Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, March 3, 1990 TAG: 9003023011
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: E3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JEFF DeBELL/STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
In a letter to be mailed to crafts artists, museum Director Ruth Appelhof said, "It is time for us to evaluate the project and make some changes. We sincerely regret not producing an event in 1990, but look forward to a new and different festival for 1991."
"I'm really shocked that they're quitting," said Roanoke jewelry-maker Peter Wreden, who has exhibited in the November show almost every year since it began.
Another artist, Pattie Neal of Salem, said, "It's a sad turn of events."
Though an important source of funds for the museum, the craft show always has been a project of the institution's volunteer Docent Guild. Appelhof and Dixie Wolf, president of the museum board of trustees, emphasized that the decision to suspend the show was not theirs but the guild's.
"It's up to the docents to come up with their own fund-raising projects," Wolf said. "We don't want to interfere. We support their decisions 100 percent."
In recent years, other craft shows have come along to compete for both visitors and artists. Attendance at the museum show has declined, and along with it the sales of exhibitors.
The competition was a factor in the decision to suspend the show. But Karen Wilson, president of the museum's docent guild, said the main problem was a shortage of volunteer workers.
"We don't have enough women to run it," she said.
Wilson said the show requires the efforts of about 25 volunteers working from January through November, but the pool of volunteer labor no longer will sustain such a drain.
"If you don't have the women to run it, it's virtually impossible to put it on," she said.
Last year's show produced about $28,000 for the museum. The income was the highest ever despite attendance of about half that of earlier years. The money came from ticket sales, raffles and fees paid by exhibitors for booth space.
Several new fund-raising projects are under consideration by the docents and the museum trustees' special events committee, though none is intended specifically to replace the craft show. The museum also is counting on significant income from its new shop, according to public relations officer Ann Masters.
The shop will be on the ground floor of Center in the Square, with an entrance from the City Market, and will be staffed by volunteers. It is under construction and is expected to open in mid-March, Masters said.
Pending the evaluation mentioned by Appelhof, no one is saying how the craft show will be changed in 1991, but there is no shortage of proposals. One most often heard is to open the show to fine art as well as crafts, following the example of numerous successful shows around the country.
It has been proposed that the show be moved from the Roanoke Civic Center to another place - the Roanoke City Market is among the locations mentioned - and another date; the show traditionally has been held the last weekend before Thanksgiving.
Finally, there are those who believe the show would profit from being run by a professional promoter instead of museum volunteers.
Wreden said there's "absolutely" a place for the show in Roanoke, provided its "failures of administration" are repaired. Neal agreed, though she had kind words for the efforts of the docents.
"I don't see it as a failed enterprise," she said. "I see it as a neglected enterprise."
by CNB