Things weren't looking good for Georganne Bingham, executive director of the Art Museum of Western Virginia, in February 2006.

Despite a ceremonial groundbreaking the previous August, actual work on the museum's new building downtown had not begun. Construction costs were soaring. And many people were critical of the museum's ultra-modern design.

Now a reporter was on the phone, saying he had heard the latest construction bids were sky high. Was it true?

"The bids did come in higher than we had hoped they would," replied the perpetually sunny-side-up Bingham at the time, from her office inside Center in the Square. For once, Bingham sounded a little weary. "But they didn't come in so high that we're not going forward with it."

And then, in case the reporter had missed the point:

"We are going ahead with the project.

"You hear me?"

Smiling on doomsday

With construction nearly finished on Roanoke's $66 million museum, renamed the Taubman Museum of Art, executive director Bingham's never-say-die message is coming through loud and clear:

"She said we can do it, and we're doing it," longtime museum backer Sheila Strauss said. "She motivated everybody."

There are plenty of hurdles left, with dozens of staffers yet to be hired and a $3.7 million annual operating budget to be met starting Nov. 8, opening day.

Some in the arts and cultural community are privately skeptical the museum can cover its operating costs without bailouts from supporters. The museum is projecting 248,000 visitors in the new building's first year of operation -- almost three times the number of visitors it has averaged in each of the last two years at Center in the Square.

On the other hand, some were skeptical the project would ever get this far. As Bingham told a roomful of conventioneers at the Hotel Roanoke late last spring: "I wouldn't bet against us."

These days, few would. And people inside and outside Roanoke are beginning to praise Bingham for a job well done. Not only has she spearheaded what is believed to be the largest fundraising drive in Roanoke's history, her fans note, but she also did it while undergoing two hip replacements and suffering through a period of almost constant pain.

"She was walking through the pain and doing everything she had to do," said Jenny Taubman, who with husband Nicholas Taubman is the new building's largest donor. "Pretty amazing."

When the laurels are awarded for getting the job done, of course, the Taubmans will come first. Thanks to their donation of at least $15 million -- (a New York Times report last winter gave the figure as $25 million) the new museum bears their name.

But Jenny Taubman credits the 73-year-old Bingham with keeping the project moving through the worst of times. "No matter what the doomsday was, there she was with her smile and her blond hair," Taubman said.

Marjie Gowdy, who directs the Ohr-O'Keefe Museum of Art in Biloxi, Miss., knows better than most what Bingham has accomplished. The Ohr-O'Keefe Museum is working on an expansion by celebrated architect Frank Gehry in a Gulf Coast city of 50,000 people. The cost was originally $30 million, though Hurricane Katrina set the project back.

"It is very, very rare to raise $66 million in any city, anywhere," said Gowdy, a former Roanoker who has "shared war stories" with Bingham over the phone. "That alone is a testament to Georganne."

Not one to idle

Bingham was born in High Point, N.C. Her father owned a milk bottling company, Coble Dairy. An innovator by nature, he was designing stainless steel and ceramic tile barns when everyone else was still doing it the old way, family members said.

"There's been a lot of creative energy in her genetic pool," said Bingham's daughter, Staley Nance of Lexington, N.C.

Nance said her mother, who has a degree in voice and religion from Duke University, spent her young adulthood raising children, though "she was never what you would call a stay-at-home mom."

Bingham was always organizing some major project, she said, such as a production of "Jesus Christ Superstar," or Faure's "Requiem" -- in Latin. (Friends say Bingham still has a magnificent voice, though she only sings in private.) Bingham also taught voice and guitar, was president of the women's club and a choir director. She was the bicentennial coordinator for Davidson County, N.C., from 1974 to 1976.

"She had people cooperating on things they never thought they'd cooperate on," Nance recalled.

Bingham's marriage to her first husband, a salesman, ended in divorce. She later married a dentist, moving to Cedar Island, N.C., "100 miles from nowhere," her daughter said. When he started developing health problems, Bingham went to work.

Her rise in the world of marketing and development was rapid: She worked for Duke Medical Center, then a children's center and a software development firm before becoming deputy director of development for the North Carolina Museum of Art in Raleigh, where she stayed eight years. Bingham's second husband died in 1999, her daughter said.

Nance said her mother wrestled with the decision to come to Roanoke after living in North Carolina all her life. In the end, "I think the challenge was really exciting at that point in her life."

She said her mother quickly grew comfortable in Roanoke.

"She just connected so quickly and so deeply with the people she met. It didn't take long."

The chance of a lifetime

Her hiring came none too soon. Members of the art museum's search committee had grown increasingly frustrated trying to find a replacement for Judy Larson, who had left to take a job as the executive director of the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, D.C. The committee had considered dozens of candidates in the past year.

"They were all wonderful people," said Taubman, speaking recently by telephone from Bucharest, where her husband is now ambassador to Romania. Taubman was on the museum's search committee. "But everybody on the committee knew we had to raise $32 million. And $32 million in Roanoke, Virginia, was a whole lot of money."

(The goal has since more than doubled, to $66 million. The museum's official total for funds raised thus far is $53 million.)

Then an Atlanta museum consultant told Taubman about a woman who had raised $8 million in one week in North Carolina. "My ears perked up immediately. I said, 'Who is this woman?' " Taubman recalled.

(For the record, Bingham did not recall raising that much in a single week in North Carolina, though she did successfully complete a $26 million-plus fundraising campaign there, she said.)

About 10 p.m. one Saturday, as Taubman recalls it, she got a call from Bingham. (As Bingham recalls it, it was Taubman who called her.)

"You know how she has that giggle," Taubman said. "She said, 'I think I'm crazy for calling you. ... She said, 'I love to raise money.' "

Bingham said she had been planning to retire but came for an interview because she had "nothing to lose."

"When I turned the corner from Elm Avenue to Jefferson Street, I was astonished by how lovely it was. It was almost quaint, but not quite. Roanoke had everything going for it that Raleigh had been trying to get for years."

When Bingham saw the model for the new museum, her first reaction was "Oh, my goodness. ... I was convinced it was going to change the region and the Southeast. I felt like I was the most fortunate woman I know to have this opportunity. I had lived my whole life preparing for this job."

Paying for the best

Bingham was a departure from earlier art museum directors here, who typically had art history degrees and curatorial skills.

Bingham's lack of formal training in the visual arts "was not a secret," Taubman said. "She told us singing was her thing."

On the other hand, "She knows how to develop an idea and make it attractive to everyone around her. She has that something that makes people excited about what she believes in," Taubman said.

She didn't come cheap. Bingham's salary was $148,000 in fiscal 2004-05, her first full year on the job, and has since risen to $200,000, according to Bingham and museum tax returns. Most directors of arts and cultural nonprofits in the valley earned considerably less in 2006-07, according to tax returns available on Guidestar.org. (Judy Larson, who preceded Bingham at the art museum, made $67,000 in fiscal 2001-02, her last full year here, the tax return says.)

Bingham said she understood the size of the job that awaited her in Roanoke. "I wouldn't have come here for a penny less."

Bingham's salary "was something we discussed," Taubman said. "She had to be compensated. This is how you get the best."

Bingham was introduced to Roanoke at a morning reception at the art museum on Aug. 8, 2003. "I have never, ever been more excited in my life," she said at the time. "I cannot wait to begin this journey."

She was 68.

Bingham soon became the very public face of the museum, speaking at numerous luncheons and gatherings and civic events.

Behind the scenes, the dollars for a new museum began to flow.

Challenges lie ahead

How does Bingham do it?

With a velvet glove.

"She just has an innate trait that makes you want to help her," said Strauss. "She's charming, she's well-spoken. Her ability comes from love of life and people. She's not pushy. She's just soft."

"She really understands people's desire for philanthropy," said incoming museum board President John Williamson. "And she has helped people make their philanthropic decisions and at the end of the day feel good about it."

Money typically comes to the museum either through cash gifts or stock transfers, said museum external affairs director Kimberly Templeton. Some money comes in the form of pledges that are paid off in installments over months or years.

Said Bingham: "I'm more passionate about this project than I've ever been about anything. When you feel that way, you want to give people the opportunity to participate."

Warner Dalhouse, an art museum board member and a project donor who has also done his share of fundraising, said making money to run the new museum may prove to be another of Bingham's strengths.

In addition to admission fees, the museum hopes to raise money through its cafe, gift shop and movie theater, and by renting portions of the building for special events. "It may be one of her long suits -- knowing how to produce earned revenue from an operating museum," Dalhouse said.

On that front, Bingham has a long way to go. According to museum figures, 85,979 people visited the museum at its current quarters at Center in the Square in fiscal 2006-07. Yet money from admissions that year totaled just $6,935, while the museum store generated $1,976 in profits, according to the museum's 2006-07 tax return.

The museum also reported $67,325 in membership dues and assessments. Members may visit the galleries for free.

"It's been that way ever since we've been at Center in the Square," said Bingham of the low paid-attendance figures. "A lot of people don't even know where we are. That's one reason we're excited about the new building."

Bingham said the new museum will have family-friendly programming including music, movies, workshops and lectures in addition to changing exhibits that will make people want to come back "over and over again."

"A major, major consideration is how we're going to run the building." she said. "You have to say, 'What do we have to do to make this happen?' We have to believe it can happen. We hope it's going to be something the community is going to embrace."

Building an endowment will be crucial, she admitted. "Until we build that endowment, we're going to have issues with the operating budget," Bingham said.

The art museum's fundraising drive comes at a time when other arts and cultural organizations in the valley are suffering from the loss of state funding and other economic woes. The art museum project has sometimes been accused of succeeding at others' expense.

Yet even among those competing for the limited arts dollars, for Bingham there is often respect.

"She has a vision and she hasn't wavered from it. I have to admire that. I have to," said Beth Pline, executive director of the Roanoke Symphony Orchestra. Pline also said the art museum "has lessons to teach everybody about boldly going where no man has gone before."

Listening to the community

Others praised Bingham for her efforts to bring everyone on board:

Artist Page Turner recalled Bingham met with local artists early on and asked what they wanted to see in the museum. Now, some of those things are popping up, including the museum's heavy emphasis on education.

"I think Georganne really is listening to the community. Which is nice," Turner said.

"She's worked very hard" to get input from artists, said artist Susan Jamison. She said Bingham has had meetings with local artists at her home and involved them in giving talks and workshops and participating in panel discussions at the museum. "She is genuinely enthusiastic and has made some forward-thinking choices that all of us here who are passionate about art are going to benefit from," Jamison said.

"She has this kind of energy I have never seen in anybody," said Sarah Hazlegrove, a photographer and winner of last year's Roanoke City Art Show. "She amazes me. She's one of the women that I respect most."

Bingham's charm offensive doesn't stop with artists. She flirts outrageously -- sometimes with men several decades her junior. She's been known to playfully pinch construction superintendent Mike Sellers, and to send lemonade or smoothies to the work crews.

"The guys love it," Sellers said. "Even if they don't know her by name, they speak to her. She's a real person." He also said Bingham "gets excited every time she comes here." (In fact, during a tour of the museum just two weeks ago, Bingham suddenly announced: "I'm so excited.")

Friends say they've never seen her angry, though they've sometimes seen her tired. "She's not a woman who is prone to outbursts of anger," Strauss said. "I've seen her get upset. I've seen her get hurt."

Some of the hurt is physical. Since coming to town, Bingham has undergone two hip replacements. Prior to the surgeries, she was often in pain.

Bingham said she missed about 10 days of work after each surgery. After that she worked for a few more weeks at home before returning to the office.

"Part of what keeps her going is being engaged," her daughter said. "There's an awful lot to be said for being passionate about something."

Bingham still has arthritis in her neck and shoulders, exacerbated by stress, that requires twice weekly therapy.

This includes "dry needling," which involves inserting needles into the clenched muscles of her back. Sometimes when her physical therapist Eric Reichardt does this, Bingham cries. Often she grows nauseated.

Still, "It's keeping me going," Bingham said. "It's nice not to be in pain."

Reichardt said Bingham still needs two shoulder replacements -- a procedure Bingham has thus far rejected.

"She does have a great attitude," Reichardt said. "But there are days. We all have them. Through it all, she looks great," he said. "And she still works."

"Nothing defeats her," Strauss said. "Isn't that amazing?"