Charlottesville SOUP: Spring 2017

The eighth edition of Charlottesville SOUP will be held on Tuesday, April 25 at Meade Hall (120 High Street, Charlottesville, VA 22902). Doors open at 6:30pm, dinner starts at 7:00pm. The ticket lottery is closed.

An aerial photo of guests enjoying dinner during the annual SOUP event. Guests are seated at long, rowed tables with an arrangement of hand-made soup bowls and baskets of bread. Stringed Edison bulbs hang above the tables in the foreground. — *Photo Credit: Maggie Stein*

SOUP is a seasonal public dinner series to support creative projects right here in Charlottesville. At each SOUP, attendees give a $10 donation at the door and in return they receive soup, salad, bread, dessert — and a vote.

During the meal, community members make short presentations about their creative projects in need of funding. Attendees participate in a dialogue about the proposals over a nourishing meal in handmade bowls by local artists from City Clay.

At the end of the meal, each attendee enters a voting booth to cast his or her vote for which project to fund with the money raised from the meal that night. We’ll award the grant right then and there. Consider SOUP an experiment in civic engagement and a chance to play a role in supporting creativity in our community.

Charlottesville SOUP is a program of New City Arts and made possible by generous community sponsors:Albemarle Baking Company, Arley Cakes, Champion Brewing Company, Christ Episcopal Church, City Clay, Ellie Cooks, Festive Fare, Fossett's Restaurant at Keswick Hall, Hedge Fine Blooms, Maggie Stein, Revolutionary Soup, Tavola Restaurant, Timbercreek Market, Ting, and Wegmans.

Special Matching Grant

Our community partner Ting Charlottesville is offering a $1,000 matching grant at this September's SOUP.

Each donation made towards the artist grant will be matched 1:1 (up to $1,000), meaning that, with ticket proceeds, the grant could reach $3,500 to fund a Charlottesville artist project.

Spring 2017 Artist Presenters

Lou Haney: A painter exploring new methods of printmaking to make her work more accessible to a larger audience.
Brittany Fan: A painter and photographer hoping to travel the span of the West Coast this summer, as a continuation of her work on capturing the diverse landscapes of various regions in America.
Ross McDermott: A filmmaker working on a documentary about Lovell Coleman, a 93-year-old fiddle player who still shares his talent by playing at nursing homes in Charlottesville.
Claire Hitchins: A singer-songwriter cultivating communal resonance in intimate listening spaces on a regional tour.

Spring 2017 Grantee

New City Arts Initiative awarded Charlottesville musician Claire Hitchins a $2,960 grant to cultivate communal resonance in intimate listening spaces on a regional tour.