Life is returning to normal: friends are greeting with hugs; children are getting back to familiar summer routines; restaurants and other businesses are welcoming more visitors inside as well as out; and the many fine Rappahannock artists and galleries are eagerly anticipating the return of the Fall Art Tour, sponsored by the Rappahannock Association for Arts and Community, on Nov. 6 and 7.

Following two sold out live performances and enthusiastic feedback from audiences and performers, the Castleton Festival continues to build momentum, framing the summer solstice with multiple events.

A delighted smile is the natural response to stepping over the threshold of Sperryville’s Thornton River Art. 

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RAAC Community Theatre’s first-ever video production will be available for online viewing the last weekend in May and the first weekend in June. Eagerly awaited by the Theatre’s devoted audience, the play is being offered as a gift to the community.

The Middle Street Gallery in Washington is pleased to announce that member artist Joyce Harman will show her water-related photographs at the gallery from May 8 through June 13. Other members of the artists’ cooperative will show works there as well.

Rappahannock Association for Arts and Community (RAAC) has announced this year’s grants to 14 Rappahannock artists and organizations. In keeping with the vision of the Claudia Mitchell Arts Fund, the grants reward and encourage individual artists of all ages and organizations who are working to foster the arts in Rappahannock. 

On Friday evening, the Castleton Chamber Players will perform for a live audience — for the very first time since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic 15 months ago. 

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Yip Harburg, the composer of Somewhere Over the Rainbow, said, “Words make you think thoughts. Music makes you feel a feeling. But a song makes you feel a thought.” And that’s been the goal of Kid Pan Alley’s “Because We Have Music” virtual concert series over the last year — to help us feel deeply in these times of numbness and separation.

Donnie Mullan was 21 years old when he arrived in Rappahannock County in the fall of 1972 with all his possessions in a footlocker in the back of his Datsun pickup truck.

Deaf from an early age, self-taught artist James Castle rendered many of his drawings from memory. 

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If you weren’t part of the dulcimer community, it’s unlikely that you would have heard of a man named Ralph Lee Smith. Ralph played a significant role in the folk revolution of the 1960s and ’70s and was also a groundbreaking researcher of the history of the Appalachian dulcimer, a wooden instrument with three or four strings and frets that is played on the lap.

The Middle Street Gallery in Washington is pleased to announce that member artist Susan Raines will show her photographs at the gallery from March 27 through May 2. Other members of the artists cooperative will show works there as well.

Paintings by Davette Leonard, wood turnings by Michel Fraser and Don Maloney and ceramics by Yoshi Fujii can be found at Cottage Curator Friday through Sunday, 11:30 a.m. until 4:30 p.m.

Bill Gadino, founder with his wife Aleta Saccuta Gadino of Gadino Cellars in Washington, delights visitors to the winery with his accordion, the instrument seen here a gift from his father when he was 10 years old.

If it had not been for a hive of honeybees, John R.Bourgeois may never have become the director of the “President’s Own” Marine Band. In his new book, “Play On!: A Marine’s Musical Journey from the Bayou to the White House,” Bourgeois tells the story of how he came to lead the oldest continuously active professional music organization.

The coronavirus pandemic has forced the curtain to close on the local Regal Cinemas movie theater. After a year of financial and operational struggles courtesy of the pandemic, the town is terminating its lease with the theater.

The Middle Street Gallery in Washington will spotlight its four newest members — Edward R. Boc, Joyce Harman, Paulo Neuhaus, and Francie Schroeder — from this Saturday, Feb. 20 through March 21. 

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Even though the COVID-19 pandemic has cancelled innumerable arts events over the past year, the Rappahannock arts community is still alive and well. The Rappahannock Association for Arts and Community has created several different ways to keep artists and audiences connected virtually.

The Middle Street Gallery in Washington. is putting on its annual Members and Friends exhibition, on exhibit from Friday through Feb. 14 will be a rich variety of colors, textures, subjects, and media from some two dozen artists. 

My name is Devin Sherwood. I was born in Rappahannock, currently live in Woodville and have been drawing since I was a child. In recent years, I started to draw more from my day-to-day life. 

How does one connect the dots among the century-old Los Angeles Breakfast Club, Washington, DC, an unauthorized house demolition in Knoxville, Tennessee, an untimely death in Chicago, and Mary Ann Kuhn’s Middleton Inn in the town of Washington?

The Rappahannock Association for Arts and Community launched its Artist Relief Fund in July, and since then the fund has provided financial aid to 17 local artists, craftsmen and musicians who have lost jobs or gigs due to COVID-19.

Rappahannock County is fortunate to possess the eye of Gary Anthes, a member of the Middle Street Gallery artists’ co-operative and gallery in Washington, whose fine-art photographs have appeared coast-to-coast in newspapers and magazines to exhibitions and solo shows to breathtaking books.

The gallery will feature a wide range of handmade creations, from whimsical fused glass, pottery and jewelry to high-end paintings, mosaics and stained-glass windows.

The outdoors campaign finance reform themed event was held at the Stone Hill Amphitheater in Flint Hill belonging to John Henry and Ann Crittenden. Almost 100 brave souls attended, wearing face masks and socially distancing on a chilly fall evening.

Last Friday, Sept. 25, children from Renee Estinola’s Child Care and Learning Center class toured the gardens at the The Inn at Little Washington. My granddaughter was one of those to visit. She had so much fun that when she came home she could not stop talking about the fun she had. She especially loved the llamas. 

Rappahannock-based film director Megan Smith is releasing on Oct. 6 her first feature documentary film investigating the controversial world of breast cancer screening. 

Seven-year-old Amani Melson keeps her best friend, Bean, company as the livestock guardian keeps watch over the chicken pen at Off the Grid Farm in Sperryville.

On Thursday afternoon, Oct. 22, look for several dozen rare Packard automobiles to roll into the Sperryville River District, gathering point for the Old Dominion Packard Club’s 2020 Fall Meet.

The bearded man’s roots on his mother’s side run deep in Rappahannock, although he grew up in Culpeper. When he was a young boy his dad sold his handmade birdhouses out of the Sperryville Emporium.

Washington artist Nedra Smith is honored to have her oil painting "Blue Ridge Hunt" selected to be included in the American Impressionist Society's 2020 online juried exhibition.

RAAC has refused to let COVID-19 prevent art lovers from exploring and experiencing Rappahannock artists. So, we have adapted to these challenging times and created three ways to enjoy, celebrate and support our Art Tour artists virtually.

Foothills Forum invites one and all to a virtual evening with Margaret Sullivan, Washington Post media columnist and author of Ghosting the News (2020). The locally exclusive Zoom event will take place Friday, Sept. 11.

Following the screening, there will be a live discussion with the former Chairman of the Federal Elections Committee (FEC) Trevor Potter, who is a leading expert in campaign finance and president of the Campaign Legal Center.

Artistically inclined? Socially isolated? Time on your hands? Make the most of your COVID-19 isolation by competing to create a handcrafted holiday ornament for display in Virginia’s Executive Mansion.

“The library is more than a collection of books (although I am proud of our book collection), it is very much a community center that evolves and grows with the community around it,” Weakley said.

The Birds of Hope strutting and preening in Washington’s Gay Street Gallery are the perfect introduction to stained glass artist Patricia Brennan. 

“There’s still too much uncertainty,” said Kenner Love, the county’s agricultural extension agent who heads the team of volunteers behind the event.

Designed in the spirit of RAAC’s mission to support the arts in Rappahannock County, the financial aid will be available to qualified artists to help with lost art-related income during 2020.

This year’s grants, totaling $36,703, include a diversity of educational and performance projects, a variety of media, emerging and established artists, arts programs within community-based organizations, and collaborative projects.

Gay Street Gallery is now open to the public. You can visit Friday-Monday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. They are doing their best to ensure the safety of their staff and visitors with proper social distancing.

A new monthly Virtual Art Exhibit series opens tomorrow, Friday, May 22nd at 5 p.m.

It’s not every day that one spots a strumming guitarist along Sperryville Pike, but a “wrong turn” found George West in Woodville last Saturday shooting promotional pictures and video for two songs from his upcoming nine-song LP.