Kyle Green | The Roanoke Times

Fred de Franko (striped shirt, husband of Gala studio owner Claudia de Franko) greets visitors during Art by Night, an after-hours gallery walk.

What’s up with all these galleries?

Used to be you could count the number of art galleries in downtown Roanoke on a finger or two. Suddenly, you need three hands.

“There is an explosion of galleries in downtown, and the energy is palpable,” said Yvonne Olson, an unofficial coordinator to the monthly after-hours gallery walk, Art By Night. “It is such an exciting time for the cultural community in Roanoke.”

The exact number of galleries is hard to pin down. Some artists have opened working studios that aren’t technically galleries, though they may have art in the window. Numerous restaurants and coffee shops exhibit art as well.

But even excluding restaurant/galleries and studios, the number of downtown galleries as of last week was at least a dozen or so.

Why is this happening? And how are they all surviving?

No single explanation

Some credit the new, $66 million Taubman Museum of Art, set to open Nov. 8, for giving the local arts community a shot in the arm. Some artists and galleries have been spurred by the new museum “to stretch themselves and to offer art lovers opportunities not previously found in Roanoke,” Olson said.

There may be other explanations.

“I think it must be a lot of things,” said Vera Dickerson, a longtime  area artist who belongs to Roanoke’s Signature 9 Gallery. Dickerson said the artists associated with the region’s many colleges and universities play a role.

“It’s not a group that stays within that local academic community. They get involved with promoting the local arts scene.”

Others, however, said the lack of four-year colleges in Roanoke proper is actually a deterrent to art.

“The amount of art popping up here is out of proportion to the arts education programs,” said artist Beth Deel, co-owner of the Water Heater, a new art center on Fifth Street in Old Southwest. “There’s no reason for it to be.”

Deel also said “bureaucracy can’t create something like this. It always has to happen from the grass roots.”

Some cited the area’s low cost of living and abundance of material for landscape artists.

“There are a lot of things that spur creativity in the area,” said artist C.J. Phillips, who recently opened studios and a gallery with artist Diane Patton at 110 W.  Campbell Ave. “I think the landscape is one of them. You can drive five minutes and see a farm.”

Page Turner, an artist and former manager of Studios on the Square Gallery, has her own theory about the expanding scene:

“There’s something about this town,” said Turner, who is married to artist Zephron Turner. “Zephron and I joke about the [Mill Mountain] Star being a tractor beam that pulls you back.”

The benefit of co-ops

How do so many galleries stay in business in a blue-collar city where plenty of folks struggle just to pay the rent?

One answer: tourists.

“The majority of people who buy from me are out-of-towners,” said John Reburn, who owns Roanoke Valley Printworks, an eclectic gallery and card shop beside the new museum. Many have accompanied their spouses to a convention, and “they’re looking for something to do. A lot of them are looking for art. And they spend.”

Another answer is that several of the largest galleries are cooperatives, run collectively by dozens of artists who share the labor and pay a monthly fee in exchange for display space.

The co-op galleries typically take in much smaller percentage of sales than commercial galleries, but they don’t  need to  rely on sales to keep the lights on  because the dues cover operating costs.

Gallery 108 and The Market Gallery, located on opposite sides of the City Market Building, and Signature 9 Gallery at Jefferson Street and Kirk Avenue are all co-ops.

“The cooperative model is a great way to go if you really want to have an ongoing business,” said Cathy Hankla of The Market Gallery. When sales are slow, “our dues support our overhead.”

The Market Gallery artists pay $70 a month in dues.

Hankla, like Reburn, said many out-of-towners come in looking for local art. She said Roanoke’s relatively low prices help spur sales. “When they look at art in other areas, they can’t afford it. They come here and they can.”

But there are local collectors, too. Sam McGhee, retired president of Mattern & Craig consulting engineers, and his wife, Sara, have collected locally made art since the 1970s. The walls of their South Roanoke condominium are full of works by local artists such as Eric Fitzpatrick, Vera Dickerson, Gari Stephenson, Ed Bordett and Nancy Stark.

 Sara McGhee said they try not to look at the price when choosing, though nothing in their collection cost more than $2500.  “We just get what we like. ”

 “I would rather look at this than a building from Washington D.C.,” she said of their collection, which includes paintings of local landmarks, the mountains and trains.  There is even a painting of a fire at their own condominium building, done by Eric Fitzpatrick, a neighbor. “If I could do it all over again, I would do the same thing.”

She said their own children have grown up to be collectors too. “That makes us feel good.”

'The more the merrier’

Ask the artists how many art galleries Roanoke needs, and the answer is usually “More.”

“The more the merrier,” said photographer Claudia de Franko of Gala Studio, a studio and gallery at 139 W.  Campbell Ave. Her studio is one of a half dozen galleries in western downtown looking to attract more business.

“There’s a synergy that happens” when lots of galleries open,  said Suzun Hughes, who with husband John Wilson moved to Roanoke from San Francisco last year, in part because of the lower cost of living here. The couple has opened a gallery and studios in the former Henri Kessler furrier building at 117 W.  Campbell Ave.  “Look at places like Sedona, Sante Fe, Taos.”

Not everyone in Roanoke’s new gallery scene has thrived.

McGraw Fine Art on Franklin Road closed its doors earlier this summer after 21/2  years, and now does only online sales, said gallery director Jonathan McGraw.

McGraw said traffic in the gallery had recently dropped off. “It was pretty dead for really the last six months I was there,” he said.

 In addition, Studios on the Square Gallery, which dates back to the early 1990s, has cut its hours and the gallery building is up for sale. Owner Richard Kurshan has said sales were not supporting the business.  He plans to make furniture instead.

Still, “It’s definitely sustainable,” said Kurshan last week of the wave of new galleries.  “There are how many McDonalds in town?  I’m glad to see them. It’s nice that there are other people who are willing to support the arts.”

As for the rise of the coops, “There’s not a right or wrong way to go,” Kurshan said. “Commercial galleries generally tend to market their merchandise better. There’s more pressue to increase their sales.”

 At least two other commercial galleries, Pamela Jean Gallery, located across Salem Avenue from the entrance to the new museum, and Cheshire Gallery at 118 W.  Campbell Ave., remain open. Both gallery owners said having lots of downtown galleries are a good thing.

“My personal hope is that we will, in time, exceed Asheville [N.C.],” said Cheshire Gallery owner Sonya Chappelear.

“I think we all offer different things,” said Pamela Jean Gallery owner Pam Floyd. “In fact, we help each other out.”

Some say the mushrooming gallery scene, combined with the new museum, conveys a powerful message:

“Little downtown Roanoke isn’t what it used to be,” said Midge Ovenshire, an artist exhibiting at Gallery 108 this month. “It’s growing up.”