Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, May 10, 1990 TAG: 9005090308
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: E-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Jeff DeBell
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Pat's the one without the tattoos.
The photo was taken recently in Philadelphia. Pat was there to lead a group of Roanoke museum docents on a tour of certain art exhibits. She is the museum's director of education.
The tattooed couple was in Philadelphia for a convention of tattoo buffs, including many who had devoted large portions of their skin to the art. The convention happened to be in the same hotel where the docents from Roanoke were staying.
According to an amused Villeneuve, many of the docents seemed to be as interested in the tattoo crowd as in the fine art they'd gone to Philadelphia to see. In fact, she was pretty interested herself. When a couple curious Roanokers asked her to accompany them to the hotel bar where the tattoo-philes tended to gather, she was happy to oblige.
It was a good opportunity to take in learned remarks on such topics as "ritual scarification" and "wearable art," she said with a sly grin. It was also a good chance to mingle with the tattoo types and inspect their elaborate decorations, which they were eager to display even if it meant displacing or removing an article of clothing.
One such garment was a T-shirt bearing the legend: "Hell Yes It Hurt."
Later, while the Roanokers were on a bus, two of those wild and crazy docents asked Villeneuve to peek at their arms. They had "tattooed" themselves - with ballpoint pens.
Filling the sidewalk
According to the latest count, there will be 243 artists in this year's Sidewalk Art Show. The field will include 21 sculptors, among them Mimi Babe Harris.
The well-known artist and longtime exhibitor originally was told her application for space had arrived too late for her work to be included. She objected on grounds that it wasn't her fault, the sponsoring docent guild having mailed her prospectus to the wrong address. The guild, which runs the show as a fund raiser for the museum, subsequently found space for Harris.
The Sidewalk Art Show will take place June 2-3 in Elmwood Park, Crestar Plaza and along the grassy strips between the park and Church Avenue.
Making a name
The membership of Name Pending is delighted with the Roanoke City Art Show prize list. Three of the six winners of awards of excellence are members of the group: Rebecca Kaminsky, Jeff Steele and Ed Dolinger.
Name Pending is a still-young group of visual and performing artists formed for the purpose of mutual support, occasional collaboration and general hijinks in the name of art.
Its name derives from the fact that the membership couldn't think of a better one but wouldn't be averse to a change if one came along.
Dolinger's prize-winning piece, incidentally, is featured on the cover of Artemis XIII.
The annual journal of art, poetry and prose was published last month and is available at local bookstores and in the Roanoke Museum of Fine Arts Store .
Lime Kiln plans
Lime Kiln Arts, already planning a full play season plus two - count 'em, two - concert series this summer, has added still more to its program.
It's the Lexington outdoor theater's first Festival of American Movement, set for the first three weeks in June.
On the bill are the Ukelele Vaudeville Review, featuring music, mime, dance and juggling with a comic flair (May 31-June 2); the American Dance Theater, with a critically acclaimed anti-drug work called "Lost Luggage" (June 7-9); and the Seattle Mime Theater (June 14-16).
Bond in Florida
Victoria Bond was a big hit recently as guest conductor of the Tallahassee (Fla.) Symphony Orchestra.
Critic Chris Volak praised not only Bond's "sure baton" and credentials, but her effect on the audience.
"I heard more raves about her than I have about any of this year's other guest conductors," he wrote in the Tallahassee Democrat. ". . . if a poll of the audience were taken immediately after Friday's performance, Bond would have been the hands-down favorite."
Though Bond is under contract to the Roanoke Symphony through 1991, she's technically a candidate for conductor of the Tallahassee orchestra because that's what conductors have to do to get guest shots.
That's fine with Roanoke Symphony manager Margarite Fourcroy, who regards the glowing review as a favorable reflection on the Roanoke orchestra.
"I want her to be wanted everywhere," Fourcroy said.
Notes
Recent incidents involving issues of censorship and free expression in the arts have prompted the Contemporary Art Group (CAG) to propose guidelines for avoiding such incidents and dealing with them when they occur.
Copies of the guidelines can be obtained from the group at 818 13th St. S.W., Roanoke, Va. 24016.
Art in the Alley, an annual outdoor exhibit in Salem, will be 20 years old this September. Planning is under way to celebrate the anniversary with a special exhibit including not only the core of regulars but the artists who have been their guests over the years.
There also will be a memorial showing of the work of Emily Kelly and Blair Fishwick, both of whom were Art in the Alley exhibitors.
The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts has announced the names of the 14 artists whose work will be included in "Uncommon Ground: Virginia Artists 1990."
One is from Western Virginia. He is sculptor Robert Stuart of Rockbridge Baths. As in the museum's first biennial showing of the work of contemporary state artists, most of the remaining exhibitors are from the Richmond and Northern Virginia areas.
The show will open Oct., 23 and continue through Dec. 16.
Brown Bag Arts will be back for a fourth summer season.
The free lunchtime music and theater performances will take place in Crestar Plaza every Friday from June 22 through Aug. 24.
The series, so named because many audience members bring their lunches to the perfromances, is sponsored by The Arts Couincil of Roanoke Valley.
Idlewild, a traditional music group, will be the leadoff act.
by CNB