On Sunday, November 15 from 4-7PM, join the 2026 New City Arts Fellows as they share artworks honoring Ivy Creek Natural Area and Historic River View Farm. Weave, listen, and look closely as you meander through this self-guided gathering. This event is free and open to the public. Refreshments will be available. Read on for the evening’s schedule and to learn more about the Fellows and our partnership with Ivy Creek.
📍 Ivy Creek Natural Area (1780 Earlysville Rd, Charlottesville, VA 22903)
→ Accessibility: The venue is accessible for visitors who use wheelchairs.
→ This is an outdoor event and guests are encouraged to dress with the weather forecast in mind.
→ Overflow parking will be available on site. There is room for 60 vehicles. Carpooling is encouraged!
⏱️ Sunday, November 15 from 4-7PM, with brief remarks at 5:15PM
→ Three site-specific works will be installed between the barn and the farm house. Visitors are invited to walk at their own pace as they take in each individual work.
→ Sunset on November 15 is around 5PM. Tea lights will light the paths to all works after dark. The sound sculptures and community weaving will be accessible for the duration of the event, however community weaving will be most accessible while it is still light outside. The video installation will begin at 5:30PM, after sunset.
🍪 Snacks & warm drinks provided
→ Visit the barn for warm drinks and treats any time during your visit.
→ You are welcome to bring dinner with you, along with camping chairs or blankets to sit around the grounds while viewing the works.
On Site: Community Weaving, Sound Sculptures, and Video Installation
Community Weaving with Emma Block & MECOO (4-7PM)
With this community weaving performance honoring the land and families of the historic River View Farm at Ivy Creek, Emma Block and MECOO invite you to embody one of the teachings Mary Carr-Greer passed onto her students: “Make Something of Yourself.” Collectively, the participants and artists will create large woven structures using both ecological materials from the site and fragments of the Carr-Greer’s digital archive such as maps, letters, and interviews. The weavings will create a gathering place: an invitation to meet others, eat, dance, commune, and more. Pillows and blankets will be provided, but attendees are encouraged to bring their own lawn chairs, picnic blankets, and pillows for lounging and comfort. All ages and abilities are enthusiastically welcomed.
Sound Sculptures with Brian Simalchik (4-7PM)
Two site-specific sound installations at River View Farm will transform the spaces into gradually unfolding musical landscapes that consider the memory and history of the Carr/Greer family. Located at both the Carr/Greer family cemetery and within the farm house, these “sound sculptures” will sonically embody the historic sites and structures, allowing them to speak directly to visitors in the present moment. Visitors are invited to move freely around the grounds, experiencing both the natural landscape and these evolving soundscapes at their own pace.
Video Installation with Autumn Samone and Jolinna Li (5:30-7PM)
“Once, again”, a collaborative project by Autumn Samone and Jolinna Li, positions resting sites as an invitation to dwell, touch, hold and be held in repositories of ecological and intracultural memories of Ivy Creek. The structure of the work leans on the ecopoetics of home and storytelling carried by multiple lineages—a narrative rearticulated through hands and mouths. Stories carried through our lived spaces asks us to consider moments held in the constant, persistent in-between: our windows, our corners, the soft spots of our walls. A back curves itself around a comforting fragility, and hands rest their graze with hesitancy.
In its essence, “Once, again” situates embodied performance as ecology and a foundation for embedded continuity. It asks: How can collective storytelling be stored, nested, and carried through the contours of a body and the breath of a landscape? Can we linger?
The windows were always green when they arrived.
About the 2026 Fellowship
The 2026 New City Arts Fellowship, in collaboration with Ivy Creek Foundation and supported by the Anyanwu Fund at CACF and an anonymous donor, invited Charlottesville-area artists to submit site-specific artworks activating the Ivy Creek Natural Area and Historic River View Farm (ICNA/HRVF) honoring the site and its history. A cohort of three artist fellows were chosen to receive a $1,000 stipend, access to a designated site at ICNA/HRVF and access to free and discounted services at local art spaces. The November 15 event is the culmination of this Fellowship.