Central Virginia Times

PVCC Announces Sixteenth Annual Let There Be Light Exhibition

The Piedmont Virginia Community College(PVCC) Visual Arts Department will hold its sixteenth annual “Let There Be Light” outdoor light-centered art exhibition Friday, December 9, from 6 to 9 p.m. The exhibition will be held on the grounds surrounding the V. Earl Dickinson Building on the main campus in Charlottesville. This event is free, family friendly and welcomes the public with hot chocolate and warm apple cider served at no charge. In case of rain, Let There Be Light will be held Saturday, December 10, from 6 to 9 p.m.

Let There Be Light celebrates the approach of winter and the longest night of the year with illuminated artworks and performances created by local artists, students and community organizations. The 2022 exhibition will feature art installations in a wide variety of media including glowing sculptures, fluorescent paintings, audio loops and video projections, as well as interactive installations that invite the viewer to engage with the art.

PVCC’s partnership with the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (VMFA) continues with the return of “VMFA on the Road: An Artmobile for the 21st Century.” The traveling gallery will feature its latest exhibition, “Revealing and Obscuring Identity: Portraits from the Permanent Collection.” 

The group of paintings, photographs and prints invite viewers to experience the shift that occurred in portraiture over the decades. What had been reserved for the elite of society, signifying wealth and power, became more widely expressive over time as seen in works by artists such as Kitagawa Utamaro (Japan), Gordon Stettinius (American), André L’Hote (French) and S. Ross Browne (American). 

Other highlights of this year’s Let There Be Light include:

• Trash to Treasure, a creation by the Boys and Girls Club with Sigrid Eilertson that features illuminated sea creatures created from cast off items.
• Be a Beacon, an installation by Elizabeth Cassell, that takes the shape of a lighthouse that casts a beam of light across the PVCC pond to be caught by a mirrored ball that reflects and amplifies it.
•  Illusory Orrery, a large sculpture by Stephen Haske, featuring an illuminated model of an unknown solar system that spins and undulates with light and life.
• Becoming a Movement Choir by Deep Water Moves Dance Company and Dan Pearce. This work invites an ever-growing group of dancers to have their movements captured and echoed on a wall through a projector and feedback loop. 
• Celebration of Trees by Karen Colton which points to the importance of “dark sky-friendly" outdoor lighting by dramatically lighting the natural architecture of trees, bark, trunk, branches and needles. 
• Shadow Dance, a Renaissance School Computer Club creation inviting participants to pose a series of figures to create a short stop-motion animation.
• Phosphorescent Foliage: The Alien Plant Experiment by Chris Haske and students from The Peabody School. This work features a “garden” of alien-inspired sculptures that respond to a presence by increasing their illumination.
• River Shadows, an interactive video loop by Alexandria Searls featuring shadow puppets created by PVCC art club members. This work asks the viewer to ponder the health of a water source by the presence or absence of wildlife.
• RAKU!! - an outdoor kiln firing of clay vessels created by Nancy Ross, Tom Clarkson and the PVCC ceramics club. 

Although flashlights will be available to borrow, visitors are encouraged to bring their own to help guide them down lighted paths leading through the dark to the installations. Visitors are also invited to decorate themselves with light to add to the festivities. Food trucks will be on site with food for purchase.

Let There Be Light is co-curated by local artist James Yates and PVCC Chairperson of Visual and Performing Arts Fenella Belle. For more information, contact Belle at fbelle@pvcc.edu or 434-961-5362. Explore more of the PVCC Fine Arts and Performance season at www.pvcc.edu/performingarts. About Piedmont Virginia Community CollegeEstablished in 1972, Piedmont Virginia Community College is a nonresidential two-year institution of higher education that serves Central Virginia – principally, residents of the City of Charlottesville and the counties of Albemarle, Buckingham, Fluvanna, Greene, Louisa, and Nelson. PVCC is one of 23 community colleges in Virginia that comprise the Virginia Community College System. PVCC is committed to providing access to a college education for all who can benefit, an opportunity for each student to reach her/his potential and excellence in all programs and services. Visit www.pvcc.edu.

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