Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, April 17, 1990 TAG: 9004180476
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: E1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JEFFDeBELL STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
It was said to be the first time a symphony orchestra had ever performed in Franklin County.
Some 700 music lovers, perhaps weary of being reminded that the county is known more for moonshine than Mozart, turned out to relish the moment of highbrow history.
"I've had people stop me on the street to say how much they enjoyed it," Jean Bernard said.
Bernard is president of the Franklin Guild, which raised the $6,500 it cost to bring the orchestra to town. It was an impressive debut for an organization only a few months old.
"We would like to make this the start of a grand tradition," orchestra conductor Victoria Bond told her board at its March meeting.
That would be fine with the guild, which tentatively has booked the orchestra for a return visit next spring. In the meantime, it is on the lookout for other opportunities to import culture to Franklin County in the form of dance, theater, music and visual art.
The Franklin Guild is one of two new organizations at the core of a mini arts boom in the rural territory east and south of the Roanoke Valley. The other is the Smith Mountain Arts Council, which is linked to the Smith Mountain Lake 4-H Center at Wirtz.
Both groups say they are responding, at least in part, to the area's changing population. Retirees from big cities and city-dwellers with second homes at the lake are a growing demographic factor. They're accustomed to "culture," and the arts council and guild are working to see that it's available.
"This is going to be a very, very interesting place 10 years from now," Rene Clark said. "It's already interesting. It's Virginia's own little melting pot."
She and her husband, Mike, run a graphic art business called Art House and a gallery called Another Roadside Attraction in an 80-year-old former general store and post office across from the volunteer fire department in Moneta.
Though the Clarks have family ties in the area, they are themselves part of the melting pot. They moved to Moneta 2 1/2 years ago from the Hampton Roads area, where they had met while studying commercial art in community college.
Mike's intention was to go into construction with his dad. His wife was going to sell real estate. Those plans quickly fell away when word got out that they could paint. Since then, the Clarks have been kept busy filling orders for signs, murals and "faux finishes."
"We were going to make lots of money," Rene Clark said, "but now we're back to being starving artists."
Virtually everyone passing through Moneta sees their work, though usually without being aware of it. The red brick facade of the fire department turns out to be an illusion; the bricks were painted onto the concrete shell by Mike and Rene. They are painting a "carpet" onto the floor of a client's home.
The Clarks opened their two-floor gallery last September. It contains antiques, imports, gifts and the work of mostly local artists and craftspeople.
One of the artists is Martha Seidel, a gifted and largely self-taught watercolor portraitist who also lives in Moneta.
"If you had told me there could be two art galleries out here that seem to be fairly successful, I wouldn't have believed it," said Seidel, a Franklin County native.
Her work can also be seen in The Little Gallery, a lakeside shop at nearby Bridgewater Plaza. It is owned by Carol Swain of Hardy and Rory Parnell, who lives in Raleigh, N.C., and has a second home at Smith Mountain Lake.
Swain well remembers the reaction of friends and associates when she told them of plans to open the gallery two years ago.
"It was a joke," she said. " `An art gallery in Moneta? Who's going to buy art in Moneta?' "
Plenty of people, it turned out. Swain said business was good the first year, especially during the summer months, and twice as good the second.
"You get people moving here from all over the country," she said one recent morning, while carpenters hammered a new deck into existence outside the gallery windows. "They love art, and they're happy to find there's art here."
Like Another Roadside Attraction, The Little Gallery specializes in the work of regional artists and craftspeople. The proprietors seem to think there's enough business for both galleries.
Swain and the Clarks have something in common besides their work. Along with about 115 other people, they are members of the Smith Mountain Arts Council.
The council aims to provide opportunities for those living in the lake area to enjoy the arts both as spectators and participants, to support and promote the arts in the area and to coordinate the various visual and performing arts events.
The council grew from the convergent agendas of Jettie Harris and Mark Humphrey. Harris, a New Jersey emigrant, organized and conducted a patriotic cantata called "Liberty" at the lake last July. When it was over, her choir didn't want to disband.
At about the same time, Humphrey was looking for ways to expand the community involvement of the 4-H Center, of which he is director. He got in touch with Harris, and the council eventually grew from their association.
The organizers spent the winter assessing the need for the council, discussing possible activities and choosing a name. In February, it adopted bylaws and officers.
Harris' choir went on to organize itself as The Choral Society and to become the first arts organization under the council umbrella. It gave a Christmas show that drew 200 people despite foul weather. The hope is to organize similar production groups in other disciplines.
Marty Overton-Davidson, the artist who chairs the council's committee on the visual arts, said her group is laying plans for a regional art show somewhere on the lake this fall. Dinner theater is another possibility, though theater committee chairwoman Beth Hoover said the idea is "just abornin.' "
Established groups like Bedford's Little Town Players and the Bedford Choral Society have been invited to send non-voting representatives to the council board. So have the Franklin Guild and Ferrum College.
Though self-sufficiency is the council's eventual goal, it is associated with the 4-H center for now. The center fronts money for council events and is reimbursed from proceeds.
A Feb. 2 "cabaret" helped raise money, too. Among other acts, a group of local "bag ladies" danced the can-can and Jettie Harris sang "Send in the Clowns."
The Franklin Guild began to take shape at about the same time as the arts council. There was some fear at first that the groups might get into competition, but that faded when it became evident their objectives differed.
The council is production-oriented, interested in cultivating local talent and providing outlets for it through exhibitions and performances. The guild is oriented more toward bringing the arts into Franklin County from outside.
People have talked about something like the guild for years, Jean Bernard said, "but they've never been serious enough to sit down and work it all out."
They got serious last spring, motivated in part by knowledge of the successful New River Friends of the Roanoke Symphony. It was strengthening ties with the orchestra and laying the groundwork for its concerts in Radford and Blacksburg.
The guild was envisioned solely as a symphony support group, but it became clear at organizational meetings that interest in the arts was not only intense but varied.
"One thing led to another, and we decided we'd support all of the arts," Bernard said. "We just felt we could be of more use to the county by broadening the focus."
Ferrum College and county school administrators have been active in forming the guild, which held its first formal meeting in June.
"We're interested in encouraging people who're interested in culture," said Jody Brown, head of the fine arts division at Ferrum. Brown is on the boards of both the guild and the arts council.
The college secured a $3,500 state grant to help the guild import the Roanoke Symphony. It has applied for other grants for the guild and has offered to let the arts council use Ferrum cultural events for membership development.
With the symphony concert behind it, Bernard said, the guild is looking for other projects and preparing its first formal budget. There are standing committees on publicity, membership, projects and corporate sponsorships.
The guild has a membership of about 200, about three-quarters of them families. Included are some people who also are in the Smith Mountain Arts Council.
"We'll try to work with them all we can," Bernard said. "We hope we can bring all the people together."
***CORRECTION***
Published correction ran on April 18, 1990\ Because of errors by a copy editor and a reporter, the name of Thee Chorale Societe was misspelled in a story about Arts at Smith Mountain Lake, published in Tuesday's Extra section.
Memo: CORRECTION