Photo by Kyra Schmidt
“Bayou Bourbeaux Plantation,” 1940, from the collection of Walter and Sally Rugaber.
Walter and Sally Rugaber have been among Roanoke’s most prominent patrons of the arts for many years, but it is only relatively recently that they have become collectors of a certain school of photography. It’s one they’ve grown especially fond of.
The best of their photos—featuring artists like Alfred Stieglitz, Ansel Adams, Sally Mann (of Lexington) and Dorthea Lange—will be on display at the Richard Wetherill Visual Arts Center at Hollins University beginning Wednesday, February 20. The exhibition runs until April 18, capping with a lecture by Denise Bethel.
The exhibition is titled “20th Century Photographs from the Rugaber Collection” and features 53 black and white photos, including landscapes, architectural shots and portraits emphasizing life in the late 19th and 20th Centuries.
The Rugabers are both formal journalists and Walter was interim president of Hollins University 2001-2002 after Hollins’ president at the time died suddenly. Walter was on the board of trustees for 14 years. He was a noted journalist in the 1960s and 1970s, covering Watergate and the Civil Rights movement for the New York Times and later became publisher of The Roanoke Times.
The Rugabers met when both were reporters at the Atlanta Journal.
Sally Rugaber has been prominent as a supporter of the arts in the Roanoke Valley, serving on several boards of directors over the years.
They bought their first notable photos while on a visit to Santa Fe, NM, and Sally notes that “we certainly didn’t intend to become collectors. Somewhere in there we decided we loved those scenes from the 1930s and wanted more of them.”
The exhibit is partially sponsored by the City of Roanoke through its Arts Commission.
About the Writer:
Dan Smith is an award-winning Roanoke-based writer/author/photographer and a member of the Virginia Communications Hall of Fame (Class of 2010). His blog, fromtheeditr.com, is widely read and he has authored seven books, including the novel CLOG! He is founding editor of a Roanoke-based business magazine and a former Virginia Small Business Journalist of the Year (2005).