Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, March 22, 1992 TAG: 9203190148
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: E-24 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JEFF DeBELL
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
At one point, the large field of applicants was narrowed to three promising candidates. All had impressive professional experience, search committee chairman Tim Berry told the council's board of directors, but none had the intangible something that would make the committee know he or she would be right.
"We just didn't think they fit," Berry said.
The position will be re-advertised locally and nationally, and the search committee will review all original applications to be sure nothing was overlooked. It now appears that there will be no executive director before July, instead of in the spring as originally hoped.
The new executive director will succeed Susan Cole Urano, who resigned in November to take a position in Ohio. Brook Dickson, formerly the council's program director, is ably overseeing its projects and office operations on a part-time basis.
The Virginia Commission on the Arts appears to have survived Gov. Douglas Wilder's attempts on its life, though it won't be entirely safe until the new state budget is signed and sealed.
Wilder first proposed abolishing the commission altogether, moving its functions into the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, as part of his campaign to reduce state spending. Arts groups howled - well, being arts groups, they politely raised their voices - and the guv backed off just a bit. He proposed keeping the commission alive but cutting its annual appropriation to $500,000 and reducing its staff to one (from six).
It was a laughable concession, one that still would have made a cultural joke of the state. Like the earlier plan, it also would have jeopardized important federal arts funding.
Fortunately, the legislature didn't go along. In the budget it adopted, commission funding was left at the current level of $1.5 million per year (less the 9 percent across-the-board cut that will hit all state agencies). That's not enough to rebuild the commission, which as recently as 1989-90 had $5.3 million annually to support its demonstrably effective programs, but it's a viable base from which to start. Of course, the commission cannot count on the money until the budget is signed by the governor.
Arts groups don't have a history of effective lobbying, but this time they came through with a strong campaign including letters and visits to legislators. The Arts Council of the Blue Ridge played a key role in the campaign.
"It was a tremendous success," said Peggy Baggett, executive director of the commission. "The legislators told us they got more mail on the arts than any other issue."
The 1992 class of Center Scholars took on video art and completed its assignment in impressive fashion.
The students spent two weeks making videos of their own, then showed them to a full house of friends and families at the Roanoke Museum of Fine Arts lecture hall. It was fine work, more than making up in honesty, originality and wit what may have been lacking in technical finesse.
Center Scholars are selected from senior high schools in the valley for hands-on art-making experience under the guidance of working professionals. This year, the guide was video artist Douglas Rosenberg. He allowed great autonomy, in accordance with the traditional Center Scholars approach to things, and the results spoke eloquently for themselves.
The program is more or less based at Center in the Square - hence the name. Coordination is expertly provided by the Arts Council of the Blue Ridge, and tuition is paid by the school systems from which the students are drawn.
It's an exceptionally fruitful educational investment.
Sponsors of the upcoming Peter Max exhibit at Studios on the Square are looking to borrow memorabilia to supplement the show of paintings and graphics by the man whose art colorfully defined the look of the 1960s.
Peter Max clothing, watches, posters, album covers, his vegetarian cookbook, ties - anything will be considered. Call Jim Cubby of V Magazine, which is sponsoring the exhibit. The number is 343-5138.
The Max show, incidentally, will be in May.
by CNB