However, as I reflect on these last two years, I can’t help but be amazed by the resilience of the artists here at UVA, in our community, and beyond. They proved time and time again that the arts have the power to transcend all the challenges we face and to lift us in our best and worst times, and in all those times in between. 

We recently learned that the power of the arts will be harnessed here on Grounds for generations to come thanks to a $50 million gift from Tessa Ader to support a new arts complex on the Emmet/Ivy corridor. Tessa and her late husband Richard Ader have long been passionate supporters of the arts at the University and in the Charlottesville community, including serving on the advisory board for The Fralin Museum of Art and creating the Richard M. and Tessa G. Ader Endowed Fund for Music Education at the Charlottesville Symphony at the University of Virginia. Mrs. Ader’s remarkable gift comes on the heels of the transformative gifts made by The Joseph and Robert Cornell Memorial Foundation, for which Richard served as a trustee along with co-trustee Joe Erdman. 

This gift comes at a perfect time for the arts at UVA, a time when our student and faculty artists are thriving even in the midst of challenges they have faced due to the pandemic. The thought of these artists having an opportunity to benefit from a state of the art facility UVA deserves and has earned is truly thrilling to think about, and we could not be more appreciative of this support, and our hope for the additional support it will inspire as we move this dream closer to reality.

You, too, play an important role in this transformational moment in the history of UVA Arts. Making a gift of any size to the Artistic Excellence Fund directly supports and bolsters the creative and innovative programming that arts students, staff, and faculty are leading every day. The Center for the Arts will open up exciting opportunities where arts will flourish - connecting, educating, and inspiring the University and Charlottesville communities. We need your help to ensure that these programmatic opportunities are fully supported and meet the level of excellence and excitement that this new era of UVA Arts will usher. Thank you for your consideration of making a gift to support this mission today.

We hope you will enjoy reading these stories of how our students, faculty, and alumni continue to come together and create, and in the process raise the profile of the arts on Grounds in so many different ways. 

Our best to you for the holiday season!

Best wishes, 

Jody Kielbasa
Vice Provost for the Arts
Director, Virginia Film Festival
University of Virginia
Contact: uvaartsmagazine@virginia.edu