Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, September 26, 1993 TAG: 9309240011
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: SETH WILLIAMSON CORRESPONDENT
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
If Christiansburg's Palette Art Gallery had a motto, it would be something like that.
Handle it. Evolve and adapt. Damn the torpedoes, full steam ahead. Just do it.
The oldest gallery around, the Palette opened more than three decades ago in the spring of 1961. In the intervening 30 years, the artists and art lovers whose sweat and dedication have kept the institution going have done what needed to be done to keep those doors open.
That's meant thousands of hours of unpaid work. When Interstate 81 siphoned off lucrative tourist trade from the original U.S. 11 site, the gallery managers learned to market locally.
When the public began demanding prints, they reconsidered their policy of selling only originals. In June they started taking VISA and MasterCard. And would you believe an incredibly trusting layaway plan?
"A lot of people have been able to buy art through our layaway who otherwise wouldn't have been able to do so," said Fran Carlson, who is first among equals in the Palette's team of volunteers.
"Other galleries have done this, but they're not as trusting as us. We usually let the person take the piece at first."
You mean, take the picture home and finish paying later?
"Well, we've only lost one painting that way," she said almost apologetically. "Oh, and three small bad checks, all from out of state. Basically it's worked out fine."
The Palette is distinguished not merely by longevity. From the beginning, it was a cooperative enterprise among artists and art lovers, not the money-making venture of a private gallery owner.
"When it opened in 1961 it was a not-for-profit venture. Everything was on consignment, and that's still the way it is," Carlson said.
Artist Vance Miller, who remains one of the gallery's top drawing cards, was a founder. Others included Virginia Simpkins of Christiansburg and Ruth Fisher. The original building was next to Stuckey's at what was to become exit 118 on I-81.
"The first few months of that summer, almost nobody was there," Carlson recalled. "The lady next door had a bell, and then we had a lady, Miss Elva Mitchell, and she came to work after the first few months and worked until about six years ago for nothing more than her cab fare."
Carlson's message now is: "We're still here." The original building, which had two rooms and a porch and no indoor plumbing, was torn down in June. It had no heating or air conditioning and was closed in winter.
It always lacked adequate parking, and, Carlson said, when it was demolished workers discovered it was "shredded by termites" inside.
"Some people think we're gone because they saw the old building being torn down, but we're still open for business," she said. The current building, just a few feet from the original, was bought by a friend of the gallery and Palette is renting the space.
At any given time, the work of about 30 artists hangs in the small frame house, which features unaccustomed luxuries such as running water and an indoor bathroom. Carlson says the big draws are Vance Miller, Harold Little, Helen Grant and Robert Tutwiller.
P. Buckley Moss, now possibly the biggest name in the world of middle-brow art, sold works for $10 and less at the Palette when her career was beginning.
Asked to describe the gallery's style, Carlson said, "`Traditional' comes to mind. We've tried artists that are not traditional. But if an artist hasn't had any action in a year, then we have to call them and tell them to pick up their work."
Besides marketing to the mainly middle-of-the-road tastes of New River Valley art lovers, the Palette's price philosophy is "keep it affordable," with pictures ranging from downright cheap to the upper end of moderate. Pictures now hanging in the gallery are priced from under $10 to $4,500.
A canvas by Harold Little is priced at $4,200 and a piece by 80-year-old impressionist Vance Miller has a price tag of $4,500, but both artists also produce works priced in the low hundreds.
Fincastle artist Harold Little exhibits at Gallery III and the White House Gallery in Roanoke, but says he has a special spot in his heart for the Palette.
"I have unlimited praise and enthusiasm for the kind of explosion of brand-new stuff that's going on there," said Little. "They've got lots of new work, they've broadened their horizons and encouraged new people to come in, and I'm humbled that I'm allowed to exhibit there."
Co-founder Vance Miller, whose work is exhibited in Georgia, Tennessee and Maryland, said Carlson and her husband, Gene, "are just great people. The gallery has had all kinds of artists, and we now have paintings hanging all over the United States and in foreign countries."
The biggest threat to the Palette's existence came when I-81 opened in 1972 and the New-York-to-Florida tourist trade on old U.S. 11 mostly vanished.
"That was the year I got involved, and it was the pits for the gallery," recalled Carlson. "Ruth Fisher got together a group of people who were good customers and we all wondered, `What are we gonna do; how can we keep on?'"
The answer was aggressive local marketing. The Chamber of Commerce recommended the Palette to visitors, and the gallery placed signs on I-81 at the same time the outdoor drama "The Long Way Home" began snagging tourists the same way.
Though times are better now, frugality and volunteer labor are still the watchwords at the Palette.
"Nowadays we have as many volunteers as we can get. . . . We have one intern from Virginia Tech, and other people work one or two days a week," said Carlson, who spends two days a week at the Palette.
On her mind much these days is the search for new artists who might eventually be able to fill the shoes of local superstar Vance Miller, who will be 81 in November.
"We really have to think about finding a drawing card, because now Vance really is the drawing card for the gallery. Robert Tutwiller may or may not take over in that respect, but we're always looking for artists. I'm always going over to Radford and Tech and seeing students' and professors' work, but so far nobody has the charisma of Vance."
Memo: ***CORRECTION***