Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, June 28, 1993 TAG: 9306280249
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RUTH STEVENS APPELHOF
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Certainly the exhibition is a fine opportunity for a selection of our area artists to become better known, and we are grateful for the excellent job the Arts Council of the Blue Ridge does in organizing the show each year. For those who prefer art exhibitions without outside scrutiny, the Sidewalk Art Show, organized each June for the past 35 years by the Docent Guild of the Art Museum, is a wonderful alternative.
As to Ms. Brigham's negative comments about the actual selection of works in the Roanoke City Art Show, I defer to the juror, John Perreault, who had been the head critic for the Village Voice and the director of a New York art museum before his current position as chief curator at the American Craft Museum. Mr. Perreault's broad world-view of contemporary art, his "educated eye," reinforces the notion of several thousand years that values judgments about art based on objective criteria. In his words:
"Jurying an exhibition is both troublesome and exhilarating - troublesome because it always takes more careful work than you imagined when you first agreed to participate; exhilarating because sometimes you come across very interesting art that you may otherwise have not seen. The latter was the case here. I was impressed by a great many of the entries. The fact that all media were represented made my task even more challenging. Humor was a strong tendency. I am still wondering why. Is it the region? Is it that now, here near the end of the 20th century, humor is needed more than ever? Here the viewer will see photography, painting, sculpture and craft on an equal footing; this is as it should be, for in each of these areas I found work that showed exceptional talent."
In addition to evaluating the art made in this community in a larger national context, having prestigious art-world figures involved in this enterprise has the potential for furthering some of our artists' careers. This happened recently when, after she spoke here, Fay Gold, owner of the leading gallery in the South, selected several area artists to exhibit in Atlanta. In addition, this museum has invited last year's best-in-show winner, Donna Essig, to mount a one-person exhibition here from July 7-Oct. 9, 1994 as one of our Norfolk Southern Foundation Virginia Artist series.
The installation of the show is the museum's responsibility and we do it with great care. Works on paper and fabric are extremely sensitive to light, and therefore are safer with less illumination. Small three-dimensional works are better presented closer to walls so that pedestals cannot be bumped or works joggled. While we, too, would have preferred more works in the exhibition, the selection is of the highest quality.
Of course, I agree there are many very fine artists in our community who are missing from this exhibition. I encourage all artists to continue to submit slides for inclusion. Since 1979, each Roanoke City Art Show has been very different, reflecting the diversity of the jurors we select and the works available for selection. Hundreds of artists have been included.
A possible solution for artists wishing feedback on their work is to have open critiques, scheduled by the arts council and led by highly regarded community artists, well before final selections are made. The arts council does a wonderful service for the community in organizing and promoting this exhibition, which is always a favorite of our visitors. I congratulate them and the City of Roanoke for their sponsorship.
To conclude, I am grateful to Ms. Brigham for pointing out how our city has the potential of being a regional art "mecca" with downtown warehouse and second-story space available for artists' studios and housing.
If the first step in economic development was the opening 10 years ago of Center in the Square, with its excellent resident museums and theaters, and the second was our recent pledge to reopen the Hotel Roanoke, then perhaps the next step is to make discounted rental space in downtown available to artists.
Five years ago, I saw a complete revitalization of the center city in Birmingham, Ala., as a result of a similar move by real-estate agents and property owners to welcome artists in locations such as those presently surrounding the Art Museum of Western Virginia. Let's make it happen here!
\ AUTHOR Ruth Stevens Appelhof is executive director of the Art Museum of Western Virginia in Roanoke.
by CNB