technician Circe Strauss, dancer Penny Chang’s group “Deep Water Moves,” a creative team of students from Murray High School, Professor in Composition and Computer Technologies at the University of Virginia Ted Coffey, the community of potters from City Clay, dancer Shandoah Rose Goldman, visual arts instructor Steve Haske and Renaissance School students, PVCC instructor of art Ed Miller and more.

Free warm apple cider will be served outside the Dickinson Building during Friday night’s event at PVCC. While the doors to the building will be open for restroom visits, access will be limited due to COVID-19 precautions. Everyone must wear a mask while indoors on the PVCC campus.

For additional information visit www.pvcc.edu/performingarts or contact James Yates at info@lettherebelightpvcc.com or 434.977.6918.

Original source can be found here.