ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, April 11, 1997 TAG: 9704110010
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-10 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: SUSAN JENNINGS
AS ONE of 200 participants in the Roanoke city visioning process, I agree with Dan Casey's assessment (March 24 news article, ``Public offers 1,000 views to better city'') that there were many positive comments about Roanoke.
I applaud the city for giving citizens a chance to discuss areas where improvement is needed. However, I'd like to point out a common theme that was mentioned by virtually every group at the Quality of Life session but was absent in Casey's article and the list generated by the city.
Citizens are proud of the many cultural and artistic opportunities available in the city and have a strong desire that these be supported and enhanced. Completion of the Jefferson Center's performance hall was listed as a specific goal, but that worthy project is only one piece of the larger picture.
In 1994, more than 1,200 area citizens contributed ideas to Blueprint 2000, the community cultural plan published by the Arts Council and the product of one of the first visioning processes in the region. That plan demonstrated that arts and culture support 634 jobs and contribute more than $27 million annually to the regional economy. These figures were compiled as part of the economic-impact study coordinated with the Virginia Employment Commission.
The Arts Council is in the process of updating these economic-impact figures and compiling educational statistics that will numerically support the fact that cultural institutions provide essential services to area schools by supplementing our children's cultural education.
What I heard from every group on Feb. 1 was that our museums, cultural attractions, the zoo, the opera and the symphony are important to the quality of life, economic impact, tourism and our children's education. And the city should support, promote and enhance them.
Recognition of the importance of arts and culture to the region was voiced not only at the workshops and demonstrated in the original Blueprint study, but was stressed again through the Blueprint Progress Report, delivered to the community at a news conference the same day that the article ran. The timing was appropriate since the list of the cultural community's accomplishments in putting its vision into action in three years' time is extensive.
Through cooperative efforts, the cultural community has worked effectively to strengthen and stabilize programs - even with severely limited budgets and staff. Any of the groups currently doing similar visioning could learn a lot from the many talented professionals in the cultural field.
When Roanoke city begins to finalize its vision, I hope language calling for increased support for arts and cultural groups will be added to the list.
Susan Jennings is executive director of The Arts Council of the Blue Ridge.
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