The Art Museum of Western Virginia is no more.

Last week the museum officially closed its upstairs galleries and jettisoned its name. Henceforth, the museum will use its new name: The Taubman Museum of Art.

On Thursday, in a ceremony in the old museum's Bridge Gallery, the museum also unveiled its new logo (inset), with the name "Taubman" in big letters and a stylized depiction of the new museum's curving roof. The Taubmans are the largest donors to the new museum under construction a block away.

The logo, which was designed by museum marketing director Lisa Martin, "reflects the strong flow of the new museum through the visualization of the atrium peak as well as the symbolic emergence of the mountains," according to a museum release.

The museum also announced it will name the new museum's atrium for the city of Roanoke, the project's first major donor. And board vice president John Williamson read a resolution thanking Mayor Nelson Harris for his support. Williamson also gave a sketch of the museum signed by architect Randall Stout to Darlene Burcham. "I think Darlene thinks she got the best of the deal," Williamson quipped as the city manager carried her prize away.

Note: ArtVenture, the museum's hands-on interactive gallery and art center, and other museum activities for kids will continue for much of the summer on the first floor of Center in the Square.

The Taubman Museum is slated to open Nov. 8.

A new community space

Add the Water Heater to the rapidly growing list of arts and cultural projects happening in and around downtown Roanoke.

Artists Beth Deel and Wendy Schuyler plan to open their community arts center in Old Southwest sometime this month "if all goes smoothly," Schuyler said.

The Water Heater, a one-time retail space at 813 Fifth St. S.W., will feature music, dance, theater and improvisation, say the pair. It will also be used for classes, and can be rented for the modest rate of $5 to $15 an hour, depending on the day and the time.

Schuyler and Deel are partners in upUPperiscope Inc., which they describe as "an intra-disciplinary and green design firm and social media consultant." Their ventures include the Roanoke-based events calendar MyScoper.com, which has been known to include events from as far away as Russia.

The upUPperiscope offices will be located in the Water Heater once it opens, they said. As for the building's odd name, the origins are a little murky, but involve Deel's "obsession" (her word) with depicting water molecules in her art, as well as an actual water heater in the building that stopped working.

"It kind of exploded, like a sign from God," Deel explained.

The space has been host to some informal gatherings in the past, but in the past nine months has been renovated, with an eye toward obtaining all the necessary permits to reopen as an arts-related business. It even has a handicapped-accessible bathroom now.

The women have kept it funky, with dangling Japanese lanterns for ceiling lights and a tin cornice painted blue. They have added a padded marley floor covering for dancers.

"Essentially, we just wanted it to be a community space," Schuyler said. "Something that has events going on all the time. Whether it's free hip-hop classes, yoga classes, ballroom dancing."

"It's our way of helping the community have a hub," Deel said.

The Water Heater is part of a recent wave of arts-related development in Roanoke, including multiple new art galleries, new artists' apartments and studios and, of course, the $66 million Taubman Museum of Art.

To book the Water Heater for events or for more information, e-mail booking@upupperiscope.com.

This witch loves mocha

What makes a witch tick?

It's something Seattle actress April Wolfe has thought a lot about lately. Wolfe plays the role of the witch in Mill Mountain Theatre's ambitious summer musical, "Into the Woods," by Stephen Sondheim. The musical won three Tony awards on Broadway in the late 1980s.

"I think she's kind of a tragic character," Wolfe said of her witch, who disappears toward the end in a puff of smoke. Several other characters get squished (mercifully offstage) beneath the foot of an angry giantess.

"She's the realist. She warns people what might happen. She's right about a lot of things," Wolfe said. The witch also has unresolved mother issues, Wolfe believes.

"Ultimately, I think it's a story about growing up," she said of the play.

Wolfe, a native of Warrenton, has been based in Seattle since earning her master of fine arts degree from the University of Washington. Far from witchlike off the stage, she is in fact an outdoors enthusiast who raves about the view of Mount Rainier from her Wallingford neighborhood. "It's jaw dropping," she said.

She's also a connoisseur of one of Seattle's best-known exports: specialty coffee. There are at least four coffee shops within four blocks of her home, Wolfe said. Her favorite brew: the Intense Dark Mocha at Tully's.

Mill Mountain artistic director Patrick Benton said Wolfe was cast after showing up at a local audition last winter. (Wolfe said she was home visiting family at the time, and had done a Google search for theater auditions in Virginia.)

"We've been having real good luck with our local auditions," Benton said. Still, "I was not expecting to find the witch. Her work was very strong."

To Wolfe, one of the most powerful messages in the play is that wishes sometimes do come true -- but not for free.

"I think it has the potential to kind of crack the heart."

"Into the Woods" runs through June 29 on Mill Mountain Theatre's Trinkle Main Stage. Call 342-5740 or visit www.millmountain.org.

New museum director

Amy G. Moorefield has been named director of Hollins University's Eleanor D. Wilson Museum, effective Aug. 18.

Moorefield comes to Hollins from Virginia Commonwealth University, where she has acted as interim director of the Anderson Gallery since 2004.

She succeeds Wyona Lynch-McWhite, who resigned in March to become deputy director of the Fuller Craft Museum in Brockton, Mass.