
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, April 5, 1994                   TAG: 9404050067
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-3   EDITION: METRO  
SOURCE: KEVIN DANIELS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

ART MUSEUM DIRECTOR RESIGNS

The Art Museum of Western Virginia board of trustees announced Monday that Executive Director Ruth Appelhof has accepted the same position with the Minnesota Museum of American Art in Appelhof St. Paul, Minn.

Her resignation is effective May 18, and she will start her new job May 23.

The new position, at what Appelhof terms "one of the top 10 cultural centers in the U.S.," will allow her to see her son and his family more often, but she said she will miss the people of Roanoke.

"Everyone - my co-workers, the board of trustees, the patrons - has been wonderful to me from the start," Appelhof said. "Leaving them is the worst part of leaving."

Appelhof arrived in Roanoke in 1989 and began working to enhance the museum's reputation, spearheading numerous fund-raising drives to allow the museum to sponsor prestigious exhibitions. Major shows curated by Appelhof include "The Common Wealth" and "Mardi Gras to Manhattan: Fritz Bultman."

Appelhof said she particularly enjoyed assembling the Bultman exhibit, which opens April 30. Bultman was an abstract expressionist from New Orleans whose work was extensively exhibited in his lifetime but has not been seen much since his death.

"I'm very excited about bringing his work back to a museum where it can be re-evaluated," Appelhof said.

She also oversaw the expansion and renovation of the museum at Center in the Square, redesigning exhibit spaces, the Art Museum Store, the collections storage area, the library and the museum's education wing. Under her direction, state funding of the museum increased, and attendance grew from 55,118 in 1988 to an estimated 210,198 this year.

Educated at Syracuse (N.Y.) University, in 1984 Appelhof was named curator of painting, sculpture and graphic arts at the Birmingham (Ala.) Museum of Art. She has taught at Syracuse University and Cayuga (N.Y.) College, as well as at the University of Alabama in Birmingham.

by CNB