ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, December 18, 1996 TAG: 9612180020
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: BECKLEY, W.VA.
SOURCE: MADELYN ROSENBERG STAFF WRITER
You could call it the mother of all rest stops - but then you'd be insulting the 1,300 artisans who display their wares in this round building with the red winged roof, conveniently situated alongside the West Virginia Turnpike.
Officially, this place is called Tamarack, named for an Appalachian larch, which looks like a pine but sheds its needles in the fall. It makes for sturdy wood for barn floors and support beams in coal mines.
"Durable, practical, unique," intoned Liz Thompson, spokesman for the facility that is retail store and gallery, theater and eatery. "We believe that describes West Virginians, too."
Tamarack, which cost upward of $16 million to build, opened its doors in May for tourists who stop along the highway or who travel here especially for the made-in-West Virginia crafts.
The goal was to attract 500,000 visitors in the first year of operation; as of the end of October, 414,000 people had wandered through the front doors.
Another goal of Tamarack, located 90 minutes from Blacksburg and designed to look like a circular quilt pattern, is to eliminate some of the stereotypes about the Mountain State.
"I think everyone's familiar with people's stereotypes," said Thompson, seated on a two-person, woven pine chair ($650). "A few key words come to mind. 'Hillbilly.' 'Outhouse.'''
Thompson believes many people have no idea what West Virginia is really like, though its roads are well-traveled: the state estimates 26 million people will pass by Tamarack in a given year.
And so West Virginia is hoping that the crafts and programs at this cultural center will get people to park their cars and trucks and minivans. And they hope, too, that people will be surprised by what they find inside: ornate desks and wool hats, silver jewelry and bath oil.
"Everything's so pretty - but expensive," said Elizabeth Waddell, who lives in nearby Beaver, and recently checked out Tamarack for the first time. "I'll bet people don't expect that from West Virginia. I'll bet they expect to see people smoking corn cob pipes."
Crafts range in price and design.
For $10 or less there are mugs and dolls and jars of apple butter.
There are pricier items like quilts and what looks like an elephant-shaped magazine rack, made out of coils and springs and other discarded mechanical items, for upward of $100.
You can buy a set of hand-carved measuring spoons for $24.50, a banjo-strumming marionette for $79.
A handmade marble costs a quarter, a bronze sculpture of an American eagle in flight costs $12,000.
That sculpture, by Burl Jones, is the most expensive item at Tamarack. Another of Jones' items - a coffee table with bronze fisherman in the center and real fish swimming under glass - sold earlier this year for $12,500.
The eagle, Thompson said, will sell one day, too. "There's no doubt in my mind."
A boon for artisans
In the lobby of Service Cleaners, a dry-cleaning shop in Princeton, is a shelf of hand-crafted bowls, mugs and jugs with an indigo glaze.
The pottery is the work of Dina Brown, whose studio, floors coated with red clay, is in the back of the building.
Once a part-time potter and full-time teacher, Brown is now making her living solely on her craft. Tamarack has helped by giving her steady orders and money up front - some $15,000 this year.
The center operates on a $6 million budget, and with that buys most of the crafts outright. Consignment is reserved only for extremely pricey and risky items, like Jones' eagle.
"Before Tamarack, most artists and craftsmen in the state made their living on the circuit - at arts and crafts shows," Brown said. Tamarack runs a juried system, making stops at four places across the state each year to judge the artisans' work.
Now that she's been accepted into that system, Brown said, she can "sit here and make pots. Now I deliver it instead of hustle it."
Brown goes through 800 pounds of clay each year, kneading it to get rid of the air pockets, turning out soup tureens for Tamarack and other shops.
Her motions are smooth as she pulls the clay into a small tower on the wheel; her grooves are even, like a record album. The secret, she said, is to stay nice and steady and "to be able to listen to the clay because it will tell you when there's a thin spot."
For artist Mary Kay Barnes, Tamarack has been a means of paying for her daughters' private school.
She used to display her work - pen and ink note cards - at arts and crafts shows or on consignment. "Maybe I'd get paid, maybe I wouldn't," she said.
At Tamarack, she gets paid up front in cash - and in visibility.
"Now, shops call me," she said. "People order cards. They want to know about other things I do."
Aaron Yakim, a basket weaver from Parkersburg, worked full time as an artisan long before Tamarack, though the facility now accounts for about 10 percent of his yearly income.
He spends his days splitting wood, again and again, until his strands are thin enough for weaving.
Recently, he did his work in one of Tamarack's open studios, demonstrating his craft for visitors.
To make these white oak baskets, he said, you have to start with the perfect tree - a young, fast-growing oak, that stands straight and is about 8 inches around.
He finds these trees himself, he said, and can turn 20 baskets from one oak. "No one knows what to look for except me." he said.
In exchange for his demonstration time, Tamarack puts him up and takes care of his meals.
The center's food court is managed by West Virginia's premier resort, The Greenbrier, and lunch items - which stay below $5 - range from pizza and barbecue to chicken sandwiches slathered with peach preserves and fried green tomatoes.
Some people stop just to eat.
A state attraction
The term "Tamarack" moved from forestry textbooks to state travel brochures in the early 1990s, soon after Gov. Gaston Caperton took office with a mission to expand tourism.
At first, Tamarack was used to describe the system of purchasing crafts from artists and selling them at travel plazas set up by the West Virginia Turnpike Authority (now the West Virginia Parkways Authority).
That paved the way for a state craft center, to be funded in part by sales at the travel plazas, in part by construction bonds.
This year, Tamarack opened its doors to pomp, circumstance and a little criticism.
Many found the 59,000-square-foot building, with its brick walkways and outdoor nature trails, to be beautiful. There is little dispute, at least, about the inside, replete with stained glass windows, skylights and lots of open space. The doors on the art gallery - a combination of stained glass and intricate wood carvings - could just as well hang on the gallery walls.
But the red roof has reminded others of Howard Johnson's, and certainly Tamarack has a different look from the traditional, squared-off buildings that surround it.
"It took a little getting used to for some people," said Beckley's Carole Busick, her arms laden with Christmas presents. "That's because it's unique. I think the uniqueness makes it."
Some West Virginians found fault with the millions of dollars spent on the building, which includes a 200-seat theater for state performers.
And a few legislators have vocally opposed the Parkway Authority's role in the tourism and economic development business.
But the cultural center had its grand opening in May nonetheless, and has met most of its projections. By the end of October, Tamarack had sold $3 million worth of retail goods and food. After one year of business, Thompson, the cultural center's spokesman, expects to have seen 800,000 visitors.
This fall, a delegation from Japan visited the center, in hopes of using it as a model for a cultural and arts center in Gufi Prefecture, Japan.
Thompson said she's also responded to inquiries from Texas, North Carolina, New York and Kentucky.
In Virginia, some artisans have complained that the state hasn't done enough to draw attention to their goods, though progress has been made at the regional level.
Carthan Currin, a Rocky Mount hotel manager, who is on the board of directors for the state's newly formed Virginia Tourism Corp., said his group will look at crafts and where they fit with the rest of the state's tourism attractions.
"We all know the popular destinations in Virginia - Virginia Beach, Williamsburg, the theme parks," Currin said. Craft centers are attractions that could make guests stay in the state longer, and of course, spend money, he said.
Martha Steger, who returned last week from promoting an exhibit of Virginia crafts at the American Craft Museum in New York, agreed.
West Virginia doesn't have Jamestown or Williamsburg or Busch Gardens or the beach, said Steger, director of promotions and media development for Virginia Tourism Corp. The Mountain State's strengths are crafts and recreation and officials promote those things well.
"Virginia has recreation and crafts, too," she said. "But since 1927 when the state started advertising tourism, we looked at " She paused to gaze at the old advertisements on her office wall. "Here's an ad for Natural Bridge, Virginia Beach, Monticello, the scenic Southwest I know people see this very visible thing across the state line. But [in Virginia] our job is to get people into the state and once they get here, opportunities of shopping for crafts will be evident."
She said the state is open to marketing proposals from artisans as well.
"The B&B group came together. The ski resorts came together, and all of the golf courses in state. Maybe the craftsmen will approach us with something."
LENGTH: Long : 183 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: NHAT MEYER Staff. 1. Cody Legg and hisby CNBgreat-grandmother, Glenna Kiszka, admire a sculpture named ``Freedom
Flight,'' which, at $12,000, is Tamarack's most expensive item. 2.
Among the more affordable articles are hand-carved wood figures
(left) from Mountain Top Craft Shop and 3. marbles (above), which
sell for 25 cents apiece. 4. Architects designed Tamarack (right),
which opened in May, to look like a circular quilt pattern. 5.
Inside, artisans like basket weaver Aaron Yakim display their
crafts. color. Graphic: Map by staff. color.