Arts Briefs

Comics Community

“There’s so much more going on than Superman and Batman,” says David Murray (Col ’04) of the world of comics. Murray and his wife, Kate DeNeveu (Col ’07), own Telegraph Comics, a gallery on Charlottesville’s Downtown Mall. 

The couple met at UVA, then moved to New York and later San Francisco. Murray worked as a screen printer for about a decade, and in the process met an array of emerging comic artists.

With a mission to introduce people to new artists and alternative forms of storytelling, they opened Telegraph in March 2013. They work with artists from all over the world: China, the U.K. and Australia.

With monthly art openings, zine crafting workshops and a comic book club, they’re doing their part to foster a sense of community. “We always loved the art scene here,” says Murray. “We saw an empty niche, and people have been really welcoming.”

In Tune

The Charlottesville Symphony at the University of Virginia celebrates its 40th season this year. In October, the symphony held an impromptu “Conduct Us!” concert on Charlottesville’s Downtown Mall, during which onlookers were invited to take the baton. This spring the symphony will perform Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with the University Singers.

“I call us the Prius of orchestras,” says Kate Tamarkin, the symphony's music director since 2006, “because we’re a hybrid. We’re not a community orchestra, not a student orchestra, not a professional orchestra; we’re a mix of all of those. We’re a teaching orchestra. It’s a very unusual model and a very effective model.”