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Opera Roanoke chief ousted; poor economy is blamed
(Roanoke Times, The (Roanoke, VA) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Mar. 22--Opera Roanoke has dismissed Executive Director Judith Clark in a cost-cutting move, board President Roger Dalton confirmed this past week.
"We are taking steps to stabilize the budget and the operation" because of the poor economy, Dalton said. "Judy was being paid out of an executive director's fund that essentially ran out. The revenues just weren't there." Clark, who said recently she was "cautiously optimistic" about the opera in spite of the poor economy, and that it had set a record this year for season ticket sales, has worked for Opera Roanoke off and on for decades, doing various jobs.
She was the opera's executive director in the early 1990s, and two years ago took over the top administrative slot again, replacing the departed Les Epstein.
Efforts to reach Clark before this column's deadline were unsuccessful. The opera still has a development director and an office manager as well as its artistic director, Steven White.
White said Clark's departure was the result of "a combination of things, but mainly the economy situation." He said the staff would all help shoulder Clark's former responsibilities.
"I think that between us, with the staff that we have now, we're able to get accomplished what we need to get accomplished, particularly with the help of the board. We know what needs to be done." White declined to say what, if any, impact the economic downturn would have on the opera's upcoming season, which has not yet been announced.
"We are going to be as dynamic as we can possibly be," he said. "But we are not going to be irresponsible." Other arts organizations have felt the pinch of the economy in recent weeks, most prominently the new $66 million Taubman Museum of Art. Earlier this month, the museum laid off six people, or 18 percent of its staff, in an effort to cope with lower-than-anticipated attendance and donations.
Big Lick finds home Big Lick Conspiracy, a comedy improv troupe that formerly performed at Mill Mountain Theatre's Waldron Stage, has found a new home at Jefferson Center.
Big Lick will perform in Jefferson Center's "black box" venue behind Shaftman Performance Hall, said troupe member Ross Laguzza. For more information, visit biglickconspiracy.com.
In addition, No Shame Theatre, which also previously performed at Mill Mountain, will begin performing at the new Studio Roanoke at 30 W. Campbell Ave. on April 3. Find them at www.noshame.org.
Mill Mountain closed its doors in February because of mounting debts.
Art museum feedback Sheila Strauss, a longtime supporter of the Taubman Museum of Art, said recently its economic struggles are not unique.
"What has happened in Roanoke has happened in the whole country," said Strauss, who with husband Maury is a major supporter of the museum, and especially its Art Venture and children's education programs.
"I think we're going to go through tough times. But I think the museum will survive. I just think we're going to have to stay in this and work it out to the best of our ability. I don't think the supporters of the museum are going to walk away from it." Reader Bobi Arnold, meanwhile, has her own advice for fixing the museum's money woes, and you can sum it up in one word: IMAX.
Arnold still regrets the museum's last-minute decision to cut a proposed IMAX theater from its building plans.
"The IMAX is just what the Taubman needs to get and keep foot traffic," Arnold e-mailed. "Especially in today's economy, where many will not be traveling out of town for vacations this year. What better way to escape to another place for a while and leave feeling as though you have taken a wonderful, exciting vacation?" Board members axed the IMAX after it was determined the large-format movie theater would not make money in Roanoke.
'Broadway's' small profit The city's "Broadway in Roanoke" series at the Roanoke Civic Center, which former Mill Mountain Theatre director Jere Hodgin has said damaged Mill Mountain Theatre irreparably, generated $6,272 in profit for the city in fiscal 2007-08, Roanoke spokeswoman Melinda Mayo said.
Figures for the current season are not yet available.
Three at the Taubman The Taubman Museum of Art has opened three new exhibits. Devorah Sperber's "A Strange Sense of Deja Vu" includes a floating shower curtain covered with 120,000 stickers that reveal a '68 VW bus, a Persian rug made from 18,000 colored marker caps and a 40-foot long bed of river rocks made from 20,000 spools of thread. "Apocalypse Management: Vistas and Details" features work by multimedia artist Chris Doyle, including a series of connected light boxes and flat screen animations. And "In Life I was Silent, In Death I Sing" features regional instrument makers whose creations are enjoyed by music fans all over the world.
The exhibits replace "REVO-OVER," "Rethinking Landscape: Contemporary Photography from the Allen G. Thomas Jr. Collection" and "Pens and Needles: Drawings for Tattoos." Roughly 50 percent of the museum's exhibit space will be devoted to rotating exhibits, said museum deputy director of art David Brown. 342-5760; taubmanmuseum.org.
To see more of The Roanoke Times, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.roanoke.com/.
Copyright (c) 2009, The Roanoke Times, Va.
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
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