Producing the Center for Cultural Vibrancy Stage at the Richmond Folk Festival is one of our most joyful endeavors and at the heart of our mission. In 2024, we—and about about 200,000 of our closest friends—celebrated the 20th anniversary of a festival that has a sense of community and togetherness…...
The East Coast gets “Swanktified” —A conversation with Swanky Kitchen Band’s Samuel Rose
We are still abuzz after producing this summer’s East Coast Tour of the Cayman Island’s cultural guardians, the Swanky Kitchen Band. The group knocked out audiences at the Lowell Folk Festival. They performed to a full Coolidge Auditorium at the Library of Congress and then were interviewed for the Archive…...
Join us at the 20th Annual Richmond Folk Festival
Time truly flies. It’s hard to believe, but the Richmond Folk Festival is celebrating its 20th anniversary this September 27-29th along the city’s beautiful riverfront. Each of CCV’s principal staff has been connected with the festival since it first came to Richmond as the National Folk Festival in 2005. CCV associate director Josh…...
CCV Returns to Ireland!
CCV is proud to join our partners at the Clifden Arts Festival to once again bring our spirit of cultural exchange and artistic inclusion to the west of Ireland! This year CCV will be accompanying a trio of stellar old time musicians—Danny Knicely, Riley Baugus and John Flower—to meet, collaborate and…...
Presenting Ustad Noor Bahksh, Master of the Balochi Electric Benju
This coming September and October, Noor Bakhsh, a legendary instrumentalist from the Makran coast of Pakistan will bring the electric benju to U.S. audiences for a rare performance of a unique and fascinating sound. The Markan coast is the semi-desert coastal strip of Balochistan on the Gulf of Oman. Noor…...
World Culture in Context – A Virtual Portal to the World
CCV launched a web tool that provides students the opportunity to learn about and directly interact with traditional artists from around the world! World Culture in Context (WCC), a program we have been refining since the pandemic, allows classroom students to visit artists in the places that have profoundly shaped…...


