ViBe District Virginia Beach

Art Events - First Fridays, Second Saturdays, Art of Humanity and Small Business Saturday Art events are a key componet of the ViBe Creative District's year-round program calendar. First Fridays are national movement celebrated in cultural arts districts throughout the country In the ViBe Creative District, Local businesses, artists and creatives host pop-up events, free art exhibits and other entertainment from late afternoon until early evening on every First Friday of the month. Second Saturdays are a daytime compliment to First Fridays and provide daylight hours in which to execute public art projects. Every month on the Second Saturday local businesses artists and creatives host pop-ups, culinary arts specials, fashion or jewelry trends exhibits and occassional public art projects to celebrate the creative art district. The art of Humanity Partnership with the Virginia Beach Human Rights Commission welcomes community cultural partners to celebrate the Season of Nonviolence. Small Business Saturdays includes popup vendor fair for small, local businesses consisting of artists, crafters, and makers in celebration on the national shop small holiday.

Other Artists Stipends Supporting local, working artists is critical to the success of the ViBe Creative District and is an important part of our arts advocacy efforts. From significant stipends for large wall murals, small stipends for participation in 1-2 hour events, materials reimbursements for new artworks, created for the District and large-scale projects warranting significant stipends, the nonprofit actively fundraised on behalf of the artist community in order to pay artists for their time and talents. Paid artists stipends were critical to our creative community in 2021 during the pandemic when many local artists went without jobs. In 2022, Singer Songwriter Saturdays diversified our artist roster to increase the number of performing artists that included original music in their own sets. In 2023, ViBe partnered with the CIty of Virginia Beavh to feature 22 artists works on the back of Convention Center with way-finding signage via digital art wraps.

Public Art Projects - Mural Festival, Paint the Parking Lot, Creative Crosswalks, Fence Murals, Neighborhood identifiers, and Art lead activities Large-scale Wall Murals, Creative Crosswalks, temporary Fence Murals and other artist lead activities occur throughout the year throughout the district. In 2018 the nonprofit launched the first annual Mural Festival to add "10 Murals in 10 Days" to exterior building walls around the district. This continues to be the organizations's largest event, now celebrating four years ViBe Creative District began painting creative crosswalks in 2016. This program also continues to this day. Working with local artists and The City of Virginia Beach, locations for the creative crosswalks are determined within the Arts District boundaries. Open calls for artists for designs for designs take place in advance of free and open to the public painting events where the chosen artist led the public in creation of artwork on the street Temporary Fence Murals line over 500 linear feet within the ViBe's 18th Street Parklet, as well as the new Mediteranean Ave Parklet & Butterfly Garden. When completed the project will feature 100 plywood murals that will rotate on a 1-2 year basis to afford opportunities for local students and artists to create new work Artists-led activities from mosaic planters to nature walks offer exciting ways for the public to meet working and engage in the creative process. In 2022, the ViBe nonprofit coordinated with local schools for a student -artist led Paint the Parking Lot Day where 17 new ground murals were added in a City parking lot and 8 sculptural murals were painted along 19th St on newly installed Neighborhood Indentifier Structures.