The Portsmouth Art & Cultural Center have joined with the Olde Towne Business Association to offer the First Weekend Series. The series, offered annually from February – October, encompasses a First Friday with extended museum hours and "Concert in the Courtyard" series sponsored by PortsEvents and TowneBank and is in conjunction with the Olde Towne Business Association’s First Weekend Series. The concerts are held outdoors, weather permitting, in the garden setting of the historic 1846 Courthouse. In case of rain, the concerts will be moved indoors.
First Saturday activities typically feature guest artists and live craft demonstrations.
First Friday and Saturday Activities are Free and open to the public.
For more events and activities happening in Portsmouth please visit PortsVaEvents.com
Gosport Arts Festival and Artists Demonstrations
In conjunction with the Gosport Arts Festival, the Portsmouth Art & Cultural Center offers wood-turners, blacksmiths, spinners & weavers, quilters, and potters, all demonstrating their crafts in the courtyard, weather permitting. In the case of inclement weather, artists will be moved to the Art Annex, adjacent to PACC. Be sure to visit the exhibits in the Art Center and vote on your favorite sculpture on display in the historic courtyard.
There is a nominal fee for admission to exhibits inside PACC, however courtyard exhibits and programs are free and open to the public.
FIRST FRIDAY: Opening Reception & Concert in the Courtyard
• MY HEART BEATS FOR PEACE: Portsmouth's Civil War Home-front
• PICTURING THE CIVIL WAR: Wood Engravings of the Civil War by Winslow Homer
• Live music by Don Comer & Amy Ferebee
In conjunction with First Weekends, visitors can enjoy free admission to the opening reception of two new exhibits, relax with friends and enjoy refreshments and live music for the Concert in the Courtyard presenting Don Comer and Amy Ferebee, two talented guitarists and musicians from the region.
My Heart Beats for Peace: Portsmouth’s Civil War Homefront, on view through August 25, 2013 and Picturing the Civil War: Wood Engravings by Winslow Homer on view through August 4, 2013 open commemorating the Sesquicentennial of the American Civil War.
My Heart Beats for Peace draws from regional history and local collections to explore the impact of the war on the homefront of Portsmouth, Virginia. Through artifacts such as daguerreotypes, letters, camp goods, tools, military equipment, uniforms and dresses the exhibit offers to take you back into wartime Portsmouth in the early days of the war, when Virginia seceded and became part of the Confederate States of America through Federal occupation, and how this affected the community from 1862 to 1865.
Picturing the Civil War offers viewers lithographic prints from Harper’s Weekly made by Winslow Homer during the Civil War. At the beginning of his career Homer had no formal art training. His early lithographic works were made from Mathew Brady photographs that he carved onto large wooden blocks that were stamped with ink onto the pages of Harper's Weekly. During 1861, Homer transitioned from transcribing photographs of important events to making field sketches, and as the war continued, his distinct drawing style emerged.
Free parking available downtown after 6:00 p.m.
Celebrate Kids!
Spend meaningful time with the children in your life at all four Portsmouth Museums!
Here at the Portsmouth Art & Cultural Center, the Rainbow Puppets present Footsteps in History. This show will take folks on a journey through time to discover a new nation that struggles to find freedom and opportunity for all people. With the arrival of African American slaves begins a struggle that explodes in Hampton Roads where the first land battle of the Civil War is fought at Big Bethel. The USS Monitor and the CSS Virginia fight off of Hampton's shores and warfare changes lives forever. Benjamin Butler frees slaves and Mary Peake teaches them under an oak tree where Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation is read. Show times are at 12:00, 1:00 and 2:00 p.m. This show relates to the exhibits on display: “My Heart Beats For Peace: Portsmouth’s Civil War Homefront” and “Picturing the Civil War: Wood Engravings of the Civil War by Winslow Homer.”
At the Children's Museum of Virginia you will become a special detective while solving cases in this summer’s exhibit, “Crime Lab Detective.” Activities include examining fingerprints, “I Spy” games, puzzles, illusions and special guests.
At the Lightship Portsmouth Museum, the Moody Crewe pirates try to take over once again. Take part in their Schools of the Pyrate which will keep them too busy to take over the ship. Once you are a schooled pirate, you can help ward off those scurvy pirates and keep the ship safe.
Travel back in time at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard Museum and commemorate America’s second war with Great Britain by stomping rockets into flight and creating your own military hat. Visit with the Tidewater Maritime Living History Association as members demonstrate the lives of sailors past.
Conversations with the Curators
Take a guided tour through Portsmouth Art & Cultural Center's newest exhibitions with the curators and learn about the criteria and ideas that guided their selection of artifacts and artwork. Curator tour groups meet at the Admission desk on the first floor.
Also stop by the Art Annex and check out period artifacts on exhibit from local collectors.
Included with museum admission
Genealogy Workshop - Discovering your Roots
Are you curious about your family history, but just don't know where to start researching? In partnership with the Portsmouth Public Library's History Room, join us as we learn basic family history research skills and discover valuable resources. Topics include: requirements for acceptance into various societies, how to get through a "brick wall," and court record resources.
Cost: Members $10 / Non-members $15
To register or for questions, please call (757)393-8983 ext 23, registration deadline is July 31th at 5:00p.m. Admission includes entrance to all PACC exhibits.
Conversations with the Curators
Take a guided tour through Portsmouth Art & Cultural Center's newest exhibitions with the curators and learn about the criteria and ideas that guided their selection of artifacts and artwork. Curator tour groups meet at the Admission desk on the first floor.
Also stop by the Art Annex and check out period artifacts on exhibit from local collectors.
Included with museum admission
