Community Outreach is major component of Bridge programming. Through workshops, projects, and related events we seek to establish strong ties with communities throughout Charlottesville. Workshops and creative projects are central to this process. Averaging anywhere from one week to six months in length, workshops and projects are conducted at The Bridge and partnering locations, making use of collective facilities and available resources. Workshops and projects may be run by Bridge staff, educators, mentors or artists depending upon the nature and duration. The Bridge encourages such workshops and projects to culminate in an exhibition of related work in our Gallery at the conclusion of each session.

Our Special Projects take place predominantly outside of the gallery environment. They are projects which directly engage the community by their presence in the community.

Utilizing public space and venue’s city-wide, these events have a set duration and objective, often times addressing a relevant social issue or specific “hot topic” of civic interest such as Diversity, Transit, Health Care, or Affordable Housing.

Special Projects utilize creative partnerships between The Bridge and other local organizations, individuals, and various groups in the community.

Click here to find out more about past Special Projects!

The Bridge provides an alternative venue for every mode and model of public performance and happening; the aim is to offer a dynamic venue for exploration and public expression in the realm of performance. The Bridge PAI is not a traditional music venue; nor do we have a stage; instead our gallery space offers an intimate setting that provides an opportunity for performers to share their work with a receptive audience in a comfortable space. We have hosted live bands, off-stage theater performances, stand-up comedy, poetry and fiction readings, and more.

If you are interested in organizing a performance at The Bridge, read our submissions page or email one of our program coordinators. If you are musician interested in scheduling a concert at The Bridge, please contact ourmusic coordinator. If you are interested in scheduling a comedy act or play, contact our comedy and theatre coordinator. Interested in scheduling a literary reading? Contact our literary events coordinator.

The Bridge hosts regular gallery exhibits through out the year. Open to work of every medium, mode, and process imaginable, our gallery serves as a home for both emerging and established artists to explore and exhibit their works in a non-commercial setting.

Ever-evolving, the space is often more akin to a laboratory than a traditional gallery environment. Over the course of their stay, exhibitions often share space with film screenings, rock shows, and even small-scale theatre productions. We encourage artists to visit The Bridge and see what it’s all about.

If you’re interested in proposing an art exhibition as The Bridge, please read our submissions page for details and email our gallery exhibitions coordinator.

This year-round seasonal film series provides our audience with the opportunity to experience otherwise-unseen films that address topics – both social and artistic. We show both feature-length works, shorter films and videos; our focus is primarily on films that are experimental, avant-garde, underground, and independent, ranging from local to international.

The Series was founded in the summer of 2006 by Sarah Lawson, Jordan Taylor and Max Fenton; James Ford joined the group soon afterward as a co-curator and volunteer projectionist, and served as the series’ creative director and coordinator through the Spring of 2009. We have also received much technical assistance and support from the Virginia Film Society.

Our Film Series is organized by a small group of volunteer curators; we also actively invite and recruit local filmmakers and enthusiasts to get involved, to contribute to our schedule, or even to host a night of films at our space. Visit the submissions page or email our film series coordinator to learn more about how you can get involved with the Film Series. For more information about the posters for the film series, click here.

Sunday, September 12, 2010 | 8pm

Sponsored and initiated by PEP, Assembly is a regular gathering of local artists of all stripes to socialize, find collaborators, get feedback and help with work, and share work in progress. It is our belief that more unity and collaboration among individual artists in our town will lead to a more vibrant and mutually supportive arts scene in Charlottesville, and might yield a voice to speak to local government and funding organizations.

Opening Reception Friday, November 5, 6-8pm | Exhibition up through November 27, 2010

In May 2007, a decade after completing a three-year long obligatory military service in the Israeli army, Nir Avissar was drafted for nearly a month. Documenting this period with his camera enabled him to delve into several key aspects in the experience of army reservists. In Fragments of Violent Memory, he sought to explore how Israeli army reservists experience the abrupt removal from civic existence into a military one, which results in a loss of control over one’s present life. As the project unfolded, he realized that in partaking in military reserve duty one is forcibly propelled back in time, wherein his military past as a regular soldier exerts a violent control over his present experience as army reservist. The images in the project therefore deal with the contradictory—and yet complementary—conceptions of time among army reservists: historical consciousness on the one hand and memory on the other. Whereas the reservist’s historical understanding enables him to distinguish between past and present, his memory subverts this temporal boundary and fuses the two. Yet our diachronic grasp of time prevents past memories from fully merging with present experience. The violence of the past, then, only partly takes hold of the present, and thereby manifests itself as fragments, shards of the past.

Saturday, July 24, 2010 | 10am – 5pm

Swing by The Bridge after the farmer’s market for Craft Work – an event featuring local handmade and vintage wares. Items for sale include prints, paintings, jewelry, terrariums, records, reworked clothing as well as vintage items, pottery, paper goods, grilled snacks and more (ie: whatever people are making.) The talented djs of WTJU’s rock department provide sweet jamz to accompany the great summer craft fair experience 2010.

Who (to name just a few): Jeremy and Allyson Mellberg-Taylor, Tea for Two by Whitney French, Isolated Article by Elaine Butcher, A Mystery in Common by Tristan Benedict-Hall, Lost Woods Print by Thomas Dean, Clasp of Isis by Tamara Cervenka, Julia Dent Jewelry, Paul Loukides, Plan 9’s own Jimmy Blackford brings the vinyl!

Why: Firstly, 10% of the day’s sales will be donated to The Bridge to support its programs and gallery. Secondly, Charlottesvillle artisans are one of they city’s most valuable assets. To support them is to make a meaningful investment in our city’s creative culture.

Friday, July 16, 2010 | 8:30pm | $5

Loud underground music returns to The BRIDGE with 4 bands. There will be 2 PAs set up so that once the first band starts playing, the music won’t stop until the final band is finished. This “ping-ponging” between bands has proven to be super fun at past shows, and means that this 4-band show will be over about 2.5 hours from when it starts!

It’s all ages, $5, and starts around 8:30 or so. Info on the bands:

Worn In Red
(Heavy anthemic punk from Virginia on No Idea Records)
www.myspace.com/worninred

After Colony
(Melodic post-hardcore youngbucks from C’ville, VA)
www.myspace.com/aftercolonymusic

GRIDS
(Pounding discordant punk from NC)
www.myspace.com/gridsnc

Sharkopath
(Spazzy fun DC-style postpunk from C’ville)
Their online identity remains a mystery at this time.

Month of August, 2010

The Bridge will be closed for the month of August for renovations, repairs and cleaning. Doors reopen Friday September 3rd for the Opening Reception of “Site Singularity”.