Cindy Petersen is the longest tenured executive director of Roanoke’s flagship museum, the Taubman Museum of Art.
Written by Christy Rippel. Cindy Petersen has held the top job at the Taubman Museum since 2018.
But talking to her, you’d never know it wasn’t her first year on the job, her enthusiasm still evident in her ninth year at the helm.
“The museum is a community convener. We’re proud of that,” said Petersen. “I’m still looking to and planning for the future along with the fantastic staff, bringing in world-class art and further building our permanent collection. I have a huge passion for the arts and for the community here.”
Petersen moved to Roanoke with her husband and three small children in 2006 and found the Star City to be livable and welcoming, offering a strong artistic community and a bevy of outdoor offerings. After living abroad in Germany, where Petersen’s husband and mother are from, the family quickly acclimated. “In Germany we did a lot of hiking, and we had that opportunity here,” she noted.
The entire family got involved with Southwest Virginia Ballet, and all danced in The Nutcracker for more than a decade. Though the children have grown, Petersen and her husband still participate. Peteresen, an accomplished tap dancer, often dons her tap shoes when she delivers a keynote speech, and when we spoke, she had just returned from a tap dance festival in Austin, Texas.
Before landing at the Roanoke museum, Petersen followed a weaving path through the art and business worlds. An Omaha, Nebraska native, she graduated from the University of Nebraska, with a degree in international business. She embarked on a fellowship in Germany before getting a master’s in education from Harvard. She worked abroad in consulting for major companies like Oracle and Bristol Myers Squibb, but felt a pull to the artistic life, honing her dance skills along the way.
“I moved to the countryside and I danced with live bands,” Petersen said. “I performed with a number of groups—jazz, modern, and tap dance.”
After a stint at Arts for Learning Virginia as a regional director, Petersen’s first role at the museum was as deputy director of education and visitor engagement, working to redesign Art Venture, the museum’s interactive children’s center. She created focus groups and solicited feedback to create the 14-station, continually evolving space where kids can draw, paint, and engage in a way that connects them to the current exhibitions in an age-appropriate way.
“The arts are not only healing, but they help us gain a different perspective, a different lens,” said Petersen. “It’s purposeful play at Art Venture, to open up new curiosity and observation.”
Art Venture is one of the many outreach programs that excites Petersen, who also points to the workshops for all ages, youth camps, professional development for teachers, and senior programming as ways the Taubman impacts the community. Annual events such as Roanoke Arts Pop, held the first weekend in March and the Sidewalk Art Show, held in May, also bring crowds to the museum’s door.
Petersen’s current role allows her to explore and stretch her creativity while calling upon her business acumen for the left-brained side of the job. She’ll be needed as the Taubman embarks on a busy fall season, celebrating the museum’s 75th anniversary in November. A 75th birthday party, behind-the-scenes tours to never-before-seen parts of the building, and a time capsule installation are planned, but general admission is still free, a commitment the museum has made to the Roanoke community. In 2025, it was recognized as the third-best free museum in the nation by Newsweek Readers’ Choice Awards.
To find out more about the Taubman Museum of Art and to access the events calendar, visit taubmanmuseum.org.
The story above first appeared in our September/October 2026 issue.
