Laura Peters
Staunton News Leader
Published 7:40 AM EDT Oct 7, 2019
WAYNESBORO – Waynesboro will be seeing new mural art near its greenway area and a local fitness studio gets a regional win — here’s the buzz.
Street art
An old building along Waynesboro’s South River Greenway will be transformed this weekend.
The Virginia Street Arts Festival will be held Oct. 12 through 13 and murals will be painted in select locations throughout the city.
The old Ice Plant building in Waynesboro, which is adjacent to Constitution Park and visible from Main Street, will serve as the medium for a new art pice, along with other locations. Other mural will be completed along Race Avenue.
This street arts festival will coincide with the Fall Foliage Art, which showcases 150 fine artists and artisans will showcase their works including painting, printmaking, wood, pottery, glass, jewelry, sculpture and more.
The two festivals have geared up together for one large arts festival.
Artists this year include Nils Westergard and Julia Chon.
More: Can you identify these murals around town? Test your painterly knowledge
Westgard is a Richmond-based artist. You’ve probably seen his stuff all throughout Richmond. Richmond is home to more than 100 murals part of the Richmond Mural Project, and Westgard has a good number of them.
His work has been featured worldwide, including on the walls of London, Prague, Berlin, the Hague, Belgium and the Czech Republic — and in past Virginia Street Arts Festivals.
Chon is the second featured artist. Her murals have been featured in POW! WOW! DC on the Metropolitan Branch Trail and in the Pow!Wow!Korea mural festival, a release said.
Chon is the founder and CEO of Kimchi Juice LLC and has been been recognized as a Teen Entrepreneur by Instagram, the release said. Starting at age 16, she takes inspiration from traditional Korean cultural symbols and tries to combine her contemporary aesthetic with the her Korean family traditions.
The festival will also bring performances by Fire in the Belly and Old Dominion Performing Arts Studio dance troupes early Sunday afternoon. The Waynesboro City Library will hold a teen-focused event on the evening of Oct. 11 with hands-on street art painting opportunities, a release said.
The Virginia Street Arts Festival is sponsored and hosted by E-N Computers, who are joined this year by fellow sponsors Lowes, United Rentals, W. Lowrie and Jillian Tucker, Waynesboro Arts and Culture Initiative, Bloomaker, DuBose Egelston Jr., Wassenaar & Winkler Architects and Planners, Free Range Electric Tractor, and Staunton Makerspace, a release said.
The festival is still looking to raise several thousand dollars to cover equipment and mural costs. To learn more go to Vastreetarts.com/give. For more information on the festival go to Vastreetarts.com.
Want to read more stories by The News Leader? Click here to get a subscription.
Fitness win
The Staunton F45 fitness studio recently received an award for delivering the best fitness experience based on feedback from their growing base of clientele, a release said.
The award was issued by F45 Training Headquarters out of Sydney Australia, which currently oversees more than a thousand franchise locations worldwide.
Staunton F45 has been operating in Staunton near the intersection of Statler Boulevard and Greenville Road for just over two years. F45 is a franchise out of Australia that combines the expertise of 45 trainers into one concise program. The organization was started in Australia in 2012. It’s recently made its way over to America, with the closest locations in Northern Virginia and North Carolina.
The workouts change daily with various classes throughout the day. The objectives and science behind each workout are the same — strength building and cardio. But, each workout is somewhat different to allow for some variety. The workouts combine elements of HIIT, circuit training and functional training.
“There are many things that make a great gym experience but nothing tops great people and we have that in spades,” Owner Bill Campbell said in a release. “This is the most welcoming, positive and energetic group of people I’ve ever met and together we make an incredibly motivating team.”
Have a news tip?
You can reach reporter Laura Peters at [email protected]. Follow her @peterslaura.
Let’s block ads! (Why?)
