First Fridays

Panels, micro add spice to August

l Charlottesville Community Design Center:

A reception from 5 to 9 tonight kicks off a photo-documentary project examining the experiences of Charlottesville’s international refugee community. A panel of refugee youth will discuss their experiences at 7 p.m.

“Asylum and Acceptance: Seeking Peace in Charlottesville” will run through August.

For more details, call 984-2232.

l Paramount Theater:

Local photographer Dain Renick opens his show at 5 tonight in the theater’s ballroom. It will run through August.

Ten percent of sales from the exhibit will be donated to the Snow Leopard Conservancy, which works with Central Asian communities to foster stewardship of endangered snow leopards in their habitat.

Emerson was trained in writing and photography at Boston’s Emerson College, and is a member of the Ilford Ilfopro Photographer’s Association and the Luminos Printmaker’s Guild. He won the Award of Excellence from Photographer’s Forum Magazine for three consecutive years.

For more information about the Snow Leopard Conservancy, visit www. snowleopardconservancy.org. For details about the show, call 979-1333.

l The Bridge, Progressive Arts Initiative:

To mark the completion of the Fun Bus project, there will be a three-day micro exhibit and celebration from tonight through Sunday at 205 Monticello Road.

Artists from University of Virginia’s School of Architecture and the Bridge joined with Piedmont Council of the Arts to repaint a yellow school bus, for the Parks and Recreation Department. The project also included hands-on workshops with young people. The exhibit will show drawings, photographs, studies and ephemera from the project.

An opening reception will be from 6 to 8 tonight and a gathering for families and friends will follow on Saturday from 3 to 5 p.m. The exhibit will be on display from noon to 3 p.m. daily.

For more information, call 971-2787.

l C’ville Arts:

“Magic Moments in Glass,” the fused-glass creations of Mary Ellen Larkins, will be on display through August. She uses equipment normally found in a physics lab, an artisan’s studio and a jeweler’s workshop. Her exhibit includes gallery plates, sculpture, pendants, earrings and bracelets.

An opening reception will be from 6 to 9 tonight.

For more details, call 972-9500.

l The Gallery @ Fifth and Water:

“Divisions and Horizons,” new paintings by Mike Guyer and Peyton Hurt, will be on display through August. Hurt’s broad slabs and a finite horizontal division reference landscapes.

An opening reception is on tap from 5:30 to 8 tonight.

For more details, call 979-9825.

l Art Upstairs Gallery:

Randy Sights Baskerville, who prefers painting plein-aire landscapes in oil, has a show of familiar Virginia scenes that she has interpreted in new ways. “Reframing Life: New Perspectives on Familiar Scenes” will be on view through August.

An opening reception will be from 5:30 to 8:30 tonight.

For more information, try 923-3900.

l The Virginia Shop:

Jo Anne Farrell, featured artist at the Artisans Center of Virginia in Waynesboro, also will be displaying her baskets at Barracks Road Shopping Center.

In its new collaboration the Virginia Shop will provide gallery space featuring work by craftspeople juried into the Artisans Center’s gallery of handmade fine craft.

There will be an opening reception from 6 to 8 tonight.

The Mount Sidney artisan’s exhibit in Waynesboro, “Traditions from the Past: Nantucket and Traditional Baskets, will be on view throughout the month. She has been making baskets for 18 years. Admission is free.

For more information, about the local display, call 977-0080. For details on the Waynesboro exhibit, try (540) 946-3294.

l Angelo:

Find familiar Charlottesville places in the two-month long exhibit “Locally Grown.”

Janet Grahame’s machine-stitched etching collages went on display in July, but an opening reception is on tap from 5:30 to 7:30 tonight. The exhibit will continue through Aug. 30. For more information, call 971-9256.

l Obrigado’s:

Noel Baebler will be this month’s featured artist at the Louisa restaurant. He will be on hand Friday from 6 to 8 p.m. tonight.

Twenty-five percent of sales go to the Mona Foundation, which supports educational initiatives and raises the status of women and girls around the world.

For more details, call (540) 967-9447.

From staff reports

Art Center banks on satellite project

The Arts Center in Orange has launched a satellite gallery exhibit at Virginia National Bank.

An exhibit of Virginia landscape oil paintings by artist Lawrence Altaffer will remain on view through August in the lobby of the historic Virginia National Bank building at 102 E. Main Street in Orange.

Altaffer paints representational landscapes. He began painting in 1997 and is primarily self-taught, but has received instruction in painting at the Corcoran School of Art and the Art League.

His home studio is in Doubleview, which is an 18th-century log home near Syria.

His paintings have been exhibited in Oil Painters of America, Arts For the Parks, the Salmagundi Club and the Salon International.

For more details, call (540) 672-7311.

Take the Tucker before exhibit goes

The Kluge-Ruhe Collection will hold a Tucker Box Tour from 12:15 to 1:30 p.m. Tuesday.

There will be a guided tour of “Virtuosity: The Evolution of Painting at Papunya Tula,” followed by lunch in the gallery. You can bring your own lunch or order one for $8. Ordered lunches are provided by Brix at Pantops Center.

Reservations are required.

“Virtuosity” will remain on view through Aug. 9.

Curated by anthropologist Fred R. Myers of New York University, the exhibit features the work of several artists, including Mick Namarari Tjapaltjarri, Yanyatjarri Tjakamarra, Johnny Warangkula Tjupurrula and Wuta Wuta Tjangala. It features work from the Kluge-Ruhe Collection and 20 pieces on loan from the private collection of John and Tussi Kluge and other private collectors. A number of recent pieces from Papunya Tula artists will be for sale in the gift shop. Call 244-0234 to reserve a space.

From staff reports