There’s no sugar-coating it. 2020 has been a rough year. Amid a divisive election and a deadly pandemic that has made gatherings a threat instead of a promise, forging community through arts and food has been more difficult than during any year in recent memory.
But crisis and tragedy can also put what’s truly important in stark relief. And 2020 has also been a year in which we’ve been reminded of the deep value of the ties that bind us — as families, as cities, and as a country. And through it all, we’ve found new ways to connect.
Musicians have been stripped of live audiences. But virtual performances and museum tours have in some ways made art more accessible than ever to anyone with a phone or an internet connection. Local muralists, in neighborhoods suddenly home to countless pedestrians instead of cars, filled the cityscape with a new wave of art. Meanwhile, Virginia grappled with the meaning and purpose of public art, as tens of monuments to the troubled history of the Confederacy came down all over the state.
The pandemic has also showcased some of the best parts of the human spirit. Local-grown superstars Pharrell Williams and Pusha T have doubled down on their commitments to their hometown with renewed investments and nonprofit giving. And local restaurants, beset by grave economic struggles during the pandemic, still found ways to provide food to those even more in need.
So yes, it’s been a tough year. But art and culture in Hampton Roads will continue undimmed, and undiminished.
ViBe Creative District keeps grooving
Leave it to Virginia Beach’s creative district to get creative during a tumultuous year. The ViBe’s third annual Mural Fest was delayed but still took place as one of the few Oceanfront events to survive 2020.
Several new businesses launched in the district this year including The Pink Dinghy and Baby Izakaya restaurants, as well as the recently-opened Pixelated Boutique.
VB Flea partnered with businesses in The Alley to introduce #FirstFriday Night Markets, and street art including artistic paver intersections and neighborhood identifiers were added to the newly-improved 19th Street corridor.
– Stacy Parker
Completed expansion of art museums at Colonial Williamsburg
In July, the art museums of Colonial Williamsburg completed a three-year expansion that increased exhibition space by 25% percent, created offices for staff that had been working out of closets and revamped everything from the café menu to its almost-hidden entrance.
The DeWitt Wallace Decorative Arts Museum and the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Museum are housed in a sprawling complex that includes an additional 65,000-square-feet of space with the new construction. The DeWitt features works from 1670 to 1840. It will house rotating exhibitions that pull from Colonial Williamsburg’s period furniture, currency, maps, tools, weapons and one of the largest collections of British ceramics outside of the United Kingdom. Because of ongoing archaeological digs in Colonial Williamsburg, artifacts are continually added to the collection.
The Folk Art Museum includes pieces from the early 1700s to the present and it represents artists of different cultures and traditions.
Together, the museums have more than 67,000 antiques and works of art and 7,000 pieces of folk art.
The $41.7-million project was funded entirely by donors.
– Denise M. Watson
Closing of the Peninsula Fine Arts Center after nearly 60 years
The Peninsula Fine Arts Center will close at the end of the year after 58 years. Its programming will be merged into the Mary M. Torggler Fine Arts Center, which is scheduled to open in the spring at Christopher Newport University. The $60-million facility will house the school’s Department of Fine Arts and Art History, studio and gallery spaces and a new auditorium. Holly Koons, the former executive director of the Arlington Arts Center, was named the director of the CNU center in October.
– Denise M. Watson
Founding director of the Barry Art Museum retires
Jutta-Annette Page, the inaugural executive director of the Barry Art Museum at Old Dominion University, retired Oct.1.
Page was an internationally renowned expert in glass sculpture and decorative arts when she came to Norfolk in 2017 to run the Barry museum which opened the following year. The 24,000-square-foot museum had been made possible by a donation of funds and art valued at $37 million from local philanthropists Richard and Carolyn Barry.
Charlotte Potter Kasic, who had joined the museum in January as manager of education and engagement, was named interim director.
Kasic had already left an imprint in the local arts scene. She was the founding programming director at the Chrysler Museum’s Perry Glass Studio and co-founder of Norfolk’s NEON Festival.
– Denise M. Watson
COVID forced local stages to go dark
Devastated by the coronavirus pandemic, local arts organizations were forced to shutter operations mid-March and cancel entire seasons of programming. Beloved festivals that typically draw thousands to the region were struck from calendars next, including Virginia Arts Festival’s Virginia International Tattoo, Hampton Roads Pride’s PrideFest, Hampton’s Jazz Festival and Pharrell Williams’ highly anticipated second Something In the Water. Downtown Norfolk venue The NorVa – which has long been called one of America’s favorite venues – celebrated 20 years in business in total dark.
Artists throughout the region immediately began to feel the financial effects of COVID as organizations scaled back on events or were forced to furlough performers due to tightening state and city regulations on how many people could safely gather in one space. With COVID cases on the rise, area arts organizations are looking at the possibility of another season without shows.
– Amy Poulter
Hampton Roads restaurants showed remarkable resilience
As the coronavirus pandemic all but shut down local dining rooms in March, local restaurants faced a crisis perhaps unparalleled in recent memory. And they responded with extraordinary creativity and persistence.
Many — including The Shack and 501 North in Virginia Beach, and Grey Goose in Hampton — transformed themselves into markets, little auxiliary pantries where you can pick up bare essentials and produce from local farmers. Meanwhile, Pendulum Fine Meats sandwich and butcher shop in Norfolk ramped up into a home-delivery meat wagon. The Neighborhood Harvest, a sister company to local chain the Baker’s Crust, helped local farmers by delivering produce to doorsteps all over the seven cities.
As the pandemic continued, many restaurants also made significant investments to move their dining rooms outdoors. In Virginia Beach, Bay Local added large ventilated tents to both their outdoor locations and Alkaline’s new Baby Izakaya re-imagined itself completely as a back-patio restaurant.
In Norfolk, a public-private partnership called OpenNorfolk helped restaurants turn curbside parking spaces into patios, whether at Croaker’s Spot on 35th Avenue or seemingly half of downtown. The city has also begun delivering more than a hundred heaters to local restaurants as temperatures drop. Hampton also shut down a portion of Queen’s Way this spring and summer to allow local restaurants space for patio dining.
And even amid grave setbacks, restaurants found ways to give back. In early spring, a consortium of Norfolk restaurants served meals to unemployed restaurant workers. Restaurants from Mango Mangeaux in Hampton to Commune in Norfolk joined with chef Jose Andres’ World Central Kitchen to offer food to thousands of the food-insecure during the crisis. Local chain Ynot Italian donated tens of thousands of meals in the pandemic’s first months. Rajput Indian Cuisine, with locations in Norfolk and Suffolk, continues to host monthly drive-thrus giving away food during the crisis.
After federal aid stalled for months, the restaurant crisis looms perhaps larger than ever as cases spike, and dropping temperatures make patios a less attractive option for many diners. But here more than most places, the foundations have not cracked as deeply. So far, the data show that Hampton Roads restaurants have been less gravely affected than other regions, and the grim ticker of local restaurant closures has been less drastic here. Judged versus the previous year, hotel and restaurant employment figures remain better here than in all but a couple of major metro regions in the country. But that was in part a function of car tourism during the summer, according to Old Dominion University economics professor Robert McNab — in addition to an undamped flow of federal dollars due to the region’s strong military presence.
But with winter ahead, local restaurants are far from out of the woods — and will be needing your support during the traditionally slow months of winter, lest you lose some old friends.
– Matthew Korfhage
Takeout cocktails are normal now
During March and April, the laws pertaining to how alcohol can be sold in Virginia have changed pretty much every week since the coronavirus began — often drastically — in an effort to help local restaurants and makers of booze. For the most part, this has meant that alcohol can be delivered or carried out the door.
In a situation unthinkable before the pandemic, every restaurant licensed to sell beer or wine can now send it off in a Grubhub or Postmates bag. Virginia distilleries can deliver hooch, mail it, or walk it out to your car window. Tiki cocktails might arrive on your porch with the click of a mouse, in lidded cups, or you can pick them up at the restaurant.
Some of these changes, including liquor delivery from distilleries, will be permanent. Others will expire when the pandemic does. But the question remains, after local diners and drinkers get used to the new world order: Will Virginia put the genie — and the takeout beer — back in the bottle?
– Matthew Korfhage
Shift to online shopping speeds up as even gym-going went virtual
The joy at seeing toilet paper or paper towels still sitting on once empty shelves, the clear plastic layer between you and almost every cashier, the stickers on the floor telling you where to stand, the hand sanitizer everywhere and the temperatures checks at the door sometimes.
These — and not forgetting one’s mask on any trip out — are the things that pass for normal now.
Just as restaurants had to get creative offering takeout, groceries and outdoor dining where there hadn’t been any, so did retailers selling goods and services. This was especially true as the governor’s press conferences noting what and when businesses would close and then re-open became must-see-TV.
Indoor malls, already suffering as online shopping’s ubiquity had grown, were ordered closed. Smaller brick-and-mortar stores that depended on in-store foot traffic turned to social media to advertise and fulfill orders that could be picked up curbside or delivered.
Gyms and hair salons, both up-close, high-touch indoor environments also shuttered at first. Some fitness centers found outlets teaching online video classes or holding small classes outdoors until they were able to reopen with capacity restrictions. Stylists waited and readied their spaces for when they would be allowed to cut hair again. Chairs would be spread apart, reservations would be needed, masks would be required for everyone inside.
“I don’t see us ever taking those things away,” said Morgan Chavis, owner of Lusso Salon in Portsmouth talking about some of the precautions she’s put in place as a result of the pandemic.
Movie theater screens went dark at first but those that reopened showed older movies while waiting for studios to release new movies only to see many anticipated blockbusters go straight to in-home streaming. At least one, the Naro Cinema, sold popcorn and other concessions at the door some days for limited hours and partnered with a third-party to stream new movies online.
Grocery stores had already been toying with online delivery and curbside pickup pre-pandemic to remain relevant in a swiftly evolving technological world, but the need and desire by many customers to do their shopping from home pushed those efforts into warp speed.
Masks, protective barriers and six feet of social distance may not exist forever if all goes well with vaccine treatments. The trend for customers to go online to shop shows no sign of slowing.
– Kimberly Pierceall
Virtual became the new wave
With theaters, venues and local spots forced to close, artists were forced to get creative when it came to performing, making a living and entertaining fans thirsty for entertainment. For the first time, the Generic Theater taped and streamed a production of “A Chorus Line.”
Bands and musicians opened up their homes and performed virtual concerts from their living rooms. Local singer/songwriter Skye Zentz organized several music festivals that took place on virtual stages across Facebook and Instagram. Dance companies and university theater programs used Zoom to continue teaching and stream performances.
The Virginia Stage Company paired up with local business owner Ashley Branton to take curious viewers on a virtual ghost tour through downtown Norfolk’s Wells Theater, taught thousands of students across the country through virtual programming and put on a five-person production of “A Christmas Carol” that folks could watch from the comfort of home.
Despite technical difficulties, a silver lining of the pandemic meant art was suddenly more accessible than it had ever been before.
– Amy Poulter
All hail the DJs and music producers
If music is a universal connector, DJs served as the anchor to that bridge. Clubs may have been closed, but DJs and their likes kept the beat going, as well as brought back a few. Super-producer and Norfolk native Timbaland partnered with his powerhouse peer Swizz Beats in early spring to create Verzuz battles on Instagram. These face-offs feature veteran hip-hop artists and singers going head-to-head in playful 20-round sets featuring their hits. Some of the biggest names in music went head-to-head, like Teddy Riley (who created some of his most popular music in Virginia Beach) vs. Babyface and Gladys Knight vs. Patti LaBelle. The match-ups have become a must-see, spreading to platforms like YouTube and AppleTV.
Adding to this social media formula have been DJs like the legendary D-Nice who has received critical acclaim for his sets on Instagram, drawing audiences in the thousands several times a week. Platforms like Facebook Live, Mixcloud, Twitch and Mixlr have allowed DJs from superstars like Jazzy Jeff to obscure local and worldwide artists to gain a new following. Meanwhile, even the followers have formed familial ties among themselves. Hey, to my friends in New Zealand.
– Jamesetta M. Walker
Hampton Roads artists take home major awards, nominations
We make some talented people here, and this year, their hard work paid off. Hampton Roads artists all over the entertainment industry took home some big awards and nominations this year.
Six entertainers who have called Hampton Roads home were among the nominees announced for the 72nd Emmy Awards: musicians Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo, actor/comedian Patton Oswalt, actor Mark Ruffalo, comedian Wanda Sykes and dancer/choreographer Travis Wall. Ruffalo went on to win the award for outstanding lead actor in a limited series or movie for his role as twin brothers Dominick and Thomas Birdsey on HBO’s “I Know This Much Is True.”
It wasn’t long before Chesapeake native and Broadway superstar Adrienne Warren garnered big attention for her role as Tina Turner in a musical about the pop icon’s life. Following widespread critical acclaim, Warren earned a Tony nomination for her work. The awards show has been indefinitely postponed.
Virginia Beach super-producer duo The Neptunes — Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo -– were inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame this year. Some of the pairs earliest and most iconic work includes Jay-Z’s “I Just Wanna Love U (Give it 2 Me),” Britney Spears’ “I’m A Slave 4 U,” “Get Lucky” by Daft Punk, Justin Timberlake’s “Like I Love You,” Snoop Dogg’s “Drop It Like It’s Hot” and “Hot in Herre” by Nelly.
– Amy Poulter
Speaking of Pharrell…
The Beach native had one of his busiest, most inspiring years yet, despite the global shutdown and having to cancel his Oceanfront music and arts festival.
Pharrell teamed with his uncle, Bishop Ezekiel Williams, to create the “world’s best gospel choir” using voices from around the Commonwealth. Netflix signed on to film the process, which was condensed down into a docuseries called “Voices of Fire” that debuted just before Thanksgiving.
Williams worked with state legislators to successfully make Juneteenth an official state holiday and push back against racism in the state. He created a nonprofit called Black Ambition to help Black and Latinx students and entrepreneurs achieve success. He was a driving force behind the World Central Kitchen’s efforts to feed those in need in Hampton Roads.
He also launched a skincare line and set of sustainable silverware. He paired with SoundCloud to spotlight emerging artists and support those who were struggling because of the coronavirus, and even found some time to bring back his talk show with Scott Vener and Norfolk rapper Fam-Lay, OTHERtone, as a podcast.
– Amy Poulter
Pusha T uses experience as president of Kanye West’s G.O.O.D. Music to lift up local artists
Virginia Beach native Pusha T officially launched Heir Wave Music Group, a record label the Beach rapper is using to promote and mentor rappers, singers and creatives from the Commonwealth.
Ultimately, Push aims to help build a better infrastructure for budding artists in Hampton Roads, who too often have to leave the area to pursue their musical dreams. Pusha also used his time to give to others this summer by hosting a “Feed Your City” event in Norfolk, where he and his team passed out groceries and PPE to more than 3,000 residents.
– Amy Poulter
Virginians used art to push back against racism
As our capitol city became the battleground between social justice advocates and right-wing extremists, residents took to city streets with cameras to document history in the making. Images of Confederate monuments covered in graffiti before being removed from Richmond’s Monument Avenue would make the cover of National Geographic and top lists of the most powerful images made in 2020.
The “Our Streets” exhibit at a newly-opened Norfolk gallery space, Slowdive, displayed the work of 15 Virginia photographers who spent time documenting protests and marches over the summer.
In Virginia Beach, artists worked with business, faith, and civic leaders to make the city a “sanctuary for human rights” after Pharrell unsuccessfully pushed city officials to paint “Black Lives Matter” on the boardwalk. The coalition includes founding members Laura Habr (Croc’s 19th Stree Bistro owner), artist Jaketa Thompson, City Councilmen Aaron Rouse and Guy Tower, former Councilwoman Amelia Ross-Hammond and former Police Chief James Cervera.
– Amy Poulter
Hampton Roads residents showed out on reality TV
Local performers and residents had a pretty good showing on reality TV shows this year.
Two local singers, Virginia Beach’s Samantha Howell and Jus Jon from Newport News both made it onto NBC’s “The Voice.” Each contestant had moments in the spotlight they’ll never forget. For Jus Jon, the peninsula performer was ecstatic to meet his idols, John Legend and Usher, and couldn’t believe his ears when Gwen Stefani told him she couldn’t believe he wasn’t signed to a record label yet. Howell started her time on the show by creating an epic battle between judges Kelly Clarkson, Blake Shelton and Nick Jonas when she sang for the first time.
Over on “Love Island,” Chesapeake native Johnny Middlebrooks stripped down to his swim trunks and hoped he’d find a girl he could call the one. Middlebrooks, a former football player at Hickory High School, almost instantly matched with Cely Vazquez, and the two became inseparable during their time on the show and ended up being crowned the series’ runner-up on day 40. According to his Instagram (@johnny_llee), the two are still going strong. He wasn’t the only local looking for commitment.
On “Chopped Sweets,” Chesapeake baker Winter Arif of K Squared Cupcakes squared off against three other bakers for the sugar-frosted crown. Arif told us that what she likes about “Chopped” is that what the viewer sees is also what the chefs see: The contestants are utterly unprepared for the food challenges. “I thought they prepared you a little bit, but it turns out you have no idea,” she said in March. “Anybody on ‘Chopped’ will tell you, you open that basket and you’re shocked.” On the April 6 episode, her first basket included eggplant and lavender lemonade, and she advanced to the second round with her devil’s food cake. But she stopped there — on a dessert that had to include both habanero peppers and cottage cheese.
Virginia Beach native Tarik Myers took his fiancée, Hazel Cagalitan, on season eight of “90 Day Fiancé. The season is still airing, but Myers’ debut was one full of intrigue when he admitted to contacting a recent ex behind Cagalitan’s back. Will Myers come out of his reality TV experience as in love as Middlebrooks? Keep watching to find out.
– Amy Poulter and Matthew Korfhage
User Upload Caption: Virginia Beach native Samantha Howell competed in the first-ever four-way knockout round on the “The Voice” recently. The results will be announced during Monday night’s episode.
– Original Credit: Tyler Golden (NBC)
– Original Source: NBC Universal Media
A torrent of local beer still flowed
The pandemic forced local breweries to completely re-imagine much of their business, buying canning lines and re-jiggering their output for packaged takeout instead of the restaurant kegs that used to sustain much of their business.
Even before the pandemic closed or limited taprooms across Hampton Roads, one brewery had already abruptly closed its doors. The Virginia Beach location of chain brewery Gordon Biersch was among the many Gordon Biersch locations to close: A mere seven brewpub restaurants remain in the chain nationwide.
But no breweries have closed in Hampton Roads since. And new breweries continue to open their doors in 2020 — or announce they’ll do so — a continuation of an upswing in craft beer that’s been going strong for most of a decade in Virginia.
The first of 2020 was Thin Brew Line, a police-themed brewery at 1375 Oceana Blvd. in Virginia Beach, with a retired policeman as a brewer and a policeman’s brother as the managing partner. The brewery opened in February with cop-themed beers, a jail cell door from Sing Sing prison, and restrooms themed after scenes in “The Shawshank Redemption” and “The Usual Suspects.”
In July, COVA Brewing opened at 9529 Shore Drive in Norfolk’s East Beach with self-serve beer taps and house-made coffee — and a large patio space often home to visiting food trucks. The head brewer is Matt Topping, the former head brewer at Coelacanth Brewing, which closed last year in Norfolk’s Ghent neighborhood.
And in December, Newport News got a downtown brewery called Coastal Fermentory at 206 23rd St., begun by a trio of engineers. In addition to hazy IPAs, light lagers and a wealth of farmhouse beers, the brewery also has a house-made jun — a cousin of kombucha made with green tea and honey.
Four more breweries are coming soon. 1865 Brewing, soon to become the first Black-owned brewery in Hampton Roads, plans to open after the new year in Hampton’s Phoebus neighborhood, at 9 S Mallory St. On a similar schedule, Virginia Beach’s Reaver Beach Brewing — known for its hefty barrel program, and even heftier double IPAs — plans a new location at a former Norfolk post office at 3800 Colley Ave.
The former Gordon Biersch location in Town Center of Virginia Beach already has a new tenant: Three Notch’d Brewing of Charlottesville, which already has four other brewpubs around Virginia. Their landlord, Divaris Realty, projected a spring 2021 opening date.
“It’s fair to say that we are excited and will have a few surprises in store for our fans in Southeast Virginia,” wrote Three Notch’d CEO and co-founder Goerge Kastendike in an email.
And finally, Virginia Beach’s Wasserhund also announced a new location, at Chesapeake’s new Summit Pointe development. The projected opening date is June 2021. They’d planned to do so even earlier, but the pandemic delayed those notions.
“While 2020 may have put it on hold, we’re glad it didn’t squash it,” co-owner Christine Holley said.
– Matthew Korfhage
Sewing becomes a thing again, fashion scene takes a twist
Fashion thrives on socialization — you have to wear clothes (hopefully) and fix yourself up before going somewhere (please do). Moreover, it helps to have something special worth getting spiffy for.
But just as we were about to shed the layers of winter, the spring flaunting scene was over before it started. Confined to our homes, we’ve been venturing out mostly for just the necessities.
This took a toll on the fashion and retail industry — local and regional fashion weeks got canceled, modeling opportunities became scarcer and big-name brick-and-mortar stores closed in the wake.
But not all was lost. Again, necessity and creativity came into play. Fabric stores saw their highest patronage in decades as designers and DIYers tapped into their inner Betsy Ross, rising to the occasion to make masks. There was even a shortage of elastic. RVA Fashion Week found a way to go in October and held a series of virtual shows that allowed designers and models from across the region to get back to doing their thing. Hampton Roads’ Dapper Luq live-streamed his collection from the Hermitage Museum and Gardens in Norfolk. The long-standing fashion-art competition Bra-ha-ha, also that month, carried on with a scaled-back show broadcast via social media.
And one model from Hampton Roads did outstandingly well in 2020. Among the gigs Bethany Chasteen Barber landed was an ad campaign with Pepsi-Cola shot in the fall. Barber, a former Chesapeake resident, was featured in a 2017 Virginian-Pilot story that chronicled her move to New York as she broke onto the modeling scene all while battling sickle cell disease. A string of accomplishments since includes an ad for Revlon and another one with Maybelline alongside the likes of Gigi Hadid.
Everybody was growing something, it seemed
Spring already is the busiest time of year for garden centers and nurseries, but this year, they were swamped as the homebound turned to getting their hands dirty for catharsis. Nurseries were deemed essential businesses, allowing people an opportunity to purchase supplies to grow their own food — many for the first time. Earth Day effectively turned into Earth Year.
– Jamesetta M. Walker
![RICHMOND — The owner of Tarrant’s Cafe in downtown Richmond is a 20-year veteran of the city’s food scene. She started out waiting tables – now she owns four Richmond-area restaurants and is the CEO of RVA Hospitality. Liz Kincaid maintains her urban locations, And Dim Sum, Tarrant’s and Bar Solita, but she’s also found success in the Henrico County suburbs with Tarrant’s West. “Compared to my downtown restaurants, it’s more successful with sales, its guest counts are higher, people are more willing to go out there,” Kincaid said. The restaurant industry experienced significant technology and operational changes since the […]](https://www.pilotonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/And-Dim-Sum.jpg?w=467 "RICHMOND — The owner of Tarrant’s Cafe in downtown Richmond is a 20-year veteran of the city’s food scene. She started out waiting tables – now she owns four Richmond-area restaurants and is the CEO of RVA Hospitality. Liz Kincaid maintains her urban locations, And Dim Sum, Tarrant’s and Bar Solita, but she’s also found success in the Henrico County suburbs with Tarrant’s West. “Compared to my downtown restaurants, it’s more successful with sales, its guest counts are higher, people are more willing to go out there,” Kincaid said. The restaurant industry experienced significant technology and operational changes since the […]")
