MARTINSVILLE, Va. (Sept. 29, 2025) — Piedmont Arts will host an opening reception in honor of its new exhibits from 5:30-7:30 p.m., Friday, Oct. 24 at the museum. The exhibits “Peace Post,” “Legible Earth: The Fire Tapestries” by Leah Raintree, “Depicting the Moment” by Donald Towns and “Inspired Creations” by members of Lynwood Artists will be on display.
The reception will feature live music by Amy Stuart and Regula Daily, light refreshments and a gallery talk starting at 6:15 p.m. This event is free and open to the public. An RSVP is requested by Wednesday, Oct. 22 to 276.632.3221 or online here.
Peace Post is a collection of 198 portraits of peace advocates created by more than 100 artists.
A project of Selman, a Brooklyn-based design studio founded by Martinsville native Johnny Selman, the project asked artists to create a series of digital stamps featuring portraits of peace advocates, one from each sovereign nation. It responds to the need for positive narratives in today’s polarized world by offering a platform for diverse voices and fostering cross-cultural understanding.
Journalist and filmmaker Ruaridh Arrow said in a quote on Selman’s website that the project “ingeniously flipped the postage stamp, normally reserved for kings and queens and heads of state, to frame some of the world’s best and least known advocates for democracy, equality and environmental justice.”
The project took eight years to complete and allowed the designers at Selman to collaborate with artists from around the globe. An inaugural exhibition of “Peace Post” was held in 2024 at the International Peace Museum in Dayton, Ohio. The project won a 2025 Webby Award for Cultural Blog and was voted that year's winner of the People's Voice award.
Legible Earth: The Fire Tapestries is a drawing series by Leah Raintree. Her artworks engage the interconnection between humanity, time and the Earth. She works through an experimental drawing practice that spans media, treating mark-making as a form of attentive translation, exploring how time, memory and phenomena are inscribed within the planet.
This exhibit marks the tenth anniversary of the Valley Fire in Northern California, when Raintree’s sister and family lost their home to wildfire. Borrowing from the language of ancient tapestries that survive as storytellers, intricate line drawings are interwoven with washes of wildfire char. These intimate explorations address the global impacts of wildfire on ecological and human communities, alongside the process of bearing witness, renewal and repair.
Depicting the Moment features work by painter and background animation illustrator Donald Towns. He finds inspiration in nature, architecture and everyday objects, and is especially interested in the way light and color interact with his subject matter. His experience in the motion picture industry has influenced his painting, giving his work the ethereal appearance of animated movie stills.
He attended the American Academy of Art in Chicago and went on to work at Disney, where he was involved in the making of the award-winning films "Beauty and the Beast," "Aladdin” and "The Little Mermaid," as well as the groundbreaking movie "TRON," which included the first computer-generated imagery in a live-action film. He has freelanced for several companies and worked under the late Thomas Kinkade as a digital concept artist for the Thomas Kinkade Company. His painting “Fount of Life” won Best in Show at “Expressions 2025,” the annual open-entry exhibition presented by Lynwood Artists and Piedmont Arts.
Inspired Creations will be on display in the Lynwood Artists Gallery. The exhibit features a selection of work by the group's members. Lynwood Artists is an organization for practicing artists in the Martinsville-Henry County area. Its members share a desire to stimulate understanding and enjoyment of fine art and the artistic process, while providing artists with opportunities to exhibit and further develop their talents. The group meets monthly at Piedmont Arts.
These exhibits will be on display Oct. 25, 2025-Jan. 10, 2026. Exhibit admission is always free.
The exhibits and reception are sponsored by Jewell Drewery, Jane and John Franck, Gale and Will Gravely, Tracie Heavner and Jim Frith, Helen S. and Charles G. Patterson Jr. Charitable Foundation Trust, Lynwood Artists, Melody Margrave, Sovah Health, Stuart and Tom Webster, Phyllia and Mike Wenkstern and What's Your Sign.
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