KEVIN KITTREDGE The Roanoke Times

"Past, Present, Future" is the museum's last exhibit before it closes late this summer to begin its move to the new building.

"Art is great."

"Emily and Brian."

"Politics suck."

"Jill."

The Art Museum of Western Virginia's final exhibit, "Past, Present, Future," is user generated -- and users are generating plenty. Visitors to the museum at Center in the Square have filled several walls so far with their thoughts, pictures, poems and scribbles, not all of it by any means related to art.

Most of the offerings are anonymous (though a girl named Jessica wants good health for her dog and world peace). Some seem to allude at least indirectly to the museum's new $66 million building two blocks away, scheduled to open in November. The museum will change its name to the Taubman Museum of Art when the new building opens.

"Art is in the eye of the beholder," wrote one visitor, in chalk.

Another wrote, inscrutably: "Don't bring back the future."

Hmmm.

"We hope it gets an IMAX soon," wrote someone else, alluding to long-discarded plans to combine an IMAX theater with the art museum at its new location. "Build it on top."

Others obviously had their minds on something else.

"I want to go shopping," wrote one museumgoer.

"Say cheese," wrote another.

Hearts were frequent. Somebody hearts Ciera. Jesus hearts us.

And one proud couple hearts the fact that "this was the 1st place our daughter used chalk."

It was not recorded what the little girl wrote.

Add your own thoughts to the art museum's last exhibit at Center in the Square. You can also see selected works from the museum's collection of 19th- and 20th-century art.

Admission is free until the museum closes late this summer to begin its move. 342-5760; www.artmuseumroanoke.org.

Arts and crafts

Next weekend is full of opportunities for restless local art lovers looking for a reason to get out.

Not only is Roanoke's popular Open Studios Tour back for its eighth year, but the Artisans Center of Virginia also will have its first Craft Conference & Business Institute at the Hotel Roanoke & Conference Center. The latter event will include a crafts fair from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday in the conference center. Visitors to the fair can buy crafts from some of the state's top artisans, according to a news release.

On the conference agenda for the artisans themselves, meanwhile, are practical sessions on such things as business insurance, the pros and cons of consignments and "Firm Prices for a Solid Bottom Line."

It's not too late for artisans to sign up, either for the conference or as exhibitors, said Michael Dowell, executive director for the Artisans Center. www.artisanscenterofvirginia.org/conference or call (540) 946-3294.

For information on Open Studios, visit www.openstudiosofroanoke.com.

The more things change ...

The Roanoke City Art Show has found a home -- at least for 2008.

The art show, sponsored annually by the Arts Council of the Blue Ridge, has been held for years in the Art Museum of Western Virginia at Center in the Square. Its status was a question mark this year, however, as the art museum plans its move to Salem Avenue.

But arts council Executive Director Laura Rawlings said last week that the art show will open Sept. 26 in the same space in Center in the Square, even though the museum will be closed by then. "We're going to be where we usually are," she said. The abandoned galleries will be staffed by volunteers, she said.

It's still unclear if the show will ever appear in the Taubman Museum of Art. Museum staffers have been working to put together an exhibition schedule for the museum's first several years of operation.

The reception for this year's art show is Sept. 25. The show will be up through Nov. 9. Admission is free.

For more information or to enter the show call Rawlings at 342-5791.

NBC screen-captures Rosario Dawson

Rosario Dawson will star in a series for NBC, and there's a chance you may even see it on old-fashioned television.

The "Sin City" and "Death Proof" star is shooting a sci-fi series called "Gemini Division," which will unfold over 50 four-minute episodes starting in the summer. NBC has picked up distribution rights to the show and will stream it on NBC.com, along with a zombie comedy called "Woke Up Dead" that comes from the same company, Electric Farm Entertainment.

As part of the deal, NBC will also use its TV properties to drive viewers to the Web to watch the two shows. A handful of episodes will get a preview on the network and other NBC Universal platforms.

"Gemini Division" features Dawson as a New York detective who's investigating the murder of her fiance. The trail leads to a conspiracy involving the creation of genetically engineered life forms called Simulants.

The webisodes will be repackaged as half-hour shows for conventional television overseas, but NBC -- which saw the heavily hyped Web-to-TV transplant "Quarterlife" flop early this year -- won't necessarily import "Gemini Division" wholesale. The network does, however, have the option to develop a new series based on the webisodes.