Community Calendar for Charlottesville

Don't miss your chance to view "Treasures Rediscovered" and "Expressions of the Buddhist Faith"! Exhibitions end at 5 pm today!

"Treasures Rediscovered: Chinese Stone Sculpture from the Sackler Collections at Columbia University" highlights one of the notable collections of Chinese stone sculpture in the US. The 21 sculptures that comprise the exhibition—steles, full figures and heads of divinities, as well as funerary objects—provide a comprehensive view of how art manifests ritual practice and reveals, through iconography, the transmission and transformation of culture from the Han (206 BCE - 220 CE) through the Tang Dynasty (617-907 ce). Eighteen of the works are Buddhist, and some have been ascribed for the first time to specific Buddhist sites. Complementing the sculptures will be rubbings, informative didactic panels, maps, and photographic and audio-visual materials.

"Expressions of the Buddhist Faith" accompanies "Treasures Rediscovered." From woodblock printed texts to ceramic tiles, miniature stupa or pagoda, paintings, and sculptures in different media, this small selection of objects from across Asia demonstrates the broad range of religious expressions inspired by the Buddhist faith. Some are votive objects and devotional icons, featuring a panoply of Buddhist deities. Others are manuals or objects serving important roles in specific rituals. In addition, there are narrative and commemorative paintings of Buddhist subjects. From the later East Asian tradition, the exhibition also includes two albums of paintings that feature artistic works pursued by Buddhist monks as well as works of professional artists who practiced this genre of painting tradition, including Zen and monochrome landscapes. The exhibits come from the University of Virginia Art Museum as well as significant loan objects.

"Treasures Rediscovered" is organized by the Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Art Gallery of Columbia University.

Both exhibitions are curated by Dorothy Wong, associate professor of East Asian art at U.Va, and are sponsored by the U.Va. Art Museum Volunteer Board, the Weedon Foundation, the Office of the Vice President for Research, Sandy Miller Family Foundation, Arts Enhancement Fund, The Chung-Hwa Institute of Buddhist Studies, Taiwan, Virginia Commission for the Arts, The Hook, and Albemarle Magazine.

The Museum is free and open to the public every Tuesday-Sunday, 12-5 pm.