SUPPORTING THE ARTS
Charlottesville Players Guild
Season tickets available for 2024-25
JSAAHC’s Charlottesville Players Guild is on a mission to make sure every Black artist knows what it is like to create within a completely Black space.
About Our Center
Located in the Jefferson School City Center, The Jefferson School African American Heritage Center’s mission is to honor and preserve the rich heritage and legacy of the African-American community of Charlottesville-Albemarle, Virginia and to promote a greater appreciation for, and understanding of, the contributions of African Americans and peoples of the Diaspora locally, nationally and globally.
The Center features a permanent historical exhibit, a rotating contemporary art gallery, and a robust calendar of events, all of which combine to highlight Charlottesville’s African American history and culture of the African diaspora.
Swords Into Plowshares is entering into its second community engagement phase. In this phase we are asking Charlottesville to help determine where a work of public art could be located in our community. We hope that you will participate by completing a short survey about your park usage. It only takes 3 minutes to complete.
Our goal in the next year is to focus on our area’s parks as cultural landscapes. Through research, guided tours, and community conversations we will continue to educate ourselves about the role public art can play in shifting centers and changing minds.
Swords Into Plowshares is a project of our Center For Local Knowledge which hopes to use research to further social justice.
We are hiring! We are looking for a researcher to get us to our next milestone. Click here for job description. All applications should be sent to localhistory@jeffschoolheritagecenter.org
Help us plan for the future by taking our survey.
Help share authentic history by becoming a guide.
It’s Friday 8:29 pm EST — Sorry, we’re closed. Visit us when we’re open!
Contemporary Gallery
Please purchase a ticket before you arrive.
Nic(o) Brierre Aziz: Haiti Across the Water
1 June – 31 August, 2024
Nic(o) Brierre Aziz is a Haitian-New Orleanian interdisciplinary artist and curator born and raised in New Orleans, LA. His current practice is deeply community focused and rooted around the utilization of under discussed personal and collective histories to reimagine the future. His work is also very centered around the Caribbean Diaspora and he is interested in Blackness as an experience, construct and capitalist tool.
The exhibition features works produced in the last five years that critically consider such things as history, migration, white supremacy and the lives of Black males. About his practice Aziz asserts that he “seeks to create work from the dark matter that uplifts and heals, while exposing truths that enable us all to tread down a more collectively harmonious path of liberation.”
Aziz is the recipient of several artist residencies and fellowships and most recently, was selected as a 2020 Andy Warhol Foundation Curatorial Fellow and a 2021 Joan Mitchell Center Artis-in-Residence.
The exhibition is made possible through the generous support of a private collection, Yale School of Art, and the JSAAHC Annual Fund.
Alice Ivory: Sculpting in Metal
14 September – 14 December, 2024
Become a Member
Join today and be part of our vision for 2023 and beyond!
As a JSAAHC Member you’ll receive:
- Free admission to exhibits and events.
- Discounts on workshops, lectures, and programs.
- Invitations to members-only events.
- Discounts in Alumni Room Museum Shop and Café
- And much more.
Spotlight Events & Programs
EDUCATING THE COMMUNITY
Community Guides
New class begins Saturday, September 16, 2023 and continues each Saturday until October 28!
Public history is fun! We invite you to help us make Charlottesville our open air classroom. Learn local history and African American art history on Saturdays from 9am to 12pm. Apply to become a community guide today.
HONORING OUR HISTORY
Center for Local Knowledge
By appointment Tuesday through Saturday & every third Saturday 10am–12pm
The Center for Local Knowledge promotes the study of Charlottesville and Albemarle County local histories and fosters a deeper understanding of our community’s lived environment.
PRESERVING OUR LEGACY
Exhibition Showcase
Gallery available Tuesday through Friday 1pm–6pm and Saturdays 10am–1pm
Guided tours of our permanent and contemporary exhibitions are available for groups of 10–30 adults. Book your tour or view tour dates and time availability on our calendar.
Covid Policy: Due to limited space in exhibition galleries and our desire to keep us all safe, visitors must now obtain a general admission ticket to visit. Groups are limited to no more than eight people. Groups must obtain a timed group ticket.
Hours
Daily 1.00 pm–6.00 pm
Location
233 4th St NW, Charlottesville, VA 22903
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Upcoming Events
Special Event
WTJU Cville Pie Fest
Time: Saturday, October 19, 202410:00 AM - 2:00 PM /
The CVille Pie Fest In mid-2010, the first Cville Pie Fest was born. The response was greater than we could have anticipated. WTJU 91.1 FM brought new life to the Cville Pie Fest in 2023, and now we’re back in 2024, partnering with the Jefferson School African-American Heritage Center. With music provided by Nathaniel Starr, […]
Performance, Shows
Wine in the Wilderness by Alice Childress
Time: Thursday, October 3, 2024October 3, 2024 - 7:30 PM - October 13, 2024 - 4:00 PM /
Leslie M. Scott-Jones directs one of Chlidress’ most thought provoking plays. Centered on the last evening of the 1964 riots, a young artist, along with his community, wrestle with the role Black men and women are forced to assume. Questions of class, gender, and racism all come up as our artist trys to finish […]
Exhibition opening, Gallery Talk, Special Event
Beyond Boundaries: The Sculpture of Alice Wesley Ivory Exhibition Opening
Time: Saturday, September 14, 20246:00 PM - 8:00 PM /
Beyond Boundaries: The Sculpture of Alice Wesley Ivory Opening reception September 14, 6pm-8pm Gallery talks by local artist Born in Albemarle County, Alice Ivory (1931-1999) began making metal sculpture in the 1960s. A prolific artist, her oeuvres consists of as many as 100 sculpture of things she described as familiar—animals, birds, fish. Ivory attended Albemarle […]
Hours
Heritage Center
Tuesday – Friday 1.00 pm – 6.00 pm
Saturday 10 am – 1 pm
Closed Monday & Sunday
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