The Roanoker - January/February 2015 - 68

OPERA ROANOKE

Jim Rollings of the
Science Museum:
"Nobody from
government is
handing out checks."

"We had to find our niche," says Wilhelms, who
operates with a smallish $350,000 budget with two
fulltime staffers. "We've never been in debt," she emphasizes. "There are no loans. Fiscally we are strong,
strong, strong."
Income is generated by productions and RCT's
academy and from donations and sponsorships. Each
accounts for about 50 percent.
roanokechildrenstheatre.org

HARRISON MUSEUM OF AFRICAN
AMERICAN CULTURE
This is the one member of the arts community with no
professional staff. Board member Charles Price leads
the organization as a fill-in director, putting together
exhibits - often in collaboration with other Roanoke
Valley organizations like the Science Museum, Mill
Mountain Theatre, the Virginia Museum of Transportation and the Jefferson Center.
The 2015 schedule of exhibits was not available at
press time because negotiations were still underway.
The museum's budget runs at about $350,000 and a
huge chunk of that comes from corporate sponsors. A
typical short run exhibit, says Price, can run $10,000
and a longer running exhibit will go for as much as
$50,000 or $60,000.
"Most of the money that comes in goes to exhibits,"
says Price. "We try to do what is necessary to maintain
and to stay open." There is no full-time curator, but the
museum works with both the Roanoke Valley History
Museum and the Link Museum in that area. "We don't
know what's right or wrong in the way people have
operated," says Price, "so we just ask. Everybody's been
very receptive. If you don't know what hasn't been done
before, you wonder why it can't be done."
harrisonmuseum.com/site

68 JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2015

"Our big event for the spring is a new production of
Rossini's 'Cinderella,'" says Scott Williamson, general
and artistic director for Opera Roanoke. "We haven't
done Rossini in 10 years, and his comic operas have
been favorites for 200 years. ... Our audiences appreciate the fully-staged experience of a big production
and we've had great success presenting grand opera
like 'Madame Butterfly' and 'The Flying Dutchman,'
perennial favorites like 'Carmen' and 'The Magic Flute,'
and popular hits like 'The Pirates of Penzance.'"
Opera Roanoke's budget is just over $500,000 a year,
"which is remarkably small for an opera company presenting fully-staged productions," says Williamson.
"We've made cuts - 20 percent over the last two seasons - across the board in response to the effects of
the lingering recession."
Williamson points out that 2015-16 "is our 40th
anniversary season, and I'm excited about what we'll
be doing. The plans are still taking shape, but we will
be presenting our first big apprentice artist production
later in 2015, in addition to the main-stage productions which are the heart of what we do."

SCIENCE MUSEUM OF WESTERN VIRGINIA
Jim Rollings, executive director of the Science Museum of Western Virginia, points out that his $1 million
annual budget includes $38,000 in local government
funding. That's the entire load from the government,
so programming, which brings in 45 percent of the $1
million, must be both educational and entertaining.
That would explain the emphasis in 2015 on dinosaurs, one of the most popular exhibits at any museum
in the U.S. at any time. From February through the
summer, the museum will be the center of a dinosaurpoluzza, beginning with Paleomania, wherein dino
skeletons, articulations and parts will be the focus.
Author Tom Angleberger (Origami Yoda series)
will be part of a program centered on pi March 14
(that's 3.14.15, or a date equaling a short form of pi)
and there will be science fiction-related surrounding
attractions. The Butterfly Ball is a June fund-raiser and
the debut planetarium show, focusing on dinosaurs,
will highlight the warm months.
Rollings says his budget "is real. We bring in what
we hope will be popular, maybe a blockbuster [with
the dinosaurs], though I don't like using that word.
For the dinosaurs, the kids grab Mom's hand and
drag her in." The statewide Science Festival, which
the museum put together with Virginia Tech, was one
of those blockbusters and it should return.
The museum director says he tries to budget for a
surplus, but that's tough. "Nobody from government
is handing out checks" the way they used to, he says.
Tickets, education and development account for the
THE

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The Roanoker - January/February 2015

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