6 Cultural Life (continued 2)

SUMMARY

Literature reveals the everyday experiences of people as well as their dreams and aspirations. Personal diaries, journals and letters were frequently used during colonial days to describe ideas and events. Poetry was scarce but many scholarly articles, often historically inclined, were written. Political thinking soon became a favorite topic for written expression and biographies and essays became numerous. Edgar Allan Poe, a resident of Virginia from his adoption at the age of three, is considered the most original author for his creation of the modern short story and the detective story. Virginians also have contributed several historical and romantic novels. The distinguished history and picturesque setting of Virginia has furnished innumerable topics of interest for written or oral expression.

Art has flourished in Virginia from the handicraft of the early days to the plastic sculpturing of the present. In the colonial period, European artists often visited Virginia and used Virginia and her residents as their subjects. Later, Virginia artists began to study abroad and, upon their return home, engaged primarily in portrait and panorama painting. Edward Valentine created unusual, as well as fine, sculptures. Foreign artists as well as native artists have often used Virginia personalities and scenes as sources for their inspiration.

Although Virginia can claim only two separate types of original architecture—the Colonial type influenced by England and altered to fit the environment of Virginia and the Jeffersonian type originated through the artistic efforts of Thomas Jefferson himself—Americans and foreigners still visit and study these architectural types in an effort to imitate or perpetuate such desirable styles. The Commonwealth has a variety of standard forms of architecture.

Organs, harpsichords and violins were popular musical instruments in colonial days in Virginia. Gradually, American folk music, Negro spirituals, the founding of the "Etude" music magazine and the invention of the five-stringed banjo tended to increase and popularize music in Virginia. John Powell of Richmond is considered Virginia's greatest single contributor to the musical composition field.

From the Williamsburg Theater of 1716 to the Barter Theater of the present, Virginians have shared the spotlight, the hardships and the fame of plays, vaudeville, moving pictures, radio and television. The annual production of "The Common Glory," an historical drama, at Lake Matoaka Theater in Williamsburg attracts thousands of patrons.

Education, the "backbone" of cultural activities, is one of the most challenging current problems facing Virginia. Personal training in the home, apprenticeship training outside the home, the church and church school education, private tutoring and private and public institutions of education of the elementary, secondary and higher education level—all are significant milestones along the educational paths of Virginia. With the educational facilities expanding on all levels to meet the rapidly increasing enrollment, with teacher training becoming more specialized, with the improvement in standard courses and the addition of new courses of study and with larger legislative appropriations for education, education in Virginia provides more students with better opportunities for effective learning.

The changing pattern of everyday living can be recognized by observation and analysis of the literature, art, architecture, music, drama and education of a people. The inhabitants of the Commonwealth, consequently, have woven a particular pattern of their own from their contributions to these various phases of Cultural Life.