IMPORTANT EVENT UPDATE: Rescheduled for 4/2
In response to the severe weather outlook for March 16, Charlottesville SOUP was postponed. SOUP will now be held on Thursday, April 2 at 6PM. Same beautiful venue, same wonderful artist presenters, same delicious menu! Have a ticket but can’t come? Want to get on the waitlist in case seats become available? Email Lindsey@newcityarts.org.
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The 20th edition of Charlottesville SOUP will be held at 6PM on Thursday, April 2 at the Jefferson School African American Heritage Center. SOUP is a community dinner series to create a crowdfunded grant for an artist in the Charlottesville area. At each SOUP, attendees give a $10 donation and in return they receive a meal and a vote. During the meal, artists make short presentations about their creative projects in need of funding. At the end of the meal, each attendee enters a voting booth to cast their 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.
2026 Charlottesville SOUP
At our event on April 2 join us at the Jefferson School African American Heritage Center to get to know Charlottesville artists, vote on your favorite creative project, and enjoy a delicious dinner featuring soup from Plenty, salad by Ian Walters, bread from Albemarle Baking Co., and dessert from Splendora’s.
Thanks to the generosity of community members, this event's grant will exceed $3,500! All artist presenters are guaranteed a $500 honorarium. Applications to pitch at the event and the ticket lottery to attend are now closed.
Meet the Presenting Artists
Following a competitive application process, four artists were selected by a committee made up of Tobiah Mundt and Megan Donovan to pitch their creative projects at the March 16 meal:
Yunina Barbour-Payne: An Affrilachian Theater maker planning to create The Whole of me Ain’t all Hill’s and Mountains, a multimedia community inspired dance for film based on Black Appalachian women’s writing.
Daniel Carmelo: A landscape designer creating zines and an interactive display illustrating recently discovered precolonial grassland remnants in the Virginia Piedmont.
Patricia Nguyen: An interdisciplinary artist creating an artist book grounded in workshops with communities on breathing and meditation practices honoring survivors of violence.
Jalia Dillard: An artist making a live, mystery-themed matchmaking experience designed to foster intentional community connection and pilot a new episodic film project.
Attend
A $10 ticket gets you dinner, dessert, and a vote! The SOUP Ticket Lottery is now closed and the event is currently full.Email Lindsey if you would like your name to be added to the waitlist and be notified should tickets become available.
Thank you
Charlottesville SOUP is a program of New City Arts. The 2026 SOUP dinner is made possible by generous sponsors including theJefferson School African American Heritage Center, the Charlottesville Area Community Foundation, Eventide, Hello Comics, C-VILLE Weekly, Nest Realty, Kristen Finn Photography, The A/V Company, Splendora's Gelato, Daisy Dee, Amanda Monroe Finn, Women Advancing, and anonymous donors.
