Sunday, April 05, 2009
Giving voice to local arts and culture
Christian Trejbal
Recent columns
- Baptists might leave downtown Blacksburg
- A theater rises between town and campus
- Making sense of local elections
- Voters have only themselves to blame
From the RoundTable blog
Blacksburg Mayor Ron Rordam wielded ceremonial scissors on Wednesday, cutting the ribbon at the grand opening of the Community Arts Information Office.
"There's a lot of thought, work and practice that goes into it," he joked afterward about having not pinched a finger. All 10 digits safe, he turned his attention to the office.
"This is going to be a wonderful showcase of the arts downtown," he said. "We hope to continue to build and expand on it."
Building and expanding is exactly right, because that is what the arts have been doing in Blacksburg. The office, if it succeeds, could become the hub of a vibrant arts and culture community in the New River Valley.
The changes are visible across the street from the new office, which is in the former FedEx Kinko's spot next to The Lyric Theatre on College Avenue. There, Virginia Tech will soon finish building an experimental theater and outdoor venue at Henderson Hall. Talk of a larger performing arts center down the road continues.
Susan Mattingly, executive director of The Lyric, which spearheaded the arts office, sees opportunity for the local arts scene in all of that.
"If people are paying attention to what Virginia Tech can promote, one hopes they can look across the street and see that there's a whole world of arts and cultural offerings that aren't on campus. We're hoping to be that place," she said.
Yet Tech is a threat, too. Arts and culture groups need someone to provide a common voice, a place to get their message out lest campus events drown them out.
"It's a pretty well known need in the arts circles that we need a better way of promoting what we do to the public," Mattingly said. "The arts initiative is ramping up right across the street from us. There needs to be a place for community arts organizations to raise the profile of what they're doing."
Now they have the office.
The arts office includes space for nonprofit groups to set up shop. The Downtown Merchants of Blacksburg have already set up in one area. Their artistic connection comes through the many events they sponsor downtown that feature performing and visual arts, such as Steppin' Out and the International Street Fair, which took place Saturday.
The office also serves as a visitors' center of sorts. Anyone can enter and find out what arts and cultural events are taking place around town and the New River Valley.
The Roanoke Times will play a role in that. Amy Matzke-Fawcett, who writes about arts and culture in the valley, will hold office hours there on Thursday afternoons. Anyone can drop in and share ideas about arts and entertainment.
The paper's community calendar will also be available at a terminal in the office. People can check out what is coming up and submit their own events.
The renovations are good news for The Lyric, too. Before it took over the office, the only backstage space was a narrow hallway and small bathroom. That made live performances challenging.
Now, a multipurpose room in the arts office can serve as a changing room. Actors and musicians just need to mind the trapdoor that drops into the creek that runs under much of downtown.
The question remains, though, whether there is enough interest among residents and visitors to support the office. This is not the first attempt at a community arts office. A decade ago, one opened in the old Town Hall. It did not last very long.
Mattingly thinks things will be different this time. The Lyric offers name recognition and organizational structure, not to mention a revenue stream. The theater is a beloved institution that brings a base of support.
More important, this could be the right time for an office.
"We are at a tipping point," Mattingly said. "If you look across the street and see that construction, the whole arts initiative, the arts and cultural district that the town passed a couple of years ago, things are moving forward."
The New River Valley does not need the arts. It does not need cultural venues, galleries and museums. But it should want them. They make a community more vibrant, livable and worth visiting.
Stop in to the arts office to find out what you have been missing.
Trejbal is an editorial writer based in the paper's New River Valley bureau.
