Kyle Green | The Roanoke Times

Taubman Museum of Art

Kyle Green | The Roanoke Times

A group gathers for lunch at Norah's Cafe in the Taubman Museum of Art. Museum officials say the cafe, operated by a third party, has met financial expectations.

Kyle Green | The Roanoke Times

Docent/volunteer Roger Pommerenke talks about William Bradford's "Voyage of the Polaris" (left), with a group of women from St. Paul's Episcopal Church.

Kyle Green | The Roanoke Times

Leune Bomberger walks past a collage by Los Angeles artist Pae White at the Taubman Museum of Art. Bomberger was there with a group of women from St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Salem. The Taubman celebrates its one-year anniversary today.

Kyle Green | The Roanoke Times

First-grade students from Herman L. Horn Elementary School in Vinton participated in the Taubman Museum's Art Venture program Friday morning.

The Taubman Museum of Art opened a year ago today amid visions of nearly 200,000 annual visitors walking through its front doors and igniting a major economic upswing in downtown Roanoke.

Its founders now say those consulting firm predictions were too sunny for what already would be a challenging year, as Roanoke's dramatically expanded art museum strove to reinvent itself with a new identity.

And there was one more unforeseen factor as the Taubman prepared for its opening day.

"Nobody would choose to open a new museum in a recession," said Kimberly Templeton, the Taubman's director of external affairs.

So it was that the afterglow of the spectacular opening gala soon gave way to news of layoffs and increased admission prices. Though the museum met a goal of opening with a $3 million endowment, the downturns in the stock market have reduced that amount to about $2.2 million.

And while attendance projections proved too high -- Templeton reported an estimate of 130,000 passing through the museum in its first year instead of 177,000 -- the projected operating budget of $3.75 million proved too low, with the actual cost at $4 million.

Despite the troubling news, and the likelihood that tough times aren't over yet, the museum's organizers say the Taubman has done what needed to be done to stay viable and that it's in no danger of going away.

"In order for you to prevent disaster, you have to be careful," said Jenny Taubman, the former capital campaign chairwoman, who, with husband Nick Taubman, made the largest donation to the museum's capital campaign fund. "We are running this museum very prudently."

"It's a very difficult time for the museum field, as it is for all nonprofits," said Ford Bell, president of the American Association of Museums. During the past fiscal year, for instance, even major institutions such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles have had to cut staff.

The Taubman "basically opened in the middle of a collapse and things only got worse since it opened," Bell said. But it also has an additional hurdle in that essentially "it's a new museum. It hasn't become that iconic part of the community."

The museum's detractors don't seem willing to buy into the theory that its woes are entirely the result of the economy.

Critics complain that only a portion of the second floor of the 81,000-square-foot building is devoted to gallery space, raising the question as to whether the museum offers enough bang for the buck.

Admission is now $10.50 per adult -- it was increased by $2 a few months ago to combine general admission with the price of admission to Art Venture, the interactive exhibit for children on the first floor, initially sold separately, Templeton said. She said that no further increases are planned.

And one year later, the debate over the museum's contemporary architecture still hasn't stopped.

Templeton declined to say how much of the $66 million in building costs remains to be paid, saying only that a silent fundraising campaign continues. She also doesn't have the museum's latest revenue report, saying the organization's tax return is still being prepared.

Admissions make up about 11 percent of the Taubman's revenue -- but corporate donations are also down, the factor that ultimately led to two rounds of layoffs and restructuring, Templeton said.

The museum laid off six full-time employees in March, and trimmed a handful of part-time positions and two full-time positions in July.

"This was painful for us to do," Taubman said. "It hurt so much because these are good people."

Templeton said those restructurings might have happened anyway as the museum evolved, but the bottom falling out of the economy forced them to happen faster. No programs were cut because of the layoffs, she said.

Museum officials are frustrated that the focus on financial struggles and attendance figures diverts attention from its educational programs, the variety of its exhibits and its near constant stream of weekly events. "We're having a significant impact in the community that's not necessarily reflected in that number," Templeton said.

And the museum is proud of its admission number even though it falls short of projections. When compared to other museums that serve metropolitan statistical areas of similar sizes, the Taubman is faring well attendance-wise, she said.

Yet the museum is in a state of flux, with a new leader taking stock of the situation and deciding what to do next.

The Taubman sailed for several months without a captain during its first year afloat. In 2003 the museum hired Georganne Bingham, a fundraising dynamo, as its executive director. She oversaw operations up through the museum's opening and its first round of layoffs before retiring in May, earlier than expected.

New executive director David Mickenberg, who started in September, has only recently moved his wife and daughter and four dogs to Roanoke, and he's still house hunting, he said. He was formerly the director of the Davis Museum and Cultural Center at Wellesley College in Massachusetts.

Mickenberg is gathering information, meeting with museum backers, politicians and people in higher education and public education, and learning about the history of the museum and of the Roanoke Valley.

"Right now it's just for me a process of discovery," he said.

He said his role for now is to listen to what the community wants and needs from the museum, and decide what to do from there. It's too early in the process to talk about any specific initiatives, he said.

He's been impressed and uplifted by the support for the museum, and added that he's enjoying getting feedback.

"There's a lot of different ideas about what we could be doing, what we should do," he said. "It's been fun."

Bruce Boucher, director of the University of Virginia Art Museum, said Mickenberg's presence will be a boon to Roanoke.

"He's a very smart, talented guy," Boucher said. "He has a national and international reputation."

American art forms the core of the Taubman's collection, including a gallery devoted to more than 20 works by major American painter and photographer Thomas Eakins. The museum is also home to a research and programming arm, the Horace G. and Ann H. Fralin Center for American Art.

Members of the Roanoke arts community praise the museum for the variety of art it has showcased in the past year through rotating exhibits. Digital film work and animation have been juxtaposed with 19th-century photography and 17th-century Florentine paintings. A popular exhibit involved the use of everyday objects such as spools of thread to create large-scale optical illusions.

There have also been dances, symphony performances, rock concerts, children's plays, even a tattoo art exhibit.

As for outreach programs, the museum has worked with groups ranging from the Girl Scouts to the Roanoke Redevelopment and Housing Authority and the Pilot Street Project for refugees.

Of the 40 school districts the museum serves, Roanoke County has taken the fullest advantage of the museum's presence. The Roanoke County Board of Supervisors appropriated funds separate from the schools budget that pay for field trips for every kindergartner and first-grader, as well as a program that lets selected art students spend one week a month working in the museum and assisting with the care of the permanent collection.

"It's a wonderful partnership for us for the arts," said Richard Moon, the arts coordinator for Roanoke County Schools.

The building is even getting reaction from teenagers. Moon described how one of his students once made a tongue-in-cheek remark that passers-by who spy the Taubman Museum might be fooled into thinking Roanoke is a happening place and move here.

Because of the recession, it's unclear what effect the museum has actually had on downtown Roanoke's economy. Dave Kjolhede, executive director of the Roanoke Valley Convention and Visitors Bureau, said that tourism in general is down about 11 percent from last year, citing the economy as the major factor.

But John Reburn, owner of Roanoke Valley Printworks, located next to the Taubman on Salem Avenue, believes the Taubman is drawing tourists.

Because of the art lovers the museum attracts, he's been selling prints, something that hardly ever happened before the museum opened. "Roanoke has never really been my audience," Reburn said. "The joy of what the Taubman did is that it brought art buyers."

Jenny Taubman pointed to the museum's increased membership -- from 2,000 before it opened to 3,600 -- as an indication that the museum belongs in Roanoke. "People want to be a part of it."

She called it a "second star" for Roanoke, referring to the city's most prominent landmark, the Mill Mountain Star.

Templeton said that though visitors have come from all 50 states and 10 countries, most are from a 50-mile radius around the museum.

And downtown is evolving. Roanoke City Councilman David Trinkle said that the Taubman's presence pushed the council to make a renovation of the downtown market building a higher priority.

Trinkle also pointed out a number of other developments downtown -- including the Hancock Building on Campbell Avenue, the Cotton Mill Lofts on Sixth Street, and a proposal to restore the Patrick Henry Hotel. Center in the Square, the art museum's original home, is also gearing up for a $27 million renovation.

"I think it's the synergy of having the Taubman there," Trinkle said.

He said that the museum appears to be weathering its hardships and adapting. "Even though it's had a tough time, there's still enough support for it that other nonprofits are remaking themselves."

One of those nonprofits is Studio Roanoke on Campbell Avenue. The studio opened in April, and the building facade's large metal plates were intended by its architect to reflect the Taubman and the sense of new things happening downtown, theater owner Kenley Smith said.

"It's funny about Roanoke," Smith said. "Anytime anybody tries something new, there's such an inertia, a stasis, that you have to overcome."

He said that it's not as if the museum's design isn't complementary to the city as a whole. "Give this thing 20 years or so and it's going to be as iconic as the H&C sign."