Blue Ridge Country - September/October 2018 - 15

OUR BLUE RIDGE TOWNS
longtime resident and artist Bari Ballou says. "When we
talked about bringing life back to Clifton Forge, it was the
incredible artistic energy in the Alleghany Highlands we
kept coming back to."
The result was the Alleghany Highlands Arts and
Crafts Center, which opened in 1984 with a gallery, a
shop selling juried fine art and crafts, and art classes.
Over the past 34 years, the AHACC has hung 445 exhibits that have attracted over 300,000 visitors. Exhibits
like the Fischer Collection of German Expressionist art,
which left the AHACC Gallery to travel to its permanent
home in Richmond's Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. An
early exhibit of Sally Mann photographs. Work by nationally recognized painter Joni Pienkowski. And work
by centenarian railroader Allan Hickman, whose paintings of the steam trains he used to work on are so real
you'd swear you hear wheels on track.
Executive Director Nancy Newhard says it was the
solid business plan and large volunteer workforce that
brought her to the Center in 1989. That, and the understanding that the Center could show "not only what was,
but what could be."

the deteriorating, four-floor Masonic Theatre in 2007 and
knew that the building could again be an elegant gathering place, drawing together both local audiences and visitors from across the country. After nine years of planning,
fundraising and hard work, the restored Historic Masonic
Theatre re-opened its doors in 2016. The Masonic Amphitheatre, designed and built in partnership with the
Virginia Tech Architecture School, sits nearby. Together,
the theater and amphitheater have welcomed more than

CHUCK ALMAREZ

ABOVE: The Masonic Amphitheatre was built in partnership with Virginia
Tech architecture students. It's been a site for weddings, dances, civic
ceremonies...and a lot of good music.
LEFT: At the C&O Heritage Center, you can ride a miniature steam train, tour
historic cars, and shop for everything train-related in this replica of the 1892
Clifton Forge Station.

With the longstanding success of the Arts Center as
model, other arts are flourishing in this small railroad
town. At the two-building Clifton Forge School of the
Arts, you can work with stained glass, learn blacksmithing, throw pots, paint and sculpt and carve, learn to play
the violin and the piano, practice yoga and meditation.
There are concerts and craft fairs, bluegrass jams and a
brass ensemble.
Like the Arts Center, the School of the Arts began as
with a savvy, committed group of volunteers who believed a dying railroad town could be something different. They learned the ropes, found and renovated the
space, and didn't give up. In his book "TOWN INC," Andrew Davis calls these traits the Law of the Town Visionary: Optimism, Imagination, Tenacity.
Exactly what the late John Hillert brought when he
and his wife Gayle moved to Clifton Forge. He looked at

a quarter million patrons over the past few years.
"We heard again and again, "It's a good idea, but it
will never happen,'" Gayle Hillert says. "And then people
began to believe."
Optimism. Imagination. Tenacity. The phoenix rising from the ashes. A hard-luck western Virginia railroad
town becomes a center for the arts, and new businesses
come to Main Street: a photography and metalwork gallery, a quilting shop, antique shops and an upscale consignment shop. A friendly tavern that welcomes all ages,
and a craft brewery. A six-storefront hardware store selling everything from hammers to Himalayan salt lamps.
And the railroad? Its presence continues in the Alleghany Highlands, where you can ride 15 miles of converted railroad bed on the Jackson River Scenic Trail, with
kayaking and canoe livery in the offing. Where the C&O
Historical Society has its international headquarters and
archives, and the C&O Heritage Center invites you to
tour vintage steam engines and rail cars from the past.
Where Houff Corporation has moved to the Clifton Forge
railyards, bringing new life to rail-truck transport.
People who have lost heart, believing that new things
are possible-that's the definition of hope. That's Clifton
Forge, Virginia.

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2018

Blue Ridge Country - September/October 2018

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