Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, February 16, 1991 TAG: 9102160380
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: E-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Jeff DeBell
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
It's not because there are no deserving recipients - there are plenty - but because The Arts Council of Roanoke Valley can't afford to sponsor the award.
The council continues to be bedeviled by the economic pinch that already has forced it to cut its staff. Accordingly, it has begun to cut programs too. Gone, along with the Kendig Award, are arts project grants and the Valley Events newsletter and calendar.
The future of the popular Rainbow Splashes performance series for children is uncertain beyond the current season. The life expectancy of Brown Bag Arts, which for four years has provided free lunchtime entertainment during the spring and summer, is similarly in question. The estimable One Night Stands performance series is in danger of being at least redefined along less adventuresome lines. It has brought Lenny Pickett, Spalding Gray and the Kronos Quartet, among other memorable acts, to the valley.
Already, council director Susan Cole has had to endure the embarrassment of asking two of this year's One Night Stands acts to accept smaller fees than the ones originally agreed to.
Most other arts organizations, of course, are in the same predicament. It's the result of drastic cutbacks in state financial support and a concurrent shriveling of corporate and private contributions related to the state of the economy.
Executives of cultural organizations recently went on a retreat to discuss the crisis and how to get through it. One of the hot topics was new enterprises like the Jefferson Center and Arts Place at Old First, which represent new demands on the valley's much-strained charitable resources.
It's safe to say that existing cultural organizations are feeling less than neighborly toward new competition in the current fiscal climate. A position paper is thought to be forthcoming.
The arts council's first Fat Tuesday party didn't raise anywhere near $5,000, which was its admittedly optimistic goal. What it did do was announce itself as a promising annual good-time event for the February doldrums - an event that could generate real income for the council once people hear about the first party.
It featured vividly costumed revelers, dancing to live music, an auction of original masks by artists (one went for more than $200), bountiful Creole food from Charleys Downtown (site of the party), a rare indoor appearance by the Norman Fishing Tackle Choir and the memorable sight of club singer William Penn in a pink tutu.
Tonight's New River Valley Symphony Orchestra concert will be devoted to the music of black composers. The aim is to recognize Black History Month, conductor James Glazebrook said, adding that it is the orchestra's first such observance.
Glazebrook said the composers were selected not only for their contributions to black music, but because they represent significant connections between black music and the symphony orchestra. Duke Ellington, for example, is known for taking jazz into the symphonic concert hall.
The featured composers are Samuel Coleridge-Taylor ("The Bamboula"), William Grant Still ("Afro-American Symphony"), Ellington ("New World A'Comin' ") and George Walker ("Lyric for Strings"). They range across time from Englishman Coleridge-Taylor, who died in 1912, to Walker, who is still living.
The concert will be in Burruss Auditorium at 8 p.m. Tickets are $5 for general admission and $3 for students and senior citizens.
Though "adjustments" may be necessary in the future, the executive and artistic director of Mill Mountain Theatre says it is in a relatively good position for weathering the crunch.
"I want you to feel strong about the position of Mill Mountain Theatre," Jere Hodgin told his board of directors at its last meeting.
Hodgin credits the theater's decision of more than a year ago to stop adding programs and instead to "dig in and solidify our growth."
There will be adjustments as the fiscal crisis continues, he said, "but I don't think our adjustments will need to be radical."
> Since profit and loss statements are unseemly for nonprofit organizations, Mike Warner recommended (with tongue in cheek) this euphemism: "excess over deficiency from current endeavors."
Warner is chairman of Mill Mountain Theatre's finance committee.
> The Roanoke Museum of Fine Arts, which used to stay open on Friday evenings, has discontinued the practice as a cost-cutting measure.
The only exceptions will be on those Fridays when there is a play at neighboring Mill Mountain Theatre. On those occasions, the museum will remain open until 8 p.m. as a service to early-arriving playgoers.
People go to restaurants for food, of course, but they're also a good place to see original art. Three eateries in Roanoke have begun regular one-person shows.
The Tinker Creek Deli and Seafood, on Williamson Road near Hollins College, is showing Tim Shepherd's photographs. Works by painter Jim Huffard are on the walls at the New Market Grill on the Roanoke City Market. Art consultant Linda Atkinson is helping choose art for the restaurants, which will change their shows every six weeks.
Mill Mountain Coffee and Tea, on the Roanoke City Market, also is showing work by new artists on a regular basis. Art consultant Donna Hardy is choosing the shows. Sculpture and paintings by Pat West currently are being shown.
The Blue Muse, a club and restaurant that plans to open on the market in a few weeks, also will display the work of local artists.
Restaurants don't offer the same viewing advantages as museums and galleries. But in an area that is chronically short of exhibit space for artists, they're a help.
Michael K. Gorman has been named managing director of Washington and Lee University's new Lenfest Performing Arts Center.
Gorman is a Delaware native with degrees in theater and scenic design from the University of Illinois and Carnegie Mellon University. He has held management positions at the Pritchard Laughlin Center in Cambridge, Ohio, the Strand Theatre in Shreveport, La. and the Folly Theatre in Kansas City, Mo.
> Thomas W. Jones will be judge for Roanoke's 32nd annual Sidewalk Art Show, June 1 and 2.
Jones is executive director of the Danville Museum of Fine Arts and History.
Works by the late N.C. Wyeth will be shown at the Roanoke Museum of Fine Arts this summer.
Wyeth was one of the country's premiere book illustrators until his death in 1945. He also is the patriarch of a family of artists. Three of his five children became artists, the most famous being his son, Andrew, who still lives and paints in Chadds Ford, Pa. Jamie Wyeth, son of Andrew, also is a well-known artist.
The paintings to be exhibited are from Wyeth's work for "Poems of American Patriotism," which was published by Scribner's in 1922.
The show will open on July 3.
by CNB