News, announcements, updates, and happenings in the UVA Library

Five contemporary artists featured in Harlem Renaissance exhibition

By Molly Minturn | Tue, 10/17/2023 - 13:20

The University of Virginia Library’s major new exhibition: “Their World As Big As They Made It: Looking Back at the Harlem Renaissance” is in full swing. Located in the Main Gallery of the Harrison Institute and Small Special Collections Library, the exhibition opened in September to a packed house and has garnered attention for featuring some of “the Harlem Renaissance’s most popular magazines, manuscripts and original dust jackets of major works, and even some of the period’s fashions.”

The exhibition’s title is inspired by the Georgia Douglas Johnson poem, “Your World,” in which she looks back at the creativity of the Harlem Renaissance, acknowledges the hardships of being an emerging artist, and beckons a new generation of Black artists, writers, poets, publishers, and other creatives with the line: “Your world is as big as you make it.”

In that spirit, Library curators put out a call this past summer for contemporary artists to create works that would explore or respond to poems by Harlem Renaissance authors (curators selected nine poems for artists to choose from by writers including Langston Hughes, Claude McKay, Helene Johnson, and of course, Georgia Douglas Johnson). This project, titled “As Big as We Make It!” was sponsored by a grant from the UVA Arts Council.

The selection committee members – Tamika L. Carey, UVA Associate Professor of English; MaKshya Tolbert, a third-year MFA student at UVA; and Maurice Wallace, a professor of English at Rutgers University-New Brunswick – selected five contemporary artists with connections to UVA and Charlottesville to showcase their work in the exhibition. Read more about them below.

Abreale Hopkins, “Above the Heights”

Left: a canvas with shades of black and a tear through the middle. Right: A person with short hair, dyed blue, smiles at the camera.

Abreale Hopkins hails from Maryland and now resides in Brooklyn, New York. She received her B.A. from UVA in African American Studies and painting. Hopkins’ work has been shown at the Bridge Progressive Arts Initiative, Ruffin Gallery, and in private collections.

Her painting, “Above the Heights,” is paired with Arna Bontemps’ 1924 poem Hope.In her artist statement, Hopkins writes: “Arna Bontemps describes hopelessness as an environment with an all-consuming, daunting energy that weighs heavily on one’s chest. This painting is a display of that purgatory filled by stillness, melancholy, and despair. Shades of grey build upon each other to create a clouded abyss that extends further away as you look. Bontemps reminds us that hope both strikes through our lives with a ferociousness that calls for action, and exists as a quiet idea waiting to catch our attention. … Hope flashes from above, tearing through the seemingly never-ending abyss. The rip running through the canvas is a physical depiction of hopelessness’ impermanence and fragility. The tear’s assertiveness forces your eyes and mind out of the haze, urging you to imagine a different existence.”

Tobiah Mundt, “Of Rivers”

Left: A painting shows two empty hands, palms up, surrounded by paint reminiscent of black and red rivers or trees. Right: A person with curly hair looks at the camera

Tobiah Mundt is a self-taught fiber artist from Houston, Texas. She studied architecture at Howard University and eventually left the field of architecture for sculpture. She uses rug tufting, wet felting, and needle felting techniques to sculpt abstract and figurative pieces centered on ancestry and symbolism. A New City Arts Initiative Fellow and former Artist Residence at the Bridge PAI in Charlottesville, her work has been exhibited in Texas, Virginia, Maryland, and Washington, D.C., and is in private and corporate collections locally and nationally.

Mundt’s tufted and needle-felted layered tapestry, “Of Rivers” connects with and responds to the poem, “The Negro Speaks of Riversby Langston Hughes. Mundt writes: “The tapestry illustrates African American lineage and connection to the world through the four great rivers mentioned in Hughes’ poem. It further represents the African American’s claim to a future place in the world. … The main image on the tapestry is a black hand and forearm in the style of a linocut. The lines of the Nile, Congo, Euphrates, and Mississippi rivers are drawn with wool from the bottom of the forearm onto the palm and out through the fingertips to the top right of the tapestry. The top right of the tapestry is orange-red to represent a bright African American future. The four corners of the piece tell abstract stories of an African American past, present, and futures.”

Valencia Robin, “Dear Georgia”

Left: A painting with color blocks and circles and Xs. Right: A person in a blue shirt smiles at the camera.

Valencia Robin’s interdisciplinary practice includes poetry, painting, and sculpture. The recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, the Emily Clark Balch Prize, a Margaret Towsley Fellowship, a King-Chavez-Parks Fellowship, as well as fellowships from Cave Canem and the Furious Flower Poetry Center, she holds an M.F.A. in art & design from the University of Michigan and an M.F.A. in creative writing from UVA. Her work has been exhibited nationally and includes a two-person show at Charlottesville’s New City Arts and a solo show at Second Street Gallery. She currently lives and teaches in Johnson City, Tennessee.

Robin’s painting “Dear Georgia” is inspired by Georgia Douglas Johnson’s poem “Calling Dreams.” Robin writes: “My paintings are visual poems, metaphors for capturing my inter- actions with myself and the world. In this sense, I’m both an abstract and representational painter. Like a poem, they reach for the ineffable, try to make it legible.”

Lisa Woolfork, “Three Dark Girls, Loved”

Left: Art incorporates drawings of three little girls with pictures of those girls and sewn textiles. Right: A woman with purple earrings and curly hair smiles at the camera

Sewing and quilting are powerful tools for Black resistance, recreation, and rest, as well as storytelling and social justice. As the founder of Black Women Stitch, “the sewing group where Black lives matter,” and the host/producer of Stitch Please, a weekly audio podcast that centers Black women, girls, and femmes in sewing, Lisa Woolfork is committed to using her art practice and social platforms to foster greater understanding, creative expression, liberation, and connection in our communities.

In her artist statement Woolfork writes: “Three abstract figures occupy the center of the design and are superimposed by appliqué on top of a photorealistic fabric foundation of the same image. The quilt border is a textile adaptation in honor of Zora Neale Hurston, as seen in the print’s use of notebook and ledger paper as well as in the bounding white lines arcing over organic circles. This line refers to a sentence from Hurston’s autobiography, where her mother encouraged her to “Jump at the sun.” The piece engages with the first four lines of Gwendolyn Bennett’s poem, “To a Dark Girl.” The quilted scene freezes the girls in a moment prior to awareness of anti-Blackness. It is a moment in time when they were three dark girls, loved. The image is a childhood Polaroid of myself with my sisters wearing dresses made by our grandmother. I am delighted to bring this cherished memory to this exhibit.”

Kemi Layeni, “To Be A Black Girl”

Left: a photograph shows a woman holding a baby. A man stands in the foreground, and they are all watching something off screen. Right: A woman with large artistic earrings sits in front of a red background, looking to the side.

Kemi Layeni is an artist, writer, educator, and M.F.A. Candidate at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts Graduate Film Program. She works in the mediums of film, photography, and installation art. Her work explores the intersections of history and its burden on the present, Black womanhood, and the experiences of Black people throughout the diaspora. When Kemi is not working on her art, she spends her time working with teenagers in her school and community in performing arts and writing.

Of her multimedia piece, Layeni writes: “In Gwendolyn Bennett’s “To a Dark Girl,” the speaker of the poem’s purpose is to uplift Black girls and women. This piece incorporates voiceover, music, and photos of myself, the artist, from my childhood to adolescence. I chose to start and end with photos of my mother and I to mirror the same relationship of the speaker of the poem and their audience. I chose photos from my adolescence, a time where I was deeply insecure and convinced I was anything but valuable and beautiful, and juxtaposed them with the poem. The piece goes from an imagined mother speaking to a daughter with the words of the poem, to that same daughter speaking to herself, while exploring Black girlhood.”

To see these works in person, visit the main gallery of the Special Collections Library, open weekdays and Saturday afternoons. Or attend our Final Friday event on April 26, 2024, for an open house-style celebration featuring gallery talks by exhibition curators. 

Podcasts, books, and films for National Disability Employment Awareness Month

By Molly Minturn | Wed, 10/11/2023 - 15:42

Guest post by Erin Pappas, Librarian for the Humanities; Leigh Rockey, Video Collections Librarian; and Amanda Wyatt Visconti, co-director of the Scholars’ Lab.

Observed each October, National Disability Employment Awareness Month (NDEAM) celebrates the contributions of America’s workers with disabilities past and present and showcases supportive, inclusive employment policies and practices that benefit employers and employees. The U.S. government’s Office of Disability Employment Policy has chosen “Advancing Access and Equity” as the theme for NDEAM 2023. (NDEAM en español.)

Below, check out books, films, podcasts, and other resources we recommend, available through UVA Library or for free on the internet.

First, from Amanda Wyatt Visconti, co-director of the Scholars’ Lab:

Banner for the Job Accomodation NetworkThe Job Accommodation Network

The Job Accommodation Network’s free filterable collection of ideas for improving job accessibility is really useful in adapting your work or learning environment for what helps you do your work well and in a way that doesn’t hurt your health. I’ve used it to discover things that have helped me personally, found language to effectively ask an employer or teachers to provide an accommodation, and also shared with colleagues as an alternative or addition to the formal HR accommodation process.

"All the Things" podcast logo (black letters against a yellow background).All the Things ADHD podcast

The free All the Things ADHD podcast is helpful and fun, even for folks who aren’t professional women and/or don’t have ADHD — lots of the approaches and tools discussed are broadly useful! This podcast is “a resource for professional women who have been diagnosed later in life with ADHD (like [the hosts]) and the people who love them and are seeking to better understand them. ... The hosts, Lee Skallerup Bessette and Aimée Morrison, both have Ph.D.s, are both considered professionally successful, and yet embraced their diagnoses that came in their 40s. The podcast will address the stereotypes, stigmas, societal pressures, and systemic forces that shape the narrative around ADHD, as well as practical tips and advice for getting along with ADHD.”

 

Next, from Erin Pappas, Librarian for the Humanities:

A child sits at a desk holding a pencil and staring at a piece of paper.“The Disruptors”

The 2022 film “The Disruptors” takes a closer look at  both historical figures who exhibited symptoms associated with ADHD, such as Thomas Edison, Albert Einstein, and Andrew Carnegie, but also with well-known figures from the worlds of entertainment, sports, and business who have ADHD. These individuals include Paris Hilton, Scott Kelly (a former NASA astronaut), Howie Mandel, David Neeleman (founder of JetBlue and Breeze Airways), Michelle Carter (a three-time Olympian), and NFL legend Terry Bradshaw. Through their personal stories, the film illustrates how these real-life role models conquered challenges related to ADHD on their path to remarkable success.

Book cover: An unfurling stack of paper with "Reader's Block" title.“Reader’s Block: A History of Reading Differences”

In “Reader’s Block: A History of Reading Differences,” Matthew Rubery explores the diverse meanings of “reading.” He shares stories of individuals with conditions like dyslexia, hyperlexia, and synesthesia, showing how neurodiversity impacts reading. Rubery challenges our conventional understanding of reading, presenting it as a spectrum of activities rather than a single definition. The book draws on various sources, highlighting how cognitive differences shape reading experiences. You can read it in any way you prefer, just as there’s no one right way to read.

 

And finally, from Leigh Rockey, Video Collections Librarian:

"Lived Experiences" book cover (title with abstract, colored cloud background).“Lived Experiences of Ableism in Academia: Strategies for Inclusion in Higher Education”

While most of its writers live and work in the United Kingdon, the book “Lived Experiences of Ableism in Academia: Strategies for Inclusion in Higher Education” easily applies to academics of all nations. Institutions of higher learning can be cold, demanding, and unforgiving drivers of achievement. Failure to thrive is often seen as a personal, individual deficiency of talent, intelligence, or stamina — and academia is rarely considerate of people who are not typically able-bodied and able-minded. The engaging (and mostly free of academic jargon) essays in this book depict and then offer ways to solve the problems faced by those in academia who have disabilities, from visual impairment to the autism spectrum to dyslexia to depression. Ultimately, disabled, ill, and/or neurodivergent students, faculty, and staff embody the real narrative of accomplishment and excellence to which all of higher education aspires.

A shirtless man against a black background stares at the camera.“My Name is Daniel”

Through home movies and personal revelations, the Brazilian filmmaker Daniel Goncalves invites us into his life and his disability in “My Name Is Daniel.” The film revolves around diagnosing Goncalves while depicting his home, family, youthful longings, and present-day situation. Goncalves lets scenes play out so the viewer can appreciate the patience and persistence required to live with his as-yet-unlabeled physical differences. Watching him make eggs using his match-lit stove becomes uncomfortable until Goncalves himself makes us laugh with one word. Even with his difficulties on display, he is exactly like everybody (disabled or otherwise) watching him. As a working filmmaker, he turns his life into art, and the viewer appreciates this gift.

 

October 11 is National Coming Out Day!

By Amber Lautigar Reichert | Tue, 10/10/2023 - 09:59

National Coming Out Day began in 1988 and is celebrated on the anniversary of the National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights. It was created as a proactively positive holiday to embrace the LGBTQ+ community and boost its visibility in our day-to-day life. National Coming Out Day is also celebrated in the United Kingdom and a number of other countries.

At the University of Virginia Library, we’re so proud to have members of the LGBTQ+ community as patrons, staff, visitors, researchers, faculty, students, and more. Working to create welcoming spaces for all people is a deeply ingrained value at the UVA Library, and we appreciate all of those who help us move toward that vision.

A Library for allBelow are some LGBTQ+ resources you can find in the Library’s collections to deepen your knowledge, your understanding, and your research.

  • Archives of Sexuality and Gender: A collection of primary sources documenting how views of sex, sexuality, and gender have changed from the 16th century to the present. The archive’s oral history transcripts, diaries, and letters provide a deeply personal and human interpretation of the LGBTQ experience.
  • LGBTQ+ Source: Scholarly and popular LGBTQ+ publications in full text, plus historically important primary sources, including monographs, magazines, and newspapers. It also includes a specialized thesaurus containing thousands of terms. Search LGBTQ+ Source here.
  • Queer Pasts: A collection of primary source exhibits for students and scholars of queer history and culture. The database uses “queer” in its broadest and most inclusive sense, to embrace topics that are gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender and to include work on sexual and gender formations that are queer but not necessarily LGBTQ.
  • Celebrate Pride all year round with recommended books, podcasts, and movies from UVA librarians: 2021, 2022, and 2023.

Whether you’re navigating your own coming-out journey, or wanting to support others, here are some external resources to learn more and find a helping hand.

From UVA’s LGBTQ Center:

“Coming out can be a complex and challenging processthe LGBTQ Center and our on-Grounds partners are here to support you. There is no one right way to come out. It’s a lifelong process of being ever-more open and true with yourself and othersdone in your own way and in your own time.”

Learn more about resources and communities at UVA’s LGBTQ Center.

From the Human Rights Campaign:

“Sharing our authentic selves with others is not always safe or easy, and it is not a one-day event — but when possible, it can be an extraordinarily powerful key to breaking down the barriers we face as LGBTQ+ people.”

Learn more from Human Rights Campaign.

Happy National Coming Out Day! Wednesday, October 11

 

From Dracula to Steampunk: 5 unique events at UVA Library

By Molly Minturn | Fri, 10/06/2023 - 10:14

Sure, you can visit the University of Virginia Library to borrow books (we have more than 5 million of them!), to find a cozy study space, or even to use a 3-D printer, but did you know we offer events ranging from workshops to gallery talks for UVA and the Charlottesville community throughout the year?

Below, check out five upcoming events for those who love art, crafting, cosplay, and Halloween. All Library events are free.

Dracula event banner 1. Dracula Daily: An evening with author Matt Kirkland

On Monday, October 9, the UVA Library will host Matt Kirkland, author of “Dracula Daily,” in the Harrison/Small Auditorium. Kirkland will sign copies of his new publication (books will be available for sale) and talk about the creation and evolution of the “Dracula Daily project, which started out as a wildly popular email newsletter. Visitors will have the opportunity to interact with Kirkland and explore the history of Dracula in print. Refreshments will be served, jack-o’-lanterns will be on display, and vampire-themed costumes are encouraged.

  • When: Monday, Oct. 9; 6 – 7:30 p.m. (Doors open at 5:30 p.m.)
  • Where: Harrison/Small Auditorium
  • Registration is required: Register on Eventbrite here.

Book safe photo 2. Make a Book Safe Workshop

Bring an old book to hollow out and turn into a safe place to store your valuables! A limited number of books will be available; all other tools will be provided. No experience is needed. It only takes an hour to make a safe, so you won’t need to stay for the whole workshop time. Registration is required.

Halloween craft with glowing eyes 3. Halloween Maker Craft Workshops

The Scholars’ Lab TinkerTank is offering workshops during the week before Halloween (and on Halloween Day) to drop in and create a light-up craft. Participants can also use our button makers, sewing machines, CNC paper cutter, and electronics to make Halloween costumes, decorations, and decor. All supplies are included, all for free!

  • When: Oct. 24-27, Oct. 29-31; 11 a.m. – 6 p.m. each day
  • Where: Scholars’ Lab TinkerTank (Clemons, third Floor)
  • Registration is required; individual workshop calendar listings below.
    10/24, 10/25, 10/26, 10/27, 10/29, 10/30, 10/31

Harlem Renaissance exhibition banner 4. Final Friday — Their World As Big As They Made It

Join us for a Final Friday celebration of our new exhibitions, including “Their World As Big As They Made It: Looking Back at the Harlem Renaissance,” which features the visionary works of writers, artists, and thinkers whose creative and intellectual pursuits reflected the diversity of discourses that defined Black American identity and political consciousness in the early 20th century.

Five artists with connections to UVA and Charlottesville have works on display as part of our “As Big As You Make It!” project (supported by a grant from the UVA Arts Council), connecting artists working today to Harlem Renaissance poetry from a century ago. 

This is a free event and an open house-style celebration. Gallery talks are slated for the following times: 

6:15 - Main Gallery - Their World As Big As They Made It with curators Krystal Appiah and George Riser
6:30 - First Floor Gallery - Out of the Box, On the Wall: Russell Smith’s University of Virginia from the Toll Gate with curator Garth Anderson
6:45 - First Floor Gallery - Portrait of a Poet—Revisited: William Edward West’s Percy Bysshe Shelley with curator Annyston Pennington

Steampunk workshop photo 5. Steampunk Cosplay Workshop

Do you have a great Steampunk cosplay or Halloween costume in mind? Need some motivation and materials? Come to the TinkerTank Makerspace for an in-person workshop to make a leather and brass light-up wrist cuff, or use the materials to make your own costume accessory! All materials are provided. This is an open workshop; feel free to come and go whenever you can.

For more events, check out the UVA Library Calendar.
 

New exhibition looks at UVA through a ‘picturesque’ lens

By Molly Minturn | Mon, 10/02/2023 - 16:15

In June 1844, landscape painter Russell Smith traveled from Philadelphia to Virginia on a hot, dusty train to meet up with geologist William Barton Rogers, a professor of natural philosophy at the University of Virginia. Smith joined Rogers to work as an illustrator for the next phase of the Geological Survey of Virginia, which studied and mapped the commonwealth’s mineral resources. What emerged from that friendship is the subject of a new exhibition now open in the First Floor Gallery of UVA’s Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library.

A banner for the “Out of the Drawer & On the Wall: Russell Smith’s University of Virginia From the Toll Gate” exhibition.

 

“Out of the Drawer & On the Wall: Russell Smith’s University of Virginia From the Toll Gatesheds new light on a painting by Smith that captures the Academical Village from a unique vantage point. Garth Anderson, a Facilities Historian in UVA Facilities Management’s Geospatial Engineering Services, curated the exhibition. Anderson said he found out about Russell Smith’s “University of Virginia From the Toll Gate” painting, long held but rarely seen in the Library’s collections, on a tip from Stephen Thompson, then a principal investigator at Rivanna Archaeology.

“I wasn’t too sure what the work was going to be — whether it was a photograph of a painting or what,” Anderson said. “And lo and behold, it was the real painting, and it was something totally different, something that if it had been out and around, would have been noted before.”

Smith’s painting captures the natural beauty of the Blue Ridge Mountains, with a toll gate and rustic house in the foreground. Far off in the hazy distance, just beneath the mountains, the dome of the Rotunda is in view. “I took some photographs of [the painting] and showed it to a few people, but nobody recognized that view,” Anderson said. “It was looking at the University in a new way.”

Painting of a cottage and gate with mountains in the background. Far off in the distance to the right can be seen UVA's Rotunda
Russell Smith’s “University of Virginia From the Toll Gate” (1844).

The University as ‘pure landscape’

Smith, a Scottish-born painter who immigrated to Pennsylvania at a young age, made the acquaintance of artists like Rembrandt Peale and John Sartain in Philadelphia. He devoted much of his time to landscape painting in the picturesque style — “an aesthetic ideal that, in the words of influential travel writer and artist Reverend William Gilpin, highlighted ‘that peculiar kind of beauty which is agreeable in a picture,’” according to the exhibition text.

To support his travels to paint landscapes, Smith worked as an illustrator for a state-funded geological expedition in Pennsylvania. (He also traveled to New Hampshire to paint the White Mountains; a current exhibit at the Fralin Musuem of Art examines similar idyllic landscapes from this time.) Through this type of work, Smith eventually met UVA’s geologist William Barton Rogers and joined him in June 1844 to illustrate aspects of the Geological Survey of Virginia.

Smith made notes of his trip to Virginia in a brown leather-bound journal, which is held in the archives of the Smithsonian Institution. Anderson “made a pilgrimage” there, researching and documenting the journal entries to capture a clear picture of Smith’s travels in Charlottesville. Many of those entries are highlighted in the exhibition and show that inspiration for his toll gate painting came on Smith’s first walk with Rogers to a site on the Rockfish Gap Turnpike overlooking the Blue Ridge Mountains:

Shortly after arriving at the University Mr. Rogers took me out a few miles west. The sun was setting and I was forcibly struck with superior picturesque beauty of the Blue Ridge to any of the Penna. Mountains. Its elevation also appears greater and the jutting spurs that run out to the east with the gently scooped valley give it a most charming effect.

Smith returned to the site [which today is the Old Ivy Road entrance to the Miller Center] to determine the best time of day to compose a sketch. On July 4, he wrote:

Walked out two miles after breakfast to the West. Made those sketches and retouched them before dinner. I find the grey cards do not answer so well for colour as for light shading with the pencil being afterwards set with water and a few lights put on.

The subject of one of these sketches — a toll gate is fine for light and shade. The small house is covered entirely with a trumpet vine very dark and opposing the light which is behind.

For the exhibition, Anderson tracked down Smith’s original sketch of the toll gate, which is held at the Library of Virginia. Comparing the sketch to the final painting, Anderson spotted differences in the works. As he wrote in the exhibition copy, “At first glance, Smith’s initial sketch and final painting are very similar. However, upon closer review, you notice differences in the sizes of the Rotunda, Monticello, and Montalto relative to the tollhouse in the foreground as well as the addition of a vast swath of greenspace.” These differences, he said, show Smith’s ability to “compose and manipulate the natural landscapes he observed into picturesque forms.”

Anderson, who has worked for UVA for 39 years, has an academic background in biomedical science, but has spent much of his career creating a database for all UVA-related architectural and engineering drawings held by Facilities Management. He digitized the collection, and researched the architects who began a major expansion of the Academical Village, starting with McKim, Mead, & White, as well as who approved those plans, leading to extensive work in Special Collections. He contributed research to Richard Guy Wilson and Sara Butler’s “The Campus Guide: University of Virginia,” a seminal guide to the history and architecture of UVA, as well as to a major 2010 Library exhibition “From Village to Grounds: Architecture After Jefferson at the University of Virginia,” part of the UVA’s celebration of the centennial of Carr’s Hill.

As for “Out of the Drawer & On the Wall,” Anderson hopes viewers will come away with a new, somewhat idealized view of UVA, one that is vastly different from the tidy Lawn. “The University can look beautiful in the landscape,” he said. “To me, that’s the really the charm of it; it’s such a pure landscape. I love that.”

“Out of the Drawer & On the Wall: Russell Smith’s University of Virginia From the Toll Gate is on view through Nov. 5, 2023 in the First Floor Gallery of the Harrison Institute and Small Special Collections Library.

Four facts about the main library, reopening in January

By Molly Minturn | Mon, 09/25/2023 - 16:26
A large brick building seen from above.
A recent photo of the main library under renovation, viewed from the northwest. Here, the new clerestory can be seen on the roof, and construction is underway on the stairs and terrace that will lead to the new north entrance to the building. (Photo by Skanska)

The University of Virginia Library is pleased to announce that its main library renovation project that began in early 2020 is set to be completed by the end of the fall 2023 semester. The renovation will bring the building up to current standards of safety, accessibility, and service and result in beautiful, naturally lit study and research spaces.

Read on for four facts about the reopening.

1. The main library opens to the public on Jan. 8, 2024.

The building will not be open to visitors before then, but we’ll be excited to kick off the spring semester in January.

2. A grand opening celebration will be held in the main library on April 4, 2024.

Details about the event are forthcoming.

3. Books will be moved back into the main library starting in December 2023.

This process, which starts at Clemons Library and Ivy Stacks, where the books are currently shelved, involves more than a dozen Library staff members and more than a million printed books. The full book move will take about six months.

4. The renovated library will feature modern amenities suited to the needs of its users.

Benefits of renovation include:

  • An updated and expanded south entrance, a new highly accessible north entrance, and a new easy connector between Clemons and main on the second floor.
  • A new café near the north entrance that will provide refreshments and additional space for the University community to gather.
  • Better use of space to improve wayfinding and offer a variety of environments for study, research, and social interaction.
  • Better facilities for the ongoing conservation and preservation of the print collections.

For more about the main library, check out our new video tour of the renovation in progress with Kit Meyer of UVA Facilities Management.

Dig into the work of these five writers for Hispanic Heritage Month

By Molly Minturn | Thu, 09/21/2023 - 13:05

Guest post by Amy Hunsaker, Music & Performing Arts Librarian

It’s time to celebrate Latinx authors during Hispanic Heritage Month, which overlaps September and the first few weeks of October. Don’t know where to start? This year, we’ve gathered a list of five Latinx authors whose works we recommend reading. Take a look below.

  • House of the Spirits cover Isabel Allende’s contributions to Latinx literature are substantial, encompassing her innovative writing style, feminist perspective, advocacy, and cultural bridging. Her work has left an indelible mark on the literary landscape, making her a significant figure in the world of Latinx literature. Some of her more notable works include “The House of the Spirits (“La Casa de los Espíritus), “Eva Luna, and “Daughter of Fortune (“Hija de la fortuna”).
  • Julia Alvarez is a highly influential Dominican American writer known for her powerful storytelling and exploration of themes related to identity and immigration. Her writing fosters cross-cultural understanding, bridging the gap between the Dominican Republic and the United States and facilitating dialogue on issues of identity and belonging. To get a good understanding of her writing, try reading “How the García Girls Lost Their Accents” and “In the Time of the Butterflies.
  • House on Mago Street cover Sandra Cisneros played a crucial role in shaping and popularizing Chicana literature, which explores the experiences of Mexican American and Chicano communities in the United States. Cisneros’ novel “The House on Mango Street” is a seminal work in Latinx literature. It provides a poignant and relatable portrayal of growing up in a marginalized urban environment, and it has become a staple in classrooms and literary discussions.
  • Carlos Fuentes was a central figure in the Latin American literary boom of the 1960s and 1970s whose works helped shape and define modern Latin American literature. Fuentes’ writing often delves into political and social issues, offering incisive critiques of power dynamics, politics, and social injustices both in Mexico and globally. Many of his novels, such as “The Death of Artemio Cruz and “Terra Nostra,” grapple with the complexities of Mexican identity and history, shedding light on the cultural nuances of the nation.
  • One Hundred Years of Solitude coverColombian novelist and Nobel laureate Gabriel García Márquez is credited with popularizing and defining the genre of magical realism in literature. This style combines the ordinary with the extraordinary, blurring the lines between reality and fantasy. His novel “One Hundred Years of Solitude” is a quintessential example of this genre. Many of García Márquez’s works explore themes of politics, power, and social injustice. He was an astute observer of Latin American political history, and his writings often served as a commentary on the socio-political realities of the region. His works have been translated into numerous languages and have been read and celebrated worldwide. This global reach helped bring attention to Latin American literature and culture on a global scale in the 20th century.

In addition …

The Library provides a Spanish Language & Literature guide to direct you to the best resources for the study of Spanish language and literature at UVA, as well as a Latin American & Iberian Studies research guide that includes collections about Latin America, Caribbean, Portugal, and Spain.

And don’t miss our newest Spanish-language databases available for free to UVA students, faculty, and staff:

  • Platino Educa is a Spanish-language film streaming platform with over 300 films from Spain and Latin America. The films are classified by subject and cover a broad range of themes, including art, history, environmental science, literature, and social justice. The films were specifically selected for teaching and some come paired with preselected scene clips and educational guides. Films have Spanish and English subtitles.
  • Latinx Thought and Culture: The NPR Archive, 1979-1990 showcases two radio programs: the weekly Spanish-language Enfoque Nacional (1979-1988) and the daily English-language Latin File (1988-1990), available for the first time in a searchable database as digitized audio with transcripts. They focus on Latinx issues related to politics, sociology, human rights, the arts and more with interviews of key figures and news reporting by a new generation of Latinx journalists at the time.
  • Hispanic Life in America: Series 3 is a news media resources database sourced from more than 17,000 American and global news sources, including over 700 Spanish-language or bilingual publications. It covers arts and entertainment, civil rights and activism, immigration and citizenship, sports and athletes, labor, religion, science and technology, and society and culture.

 

Will the real Percy Shelley please stand up?

By Molly Minturn | Mon, 09/18/2023 - 09:48
Portrait of a Poet - Revised. William Edward West's Percy Bysshe Shelley

A new exhibition now open in the First Floor Gallery of UVA’s Harrison Institute and Small Special Collections Library makes a bold and compelling claim: a portrait long held in the Library’s collections has for nearly a century been misidentified and is now believed to be the most accurate image of the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley in existence. Arranged to appear almost like an evidence board on a detective show, the exhibition calls on the viewer to look with their own eyes, asking, “What do you see?”

Shelley, who is now regarded as one of the most influential English poets of the Romantic movement, was not well known in his lifetime. The author of the utopian allegory “Queen Mab” and the sonnet “Ozymandias” (a poem so endurably influential it was referenced in the television shows “Succession” and “Breaking Bad”), Shelley lived a radical life. He was an atheist and a vegetarian who promoted sexual freedom and an end to aristocratic privilege. Due to backlash against his beliefs, Shelley self-exiled in Italy, where he drowned in 1822 at the age of 29.

Few portraits of Shelley were ever made in his lifetime; an 1819 portrait of the poet by amateur Irish painter Amelia Curran is the best known and was copied by several artists. UVA Library’s new exhibition Portrait of a Poet—Revisited: William Edward West’s Percy Bysshe Shelley” makes the claim that a portrait by American painter William Edward West was for years misidentified as an image of the English writer Leigh Hunt and is actually a portrait of Shelley, based on a sketch composed just days before Shelley’s death.

The West portrait now thought to be an image of Percy Bysshe Shelley.
The West portrait now thought to be an image of Percy Bysshe Shelley.

“It’s an amazing thing to have this portrait, arguably the best painting we have of Shelley and the only one done by a professional portraitist, here at UVA,” said Andrew Stauffer, a UVA professor of English and co-curator of the exhibition. “We’ve relied on the Curran portrait to characterize Shelley in the past and he’s come off as rather angelic and somewhat infantilized in certain ways,” he said. “This picture shows him as political, interested, older — he’s got the gray hair in his sideburns; it’s captured right before his death. It’s a way of seeing Shelley that we haven’t had access to.”

The story behind the portrait

About a year ago, Stauffer, who specializes in literary Romanticism, was at work on a forthcoming biography of the poet Lord Byron. Deep in research mode, Stauffer was examining an 1822 portrait of Byron done by William Edward West when he came upon another West portrait that gave him pause. The man in this second portrait, in Stauffer’s eyes, very much resembled Percy Bysshe Shelley, who was a peer of Byron’s. Stauffer began delving into that portrait’s history and current location and discovered it was held just “100 yards away” from where he was working: in UVA’s Special Collections Library.

The portrait first appeared in 1905, when it was published, along with a narrative of its provenance written by Nellie P. Dunn, in The Century magazine. Dunn, who ultimately donated the portrait to UVA Library, wrote that, according to West’s nephew, West met Shelley in the summer of 1822 at Byron’s summer house in Montenero, Italy, and was “so impressed by the man’s charming individuality” that he “slyly made a sketch of him.” This was less than a week before Shelley drowned in a shipwreck in the Tyrrhenian Sea. At some point after Shelley’s death, according to the narrative, West made the oil painting from his “sly sketch.”

The portrait was accepted as Shelley for much of the early 20th century. But in 1940 the scholar Newman Ivey White published an influential biography of Shelley in which White objected to the authenticity of the West portrait, insisting it was instead a portrait of Leigh Hunt, another peer of Byron’s. White suggested that West invented his story opportunistically, once Shelley’s fame had risen in the mid-19th century. “I believe White got it wrong with regard to West,” Stauffer writes in a forthcoming article in the Keats-Shelley Journal. “In my view, it is the best portrait of Percy Shelley that has come down to us, and 20th-century Shelleyans were right to accept it as genuine.”

The exhibition systematically dismantles White’s theory by examining physical evidence in a way that White wasn’t able to in his time. “It uses technology that wasn’t available in the 1940s when White made his argument,” Stauffer said. “He was working with low-quality black and white photos, all reproduced in old books. Whereas we can put various portraits side by side, magnify them, and zoom in.” The visual resemblance to all other existing Shelley portraits is crucial, Stauffer said, as well as a short 1828 magazine article on Shelley that stated West had indeed met the poet in Italy and claimed that Shelley “had also the most wonderful-looking head ever seen alive on our earth.”

“Shelley was not famous when that article was published,” Stauffer said. “There was no reason West would make that up for self-aggrandizement. To me, this is the smoking gun that suggests he definitely met Shelly, observed him physically, and likely sketched him, which is what artists tend to do.” In the face of testimony reported from the painter himself, Stauffer writes in his forthcoming article, “the burden of proof falls on White.”

Stauffer and Annyston Pennington, a UVA English doctoral student who co-curated the exhibition, acknowledge that their evidence is circumstantial, but feel they have built the strongest case possible. “We’re just raising the conversation letting people decide for themselves,” Stauffer said. “The Library has been so supportive through this whole experience,” both in terms of conserving the portrait and updating it in the catalog to acknowledge the new scholarship, he said.

In that sense, the exhibition reminds the viewer that the Library’s archives are not static repositories, but instead living collections where curators, professors, and researchers are reinterpreting objects. “This exhibition blends visual art, art history and literary history,” said Pennington, who translated Stauffer’s article into the exhibition structure with visual aids and additional images.

It shows off the work that’s often happening behind the scenes at the Library — of revisiting and reevaluating the collections,” Pennington said. “That reframing makes them valuable in an ongoing way.”

 

Portrait of a Poet—Revisited: William Edward West’s Percy Bysshe Shelley” is on view through Nov. 5, 2023 in the First Floor Gallery of the Harrison Institute and Small Special Collections Library.

“Inside Their World: New Exhibit Connects Harlem Renaissance to Today”

By Amber Lautigar Reichert | Wed, 09/13/2023 - 12:00

“The Harlem Renaissance has come to the University of Virginia’s Grounds,” begins a UVA Today article featuring the Library’s newest exhibition, “Their World As Big As They Made It: Looking Back at the Harlem Renaissance.”

The article continues,

[The exhibition] examines the works in the period of Black artistic and intellectual activity centered in a New York neighborhood. The Harlem Renaissance began in the early 1900s as racist violence and diminishing economic opportunity pushed Black Southerners to head north in a movement known as the Great Migration.

“These young people, like Zora Neale Hurston, Wallace Thurman, Gwendolyn Bennett … their approach was, ‘We’re not going to try to aspire to white person standards. We’re not going to try to aspire to the Black middle-class standard. We’re fine being Black,’” George Riser, chief exhibition curator, said.

The exhibition draws on the UVA Library’s collection strengths in portraying the period, by

… [including] issues of some of the Harlem Renaissance’s most popular magazines, like The Crisis and The Messenger, manuscripts and original dust jackets of major works that came out of the movement, and even some of the period’s fashions. Marlon Ross, an English professor at UVA, provided Appiah, Riser and Robertson with the necessary historical context as they chose the works they wanted to highlight. Though some of the works featured in the exhibit were added to the library’s collection recently, others were collected as they were being published.

“Not many institutions have a collection like ours,” Krystal Appiah, [one of the exhibition’s curators,] said.

Read the full article, written by Alice Berry, on UVA Today’s website.

In addition to showcasing items from the collection, a UVA Arts Council grant enabled the exhibition to commission works from five local artists. These contemporary pieces were inspired by poetry from the Harlem Renaissance and illustrate its lasting impact on modern culture.

You can visit “Their World As Big As They Made It” in The Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library until June 2024.

 


Related articles:

“Their World As Big As They Made It: Looking Back at the Harlem Renaissance” keeps the vibrant era alive on Grounds (Cavalier Daily)

 

Major new Harlem Renaissance exhibition opens Sept. 13

By Molly Minturn | Thu, 09/07/2023 - 12:59

 

“Their World As Big As They Made It: Looking Back at the Harlem Renaissance” banner

Guest post by Holly Robertson, Curator of University Library Exhibitions

One hundred years ago, the artistic and political revolutions of the Harlem Renaissance were in full swing. The unmistakable sounds, images, words, and conventions of the era indelibly shaped American culture.

On Wednesday, Sept. 13, the University of Virginia Library will open its major new exhibition: “Their World As Big As They Made It: Looking Back at the Harlem Renaissance” in the Main Gallery of the Harrison Institute and Small Special Collections Library. 

Featuring the visionary works of writers, artists, and thinkers of the Harlem Renaissance, this exhibition examines the creative and intellectual pursuits that defined Black American identity and political consciousness. The Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library is fortunate to hold a wide selection of influential books, magazines, illustrations, and manuscripts by these Harlem Renaissance creators. 

We’ll celebrate this retrospective throughout the building with an open-house style event starting at 5:30 p.m. that will feature live music from the Charlottesville Jazz Congregation, great food, and gallery talks. Art in conversation with Harlem Renaissance poetry — part of our Arts Council grant project “As Big As We Make It!” — will be on display in the Main Gallery. 

This event is free and open to the public. No tickets are required but register to let us know you’re coming, to stay updated on event details, and especially if you’d like free parking in the Central Grounds Garage. 

 Exhibition Opening

  • “Their World As Big As They Made It: Looking Back at the Harlem Renaissance”
  • Wednesday, September 13 — 5:30 to 7:30 p.m.
  • Harrison/Small — 170 McCormick Road 
  • Register for more details and free parking

Take a look at some preview photos of the exhibition below. All photography by Stacey Evans.

Main studio gallery space featuring works by James Weldon Johnson and W.E.B. Du Bois.
“Their World As Big As They Made It: Looking Back at the Harlem Renaissance” features works by writer and civil rights activist James Weldon Johnson and W.E.B. Du Bois, one of the founders of the NAACP and author of “The Souls of Black Folk.”
Main gallery exhibition space featuring works by Claude McKay and Langston Hughes
Here, the exhibition focuses on works by Jamaican American poet Claude McKay and American writer Langston Hughes, perhaps best known for his 1920 poem, “The Negro Speaks of Rivers.”
Main gallery exhibition space featuring the music of James Weldon and J. Rosamond Johnson
This corner of the exhibition examines the music of brothers James Weldon Johnson and J. Rosamond Johnson, who together composed the hymn “Lift Every Voice and Sing.”