“Chocolate. … By getting it good in quality, and cheap in price, the superiority of the article both for health and nourishment will soon give it the same preference over tea and coffee in America…”
Nov. 27, 1785, Thomas Jefferson to John Adams, from Paris

Join us for a day of pure chocolate indulgence at Monticello! Celebrate your love for chocolate at Taste: Chocolate at Monticello with a full day of chocolate themed events.

Learn how chocolate was a favorite of Jefferson’s and how it was prepared and served at Monticello, enjoy a chocolate-making demonstration and savor several pairings of chocolate and Virginia wines.

Create your own itinerary with your friends or surprise your significant other for a special Valentine’s Day treat. ‘Taste’ includes a chef demonstration, keepsake recipes to try at home, and numerous indulgent chocolate tastings. House tour included.

House tours
Offered throughout the day, included in the price of Taste: Chocolate at Monticello.

Experience: The History of Chocolate
1 - 1:30 p.m.
From Thomas Jefferson’s first recorded purchase of chocolate in 1775 to recipes used in the colonial period, learn about the history of chocolate in Jefferson’s time. See an 18th-century method of making chocolate, by grinding roasted cacao beans on a traditional metate, a heated grinding stone, and adding sugar and spices to provide a variety of flavors.

This ‘Bean to Beverage’ demo includes a demonstration of making chocolate from bean to a hot chocolate drink. At the end participants will have the opportunity to try American Heritage Chocolate, and Pure Dark® Rounds--bite sized disks of intense, dark chocolate with 62% cocoa content, dusted with intriguing taste sensations.

Indulge: Chocolate Today 
1:45 – 2:15 p.m.
Take part in a cooking demonstration with local chef Harrison Keevil of Charlottesville's charming Brookville Restaurant.  Keevil, a  French Culinary Institute-trained chef will create a modern day dessert for you to sample using American Heritage Chocolate. Take home new recipes to try at your table.

Taste: Chocolate and Wine Pairing 
2:30 – 3 pm
Nothing says “indulgence” quite like the pairing of chocolate and wine. Learn about Jefferson’s passion for wine, with winemaker and assistant director of gardens and grounds Gabriele Rausse.
 
Taste three  Pure Dark® specialty chocolates paired with three local Virginia wines and take home an American Heritage Chocolate “chocolate wine” recipe.
   
The Monticello Museum Shop will have tastings and additional demonstrations from 1- 4 p.m.

Chocolate tasting and demonstration at Monticello's Thomas Jefferson Visitor Center

With Valentines Day around the corner, here is a perfect opportunity to hone your knowledge of Chocolate!

The Giver

by Eric Coble, based on the book by Lois Lowry

directed by Will Rucker

FEBRUARY 11 – 27

The beloved Newbery Award-winning children’s book comes to life in this moving play by Eric Coble.

Eleven-year-old Jonas is worried. His twelfth birthday is just days away, and in Jonas’ society, the Ceremony of Twelve marks the end of childhood and the beginning of your occupation and your adult life. And Jonas has been… seeing things. His world exists in shades of gray, but he has started to see flashes of color – the red of an apple, or of a girl’s hair. What do these things mean?

Become one of the writers at the 2011 Virginia Festival of the Book!

Student authors in grades 5-12 are invited to create original poetry or prose for submission to the Virginia Festival of the Book Poetry and Prose Contest. If a student’s piece is selected, the student’s work will be printed in a booklet, and the student will be invited to read the piece aloud in a special event on March 15. Prose may not exceed 1,000 words. Poetry may not exceed two single-spaced pages. Submissions are due by February 15. Guidelines can be downloaded here.

Additionally, students in grades K-12 are invited to enter the 2011 Poster Contest. This free-style poster design contest is open to all students enrolled in public, independent, and home schools in the City of Charlottesville and County of Albemarle. The subject of the poster should be book, literacy, or reading related and the work must include the text “Virginia Festival of the Book.” Winners will be honored on March 19 and all entries will be on exhibition at the Central Branch of the Jefferson-Madison Regional Library before the Festival. Submissions are due by February 25. Guidelines can be downloaded here.

For more information about either of these contests, please call 434-982-2983 or email Susan Coleman.

Charlottesville’s OSCAR NIGHT® AMERICA

Sunday, February 27 at 6:30pm
The Paramount Theatre
To benefit the Virginia Film Festival and The Paramount Theatre

The excitement and glamour of Hollywood are coming to Charlottesville on Oscar Night. Movie fans are invited to wear Hollywood-inspired attire and experience the thrills and surprises of the 83rd Academy Awards® at Charlottesville’s own Oscar Night America party.

Benefiting the Virginia Film Festival and The Paramount Theater,  the Charlottesville event is one of 50 parties officially sanctioned by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences that will be held across the country on Oscar Night.

General admission tickets are $45.00 and are on sale starting at 10am Tuesday, January 25. To purchase tickets, visit www.theparamount.net, call 434-979-1333, or visit the Paramount’s box office at 215 E. Main St. between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m.

Tickets include:

• Admission to the live HD broadcast hosted by Charlottesville Tonight’s Tara Wheeler and John Rodgers.
• Food and wine from area restaurants and vineyards, including Afton Mountain Vineyard, The Backyard, Brasserie Monteil, Cabot Cheese, The Downtown Grille, Fellini’s, Jefferson Vineyards, The Melting Pot and many more!
• The official Oscars Program
• Coffee, popcorn and soda

In addition:

• Charlottesville guests will walk the red carpet into the theater and are encouraged to dress in Hollywood-inspired attire!
• Raffles will be held throughout the evening, and prices will include exclusive tickets to local arts events, luxury gift baskets, gift certificates from Charlottesville’s favorite businesses and much more!

The Paramount audience will watch the Academy Awards telecast live on large screens courtesy of WVAW the Charlottesville affiliate of the ABC Television Network, which broadcasts the Academy Awards presentation.  This is the 18th year that the Academy and ABC have cooperated with local charities to support official Oscar Night viewing parties throughout the country.  This year marks the second year that Charlottesville’s party has been sanctioned by the Academy.

Oscar Night Raffle

Enter to win one of nine stellar raffle prizes to be awarded during Charlottesville’s Oscar Night America Party.  Raffle prizes will include exclusive tickets to local arts events, Hollywood inspired gift baskets, gift certificates from Charlottesville’s favorite business and much more! Raffle tickets are $5.00 each or three for $10.00, and winners will be drawn from the Paramount stage during the live broadcast of the 2011 Oscars.  Raffle tickets can be purchased online at www.theparamount.net and at the event. All proceeds support the Virginia Film Festival and The Paramount Theater.

via virginiafilmfestival.org

I think I just might go see this next weekend!

Art has the power to show us our familiar world in new ways. We love Charlottesville and want to see it through the artist's eye. Artists are asked to submit two-dimensional work, (less than 3ft square and 20lbs) mounted and ready to hang, representing the theme "Local Food." This is in honor of our local agriculture, both urban and rural, and the food we love at home and when we go out. All work submitted will be hung. A $10 entry fee per work is required. We want the artists to explore their passion for the community which is their home. It is our hope that this event offers a special opportunity for artists of every age. ArtInPlace retains the right to refuse to accept work deemed inappropriate.

Schedule for 2011
Work will be received at the McGuffey Art Center on Saturday, January 29, 2011, from 1:00-5:00 p.m. or email info@artinplace.org for an appointment. All work will be on display from February 1st to 27th, 2011.
Artwork must be picked up at McGuffey on Sunday, February 28th, 2010, from 2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.

4 awards for elementary/middle school age at $25.00/each
2 awards for high school age at $50.00/each 
One adult "Best in Show" award at $500.00 

The opening is February 4, 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. with awards given out at 6:15 p.m. by a member of City Council..