Featured
Washington County Residents are Art Smart
Residents of Washington County are fortunate to have numerous top-notch cultural institutions in their midst.
Barter Theatre
Perhaps the most famous is the historic Barter Theatre, an arts facility with a storied past and more than 160,000 visitors each year.
The Abingdon theater opened in 1933 during the Great Depression, when the price of admission was 40 cents – or the equivalent in food – a policy that gave the theater its distinctive name.
Today‚ the Barter Theatre... Read More »
Washington County Fair Is One of Virginia's Best
It began in 1950 as the Burley Tobacco Festival and Farm Show, and today is simply known as the Washington County Fair.
The fair today runs for six days in mid-September and draws more than 60,000 visitors to the Washington County Fairgrounds. The Virginia Association of Fairs named the Washington County extravaganza “The Best Overall Fair in Virginia for 2006.”
Activities include agriculture contests, cattle judging, carnival rides and country music concerts. Entertainers who have appeared in... Read More »
Virginia Highlands Festival Celebrates All Things Abingdon
The long-standing Virginia Highlands Festival has been celebrated in Washington County since 1948. The free, summertime event occurs for 16 days and 16 nights during late July and early August. The festival showcases 150 top artisans from all over the country who display their crafts on Abingdon’s Barter Green and on the lawn of the Martha Washington Inn. The event has garnered several accolades over the years, including Sunshine Artist magazine naming it one of the 200 best arts-and-... Read More »
Abingdon, VA's Historic Barter Theatre
Rich in historical significance and with an enduring cultural impact, the Barter Theatre in Abingdon has been entertaining audiences for more than 75 years.
Begun as a kind of entertainment-for-food swap meet during the Great Depression, the aptly named Barter would accept cash or produce for admission. The first stage sat atop the town jail and there were plenty of naysayers, but founder Robert Porterfield was able to make a success of the theater. That first year, in 1933, the Barter Company... Read More »
Abingdon Offers Art Education
Abingdon's residents have plenty of resources to keep themselves art smart. For starters, there's the William King Museum, a former school building turned focal point of the arts. Hailed as a center for art and cultural heritage, the museum also excels in education. It offers in-houses classes for both children and adults, and operates several school programs around the city. Abingdon is also home to the Arts Depot, home to the 300-member non-profit Depot Artists Association. Like the museum,... Read More »
STAR Museum in Abingdon, VA
STAR Museum
Walk the red carpet to a vast collection of celebrity clothing, pictures and effects at this unique museum. The star-studded collection at the STAR Museum ranges from the the mundane – clothing worn in films – to the bizarre, like Marilyn Monroe's signature on a U.S. Senate letter about an Antarctic treaty and Errol Flynn's swim trunks. The collection spans from 1915 to 2003. The oldest item is a black bonnet worn by actress Lillian Gish in the film “Birth of... Read More »
