The story below is from our September/October 2022 issue. For more stories like it, Subscribe Today. Thank you!
COVID-19 left some scars, but the arts community continues to stand tall in the Star City.
By just about any measure, Roanoke’s arts community appears no worse for the wear from the COVID-19 attack over the past couple of years.
Fincastle’s Ed Bordett, one of the area’s most successful visual artists, tending his booth at the annual Sidewalk Art Show in Roanoke recently, pronounced the arts to be healthy. In fact, visual arts has become a favorite place to park money for the wealthy and sales have been steady. “People are asking artists, ‘Are you going to be famous?’ before investing,” laughs Bordett.
A recent study of arts in Roanoke and 340 other regions by Arts & Economic Prosperity 5, concludes that there is a lot of money, indeed, in the arts. In Roanoke, $64.2 million is generated in economic activity by the arts. That’s in a city of less than 100,000 people. Roanoke’s arts community supports 1,774 jobs, generates $41 million in household income and forks over $6.5 million in taxes.
Bill Elliot, president and chairman of the board of Davis H. Elliot, is one of those behind the formation of the Roanoke Cultural Endowment, whose goal is to raise $20 million to help support the arts. It had raised $4.2 million by late spring, though COVID slowed—nearly stopped—the money flow.
Shaleen Powell, who is directing the fund (and is a violinist in the Roanoke Symphony on the side), says, “Having a sustaining fund is part of the solution” in finding a way to consistently support the arts. The fund will “help assist with and predict future crises.” Fundraising “was on pause during COVID, but as life is opening back up, we can feel the momentum returning.” In fact, she says, new donors are appearing.
“If something is taken away,” says Powell, “it is appreciated more when it comes back.” Additionally, the COVID crisis “has forced organizations to learn how to incorporate virtual programs. [Roanoke] arts leaders have navigated this with flying colors.”
Roanoke Arts and Culture Coordinator Doug Jackson says that when he moved to Roanoke 18 years ago, “I was overwhelmed by the quality and quantity of the arts available.” And it is only getting better. In fact, Jackson has included Roanoke’s rich literary community for the first time. (See our profile on Doug Jackson and his work with public arts programs on page 36.)
Public art has been a fixture for more than 20 years and that includes murals on private buildings, as well as sculptures dotting the city and supported by Roanoke.
Additionally, Jackson’s group helps train artists in community development. “How do we use the arts to create a stronger community?” he says.
Dan Smith
Flat surfaces all around Roanoke are used as artists’ canvases and public art abounds.
Because of COVID, a good bit of federal money from the Shuttered Venue Operations fund has been pumped into the local economy to sustain organizations. For example, there was $700,000 for Grandin Theatre, $400,000 for Jefferson Center, $8 million for Berglund Center, among other grants.
That, says Jefferson Center Executive Director Cyrus Pace, gave organizations breathing room during the crisis, but that money disappears soon. Programming Manager Jamie Cheatwood saw patrons coming back “for a diverse and exciting season of world class performances. Attendees were more than ready for the return of live music, and several of our concerts quickly sold. Artists and music lovers shared an atmosphere of celebration with inspired performances and passionate responses from the audiences. Both are feeling a ton of gratitude.”
But there has been a glitch, says Cheatwood: “Confirming acts for the upcoming season has been a challenge due to the backlog of obligations most artists face after two years of postponements and cancellations. Additionally, the risk of touring still proves to be very real for some.”
Robyn Schon, GM of the Berglund Center, sees some of the same challenges. She says, “We’re doing very well, especially as compared to the past two summers. Suddenly, it seems every artist on earth decided to tour so it’s nice to have a very busy event calendar after all we’ve been through. This is an unusual time in our industry in that there’s more business out there than many facilities can accommodate without saturating the market. I hope that it stays this busy for many months to come because we have a lot of ground to make up after struggling for two years.”
The SVOG money, says Schon, “provided us with a lifeline to keep the lights on and put people back to work. That bleeds over into area businesses also benefiting from the business we attract. We employ over 250 people, not including volunteers, and to be able to provide work for them and inject some funds into the community would not have been possible without the SVOG.”
Like so many arts organizations, says Schon, “We’re doing more with less. We are still understaffed by about 20%, but we’re as busy as we were before the pandemic. [We have] taken on additional responsibilities in order to provide the level of service our clients and customers expect.”
Here’s how some other organizations are doing.
Opera
Brooke Tolley of Opera Roanoke says some things don’t change. “Opera is still seen as snobby” but “since COVID, we’ve seen a lot of new people who’ve never been here before.” It has been “tough to get loyal patrons to come back; some are nervous in the theater, but it is great to get to know people we have never known and this has been an extra-special year.
“As we go forward, we can do things to connect the community.”
But the challenge is a stiff one. “Opera is the most expensive art form,” she insists. “And we have to keep it affordable … like the price of a movie. If you can’t afford it, I’ll get you there. But that requires strong major gifts. We have to trust the process and play the long game.”
Roanoke Symphony Orchestra
Conductor David Stewart Wiley, celebrating 25 years at the helm, says COVID at its worst was “particularly tough on our musicians, but happily we are now back together at full strength. Since last summer we have been enjoying the gratitude and support of returning audiences to the concert halls for our diverse performances.
“We have expanded from three to four Pops programs, enjoy a successful Masterworks and Destination series, and returned to Elmwood Park with another free Music Under The Stars concert for the region.”
Musicians
Blues man Kerry Hurley, one of Roanoke’s iconic musicians, says, “Things are going pretty good right now for the music business in our area. A few new venues are opening up and existing venues have been hanging in there and are now coming back, so there are some bookings. Festivals and special events are coming back as well as people venturing out more and getting more comfortable with the new norm. We are lucky because our area has a lot of talent.”
Hurley emphasizes that “people need to remember to get out and support the little guys, the local guys. Pay $5 to see a local or regional band, many of which are fantastic.”
Live Theatre
Creative Director Ginger Poole of Mill Mountain Theatre, says, “MMT quickly formed a COVID task force with key health professionals on our board when the shutdown happened in March of 2020.” Full medical precautions “have been implemented and we continue to work to produce the best product. We have been able to continue our programming through the shutdown to the present. It may have looked different, depending on where we were during the past two-plus years, but we have continued to move forward.”
The landscape seems to be changing, she says. “We are seeing that more and more people are making decisions at the last minute and less ahead of time. For example, pre-sales, like season tickets packages, look different now than before COVID and single sales are more last minute purchases. I believe we need to continue to offer something for everyone and to continue to be flexible with our programming and our choices.”
Community theatre actor/director Linsee Lewis, says, “The hardest part about doing theatre in a post-COVID world is that everyone wants to play and there are only so many shows and roles at one time. People are still a little leery to come out and sit super close to someone they don’t know, so ticket sales aren’t what they were yet. The possibility of one cast member getting COVID and having to shut down the whole show (as Showtimers had to do) is terrifying.”
Smith Mountain Lake
Karen DeBord, co-president Smith Mountain Arts Council, which recently won a Perry F. Kendig Award for its efforts, says, “During the COVID lockdown period it was very difficult to fulfill our mission to bring the arts to the lake community. We cancelled many events.” Revenue stopped, but “we continued to offer our scholarships and pay instructors for the Junior Appalachian Musicians. We offered several programs through Zoom featuring writers, artists and musicians. We created a YouTube (SMAC tube) channel as an outlet for individual creative performances and created a weekly arts distraction for our members.
“We gave everyone who was already a member a few years’ membership. We lost a lot of members during that time and as we have opened back up, people have become unaccustomed to attending live performances. We are building back slowly [and] we learned a lot of new ways to operate but also are having to rebuild some of our infrastructure in terms of members.”
Movies
Executive Director Ian Fortier of the Grandin Theatre says that “though the movie business is on the rebound, it is only about 50% of the way back from where it was in the last full year prior to the pandemic. The loosening of COVID restrictions and the rise of public confidence in attending events in public spaces has helped accelerate the rate of rebound in movie-going attendance.
“With that said, industry professionals and experts do not predict a full rebound until well into 2023. To mitigate expenses and overhead, the Grandin is employing a three-day movie schedule for first-run films, open on Friday, Saturdays, and Sundays which compromise the bulk of weekly sales. This allows us to utilize the facility for private rentals during the week that address the needs of our community such as business seminars, nonprofit campaign launches, corporate events, birthday parties, anniversary parties, educational matinees, and a wide variety of other community-based functions.
Conclusion
Doug Jackson sums it up beautifully: “You need courage to do this. How we use the arts helps make us a stronger community. It’s community development.” In the finest sense.
The story above is from our September/October 2022 issue. For more stories, subscribe today or view our FREE digital edition. Thank you for supporting local journalism!