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

DATE: WEDNESDAY, August 10, 1994                   TAG: 9408100058
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV-2   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: By PETER S. WILLIS CORRESPONDENT
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

ARTS COUNCIL HOPING TO GET BUILDING FOR COMMUNITY CENTER

The New River Art Council wants a permanent community center to house a variety of art programs, and has its eye on a 40,000-square-foot building in Christiansburg.

The art center would contain a small stage, private studios, a gallery, a dance theater and other facilities. Space would also be provided for a senior citizens' center.

Even though the need for an art center is clear, the prospects of raising enough money to fund it are uncertain.

"We are not quite at the juncture [to decide] whether we will go through with this or not," Art Council President Ed Schwartz told those attending the organization's annual meeting Monday in the Montgomery-Floyd Regional Library in Christiansburg.

The art center - with an estimated annual operting cost between $100,000 and $120,000 - would be the largest project ever attempted by the council.

Negotiations are continuing over the Christiansburg building, which the group did not want to identify while talks were under way.

The project will not be possible, however, without financial support from local businesses, corporations or individuals, Schwartz said.

"It's a matter of getting the right people and the right resources," he said.

The council receives all its operating funds from dues, donations and fund-raisers.

The Art Council's budget from 1993-94 showed a deficit, according to Treasurer Linda K. Wilson, partially due to less revenue from dues. "This has been a spending year and not a fund-raising year," she said.

ArtBeat magazine accounted for a large part of the yearly budget, but it is essential to the mission of the council, Schwartz said.

"The reason for having ArtBeat is to highlight other organizations and the things that they do. This is their magazine."

Closer cooperation among the art council's affiliated organizations would enhance the council's ability to raise funds, said Diana Pickering, representing DiscoveryWorks in Radford.

The council also voted at the meeting to restructure membership categories, and re-elected Schwartz as president. Vice president Barbara Capps and Treasurer Wilson also were re-elected, and Connie Reed was elected as the council's secretary.

Rosalie Jurrisson and Kathy Harrison were elected as members-at-large to the Art Council's board of directors.

by CNB