The Roanoker - January/February 2015 - 64

The Roanoke
Amphitheatre in
Elmwood Park has
been well-received
by the public.

phitheater in Elmwood Park downtown. The facility
opened in 2014 and has been the site of a couple of
big-time events (think Sheryl Crow) and the return
of some oldies that had left (think Chili Festival). At
deadline, 2015's schedule had not been determined
and, frankly says Buschor, there's not even an estimate
yet about how many people will use the park during
the warm months. "Most of our events aren't ticketed,"
says Buschor, "so we don't even have an estimate" of
the number of people attending.
That should change during the year, however. Buschor says a number of major promoters have been
in touch about staging events there and a number of
organizations "want permanent dates" which would
"help us take a larger view of the calendar."
downtownroanoke.org/our-events

TAUBMAN MUSEUM OF ART
Della Watkins of the Taubman Museum of Art is adamant about the next goal facing the most prominent
of all the arts organizations in Roanoke: This is, she
says, "the first of an annual commitment to bring banner exhibitions to Roanoke." That effort began last fall
and runs through early January of the new year and
includes "Beg, Borrow and Steal," 90 works by "major
artists who shaped our art world," including Andy Warhol, Jeff Koons, Kehinde Wiley, and Cindy Sherman."
It is a big exhibition in a big museum, one with an
imposing budget of $2.9 million, up from $2.8 million
in 2014, but down a good bit from 2013's $3.4 million.
Upcoming in 2015 is the installation of a pair of Bill
Barrett sculptures, gifts to the museum, which will help
create a new sculpture garden; opening the museum's
third floor and balcony to the public; holding the second wine festival and returning to a two-day Sidewalk
Art Show. Roanoke artist Bill Rutherfoord's "Allegory of

64 JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2015

No Reason" was "wildly popular," says Watkins.
The museum has been alive with events and is open
late Thursdays and First Fridays (until 9 p.m.) with music. Traffic has been brisk since the admission fee was
removed, thanks to a sponsorship from Advance Auto.
taubmanmuseum.org/main/

VIRGINIA MUSEUM OF TRANSPORTATION
The VMT is eagerly anticipating the most significant
event since it re-opened after the flood of 1985 devastated its quarters in Wasena Park: the return of the J611,
the jewel in its crown.
The 611, which was built in the Roanoke Norfolk &
Western Shops and is one of the few huge steam engines
left in the U.S., has been in Spencer, North Carolina,
undergoing renovation so that it can run excursions on
a regular basis from Roanoke.
Says Peg McGuire, the museum's director of communications, "We've had 3,000 donations from eight countries" working to get the J611 back on the operational
track. "People have come from 18 countries" to visit the
611 and "we had visitors from the UK, Australia and
Japan when we rolled her out to Spencer."
The rest of 2015 will be "our entire regular schedule,"
says McGuire, noting that the schedule is packed with
events for the family. "We're a blue collar museum," she
says, "and so we celebrate those people by keeping our
prices low."
Attendance has been steadily increasing, says McGuire, and 2015 will reflect both that and the fact that
staff needs to be added to take care of the J611 excursions. The 2014 budget was $1.1 million. vmt.org

SOUTHWEST VIRGINIA BALLET
Celebration of the Southwest Virginia Ballet's 25th
season has Artistic Director Pedro Szalay's full attenTHE

R OANOKER.COM
http://www.taubmanmuseum.org/main/ http://www.downtownroanoke.org/our-events http://www.vmt.org http://www.THEROANOKER.COM
The Roanoker - January/February 2015

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