Born and raised in Charlottesville, many of you know Ivan as someone who lives and breathes the history and culture we are charged to preserve. His father, Dawes Orr, was a career educator, and his mother, Ms. Barbara Orr, was a beloved teacher who touched generations of students at the Jefferson School. 

An educator himself and a brilliant musician, Ivan brings more than a resume — he brings a calling. “Curiosity is often viewed as the gateway to the attainment of knowledge,” he says. “Knowledge that seeks a footing deeper than the surface, enters the realm of wisdom.”

This pursuit of community-rooted wisdom is at the heart of the Center for Local Knowledge and Ivan’s ability to blend historical research with contemporary cultural insights aligns powerfully with our mission to preserve and amplify Black life in Central Virginia.

“I constantly find myself seeking the wise counsel of the ancestors who have inhabited not only this building but this community,” he reflects. “What has been made readily apparent is that the call and charge of the JSAAHC is not just to collect multiple dots that represent facts and figures. No, what we are tasked with is the care and commitment it takes to construct an interconnected web of the people and places in the Charlottesville African American community that bear witness to her legacy.”

Ivan has already surfaced vital threads of local history: the tireless efforts of educator Rebecca McGinness, who taught 55 students on her own; the enterprising spirit of A.C. Mabrey, who organized a Black bike race in the 1890s at what’s now Belmont Park; and the musical legacy of W.H. Parago — pianist, teacher, and Gospel Hill resident — whose story speaks to the deep cultural roots of this region. 

“What makes the CLK’s work crucial,” Ivan says, “is that through the research being conducted, there is an opportunity to influence the narrative that African American residents can have not only about this place, but themselves. In the words of Marcus Mosiah Garvey: ‘A people without knowledge of their past history, origin and culture is like a tree without roots.’ CLK is engaged in the active tilling of the soil of research to bring forth the good fruit that can feed and influence generations to come.”

Please join us in welcoming Ivan Orr. We’re excited for the work ahead — and grateful to have him lead this next chapter.