
STAUNTON — Barbara Bernstein first discovered a love of art in elementary school. In fourth grade her teacher recommended her for a Saturday art program at the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh. Her dad drove her 40 minutes, both ways, to the program for years.
That developed a lifelong love of art, leading her to the Rhode Island Institute of Design and a career in teaching art throughout the world. The last stop in her teaching career was the University of Virginia. Bernstein never tried to persuade her students on what type of art they should pursue. She only wanted to encourage them to live a creative life.
Bernstein and her husband, David Garratt, moved to Staunton from Amherst about a year and a half ago. Both are artists.
“We’re just so happy being here,” Bernsetin said. “There’s such a vibrant artistic community here with the theater and the film festival and the visual…