Courtesy O. Winston Link Museum

"Young Girl Eating Honeycomb" is one of more than 50 images on display in the "Louisiana Link" exhibit opening Saturday at the O. Winston Link Museum in downtown Roanoke.

Signature 9 Gallery, formerly located in Old Southwest Roanoke, is moving downtown.

With just about six months to go before the grand opening of the new Taubman Museum of Art, the gallery has announced plans to reopen at the former Be-In-Touch card shop at the corner of Kirk Avenue and Jefferson Street. The gallery had outgrown its space at its former location on Third Street, said artist and co-founder Nancy Stark.

The new location is an easy walk from eight or so other downtown galleries and the art museum. It follows last month's opening of a new gallery on Campbell Avenue featuring the work of California transplants John Wilson and Suzun Hughes. Artist Claudia de Franko's Gala Studio and the Cheshire Gallery also have opened on Campbell in recent months.

Other downtown galleries include the Market Gallery, Pamela Jean Gallery, Gallery 108 and McGraw Fine Art.

In addition, Atturro Zanella has opened a new frame shop and gallery, Z Studio Framing, near the new Signature 9 at 7 Church Ave. Zanella was formerly at Campbell Avenue's Studios on the Square, which is up for sale.

"We'll have a group of satellites around the mother planet art museum," said artist Vera Dickerson, another of Signature 9's founders. "That happens so many places where the museum is a draw, so we are hoping Roanoke will join the trend."

Signature 9 was founded in 2004 by artists Dickerson, Stark, Tracy Budd, Sandi D'Alessandro and Gari Stephenson.

In addition to more space, the new gallery has better lighting and a better location, said Stark. "We're really excited about coming downtown."

Signature 9 opens to the public Saturday. It will be open Tuesdays through Saturdays. Call (540) 342-0703.

Hear Futral sing

Opera star Elizabeth Futral, who lives in Franklin County with husband and Opera Roanoke artistic director Steven White when she isn't performing around the world, will sing at Shaftman Performance Hall in Jefferson Center on Nov. 2.

Futral, who has starred in productions at New York's Metropolitan Opera and performed across America and Europe, will sing arias from Handel operas, accompanied by a string orchestra and conducted by White, said Opera Roanoke's executive director, Judith Clark.

The program also will include Schoenberg's arrangement of Gustav Mahler's song-symphony, "Das Lied von der Erde" ("Song of the Earth").

Futral also sang at a memorial service for physician Charles Loftin at Second Presbyterian Church on Wednesday, Clark said. "Elizabeth sang Mozart's 'Alleluia.' Needless to say, it was lovely."

For more information, call 982-2742; www.operaroanoke.org.

Important Links

Photographs of Louisiana life by celebrated steam train photographer O. Winston Link will be featured from Saturday until Oct. 1 at the O. Winston Link Museum in the former Norfolk and Western Passenger Station downtown.

"Louisiana Link" includes more than 50 images of life and industry Link made in Louisiana in 1937. Included are the daily activities of a Louisiana State University student, the blessing of the shrimp boats, oil prospecting, alligator hunting, rice harvesting and cotton marketing.

Link achieved fame late in life for his photographs of Norfolk and Western steam trains, taken in the 1950s.

"We are excited to have the opportunity to share with our visitors a deeper look into Link's working method and his early career work," said museum director Kim Parker in a release.

Call 982-5465; www.linkmuseum.org.