Karen Newton

3 days ago | styleweekly.com | Karen Newton

“This is not my art,” was Michelangelo’s succinct response when Pope Julius II asked him to paint a simple, geometric composition with the 12 apostles on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. The artist was clear that he considered himself a sculptor, not a painter. Marking the 550th anniversary of Michelangelo’s birth, a new exhibit, “Michelangelo: The Genesis of the Sistine,” also celebrates the newly renovated and expanded Muscarelle Museum of Art at William & Mary.

4 days ago | styleweekly.com | Karen Newton

Often, wellness festivals are destinations. Attendees fly to faraway locations while big name presenters are flown in to lead classes and presentations for large crowds of people. But how do we continue that wellness journey once home? Rick Plautz, the founder of Rest Fest 2025, knew there was a lot going on in Richmond’s wellness scene, but he also realized that it took a lot of effort to find it. In 2023, he was inspired to try to create an event to showcase local wellness talent.

2 weeks ago | styleweekly.com | Karen Newton

It’s as if the garden visitor is in Alice’s Wonderland and has imbibed the bottle labeled “Drink me.”The enormous flowers that make up Bethany Allen’s “Four Friends” at Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden are oversized versions of four Richmond native plants—elderberry, serviceberry, swamp milkweed and sochan—with each surrounded by live versions of the flower. Allen has crafted the large-scale fabric flowers as a reminder of their value as sources of food and medicine for humans.

1 month ago | styleweekly.com | Karen Newton

On a beautiful spring day when scads of visitors are walking Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden’s grounds, consider slipping away for a bit to check out the library’s latest exhibit, “Garden Ink.” It’s so Richmond. As one of the most tattooed cities in the country, Richmond employers inevitably have staff with ink. Even 20 years ago, some employers required that public-facing staff wear long sleeves to cover tattoos at work.

1 month ago | styleweekly.com | Karen Newton

As a Black person living in Hanover County, Jody Lynn Allen always wanted to learn the stories of the people who came before her. A native of Hampton, an assistant professor of history and the Robert Francis Engs Director of the Lemon Project: A Journey of Reconciliation at William & Mary, Allen’s research interests cover the U.S. Civil War through the Long Civil Rights Movement—the years between the 1930s and 1970s—with a focus on Black agency.