Virginia Beach’s new Arts all Over program brings free mainstream performances to neighborhoods to enhance the reach and distribution of arts throughout the city.
The Roūge VA Theater curated this year’s programming which explores the theme of “home.” The pilot program uses non-traditional venues like the Military Aviation Museum, the Boys and Girls Clubs of Southeast Virginia and the Simon Family Jewish Community Center.
“People don’t always feel comfortable coming to the theater to see a big musical—people who maybe have transportation limitations, financial limitations or time limitations,” said Hillary Plate with the Virginia Beach Cultural Affairs Department.
A Virginia Beach native herself, Plate moved to New York for 20 years and said similar programs were transformational for her.
“It changed how I viewed the world. It changed how I viewed my neighbor. It develops empathy in a way that is so organic, you don’t realize you’re developing it,” she said.
Now, she brings her experience working with similar arts initiatives back to Hampton Roads to foster this same inspiration in others and to elevate Virginia Beach to the same level of cultural destination like New York.
As residents come out to see their favorite songs live at Arts All Over, “hopefully that also will draw them to come a little further out of their comfort zone and come experience something that’s maybe cross-cultural,” Plate said.
Plate said this introduction to arts and different cultures foster a neighborliness that “makes a big city feel like a small town.” Attendees are building relationships with one another, the city at large and other cultures.
Fostering a sense of community and diversity is vital for a thriving city, especially in regards to cultivating Virginia Beach’s next generation.
“If you want your cultural organizations to still be here … 20 years from now, then you need to make sure that young people today are getting art in their schools and in their neighborhoods,” Plate said.
The city has several goals for the Arts All Over for the initiative.
To start, it stimulates the economy. Residents come to the free, mainstream shows and start to get curious about arts. Plate said she often sees first-time attendees become regular show-goers, even venturing into the bigger, pricier venues that once intimidated them.
Outreach programs like this directly impact ticket sales and the city can demonstrate a local interest in arts to encourage more touring artists to stop in Virginia Beach in between Raleigh and Richmond and in doing so, increase tourism.
“The arts are an economic driver for any area,” Plate said. Paying artists to put on a show feeds into local restaurants, shops and hotels; plus artists can earn a living in Hampton Roads, will live and work in the region instead of moving to New York or D.C.
“Every single time you pay an artist for their work, it goes back into the community,” Plate said.
Arts All Over has several shows at different times, dates, and locations in Virginia Beach. For more information and to find out about new shows as they are added to the lineup, visit Virginia Beach Cultural Affairs.
