The Academy Center of the Arts is Greater Lynchburg’s center for arts, culture, and community building. Our mission is to serve our community through arts and culture, and we believe that our programming is essential for a thriving community, as it can lead to improved grades for students, increased memory retention rates for seniors, and a decreased poverty rate.

Each year, the Academy engages tens of thousands of Central Virginians through stage events, arts education, facilities rentals, outreach, and galleries exhibits, which result in a significant economic impact on the Greater Lynchburg area.

The Academy’s Values

We hold ourselves accountable to our mission with three core values: community, creativity, and equity. These values help ensure that our arts programming is accessible to everyone in Central Virginia.

Community

We are a community of people from different races, ethnicities, classes, gender identities, sexual orientations, belief systems, and physical/mental abilities. We value the diversity of our community members and strive to serve them through the arts.

Creativity

We use the arts to empower others by encouraging self-expression, thought, and engagement within a safe space. In its many forms, art broadens our perspectives, provides us with numerous ways to communicate, and enriches our quality of life.

Equity

We aspire to be an inclusive organization for all by understanding our role in minimizing the barriers faced by many in our community. We will uplift marginalized individuals through intentional arts programming designed according to their needs.