If there’s any theme to be gleaned from the fall’s arts and culture season, it’s something of a return to the classics — or at least looking to them for inspiration.

Maybe something about a big political season makes us contemplate who we are as a culture and consider what we’ve accomplished and what the future holds. Kind of like those black balloons you get for your 50th birthday. Celebratory, but reflective.

Either way, you’ll have plenty of choices for enjoyment.

On the following pages our team of writers and reviewers provides their early picks for the season, which include political photographs (“Stump” at Candela) and political dramas (“1776” and “Mother Courage and her Children”). There’s also Belle Boggs, a Richmond-raised writer whose celebrated new book explores motherhood. And the intertwining work of two famous painters at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.

“The arts and culture momentum we have is tremendous,” says Scott Garka, president of the nonprofit CultureWorks. “I’m behind the place-making strategy — the idea that if you make a city an attractive place that retains talent, the jobs will follow. You do that through arts and culture, the river, the restaurant scene, and people will come.”

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