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Should Shenandoah County have an arts council?
by Gary Pinnell
Shenandoah County has more than a dozen arts organizations: the Shenandoah Valley Music Festival, Shenandoah Valley Watercolor Society, Valley Educational Center for the Creative Arts and Theater Shenandoah. The parks and recreation department teaches dance and yoga to adults and children.
There are art galleries in Woodstock and Mount Jackson.
Another arts group has formed to stage productions in the old Edinburg school.
So, should the county have an arts council?
If so, what would it look like? Who would be in charge?
If the board of supervisors funded an arts council, would they dictate the kinds of arts the council would endorse?
In other places
Some of those questions were answered two weeks ago when Robin Iten Porter, executive director of the Arts Council of the Valley in Harrisonburg, addressed the Woodstock Rotary Club.
"How many people know what an arts council is?" she asked the Rotarians.
Although the room was filled with community and business leaders, only a third raised their hands.
It’s not like an art gallery or a ballet company or a music festival or a chorus or a symphony orchestra or a theater group, Porter reminded the audience. An arts council is an umbrella organization which covers all of the arts and crafts, like a tourism bureau or a chamber of commerce for businesses.
If a local arts council did form, how would it be funded?
Private funding might ensure no government censorship or interference, but fundraising is problematic, she said. Government funding is stable, until the economy turns bad.
"Then guess who’s on the chopping block?" Porter asked rhetorically.
All arts organizations are understaffed, Porter said. There are 15 or 16 in Virginia.
In North Carolina and Maryland, there is one in every county. Last year, there were 4,000 in America. About 75 percent are private, non-profits, like the Arts Council of the Valley, and it’s hard to keep them going. Their budgets are from $500 to $100 million.
What geographic territory does the Arts Council of the Valley cover?
"It was called that to leave it open," Porter said. But in reality, it serves Harrisonburg, Rockingham County, and tries to reach Staunton, although intercounty jealousies and feuding keeps the Arts Council of the Valley from doing so. It has 40 members, including a relationship with James Madison University and Eastern Mennonite University’s programs.
It started as a method of keeping Court Square Theater open, she said.
About 88 percent of arts councils present programs; 66 percent are funded by grants; 80 percent manage a facility, like Court Square.
County-wide or valley-wide
"For years, I’ve been saying how great it would be to have a valley-wide arts council," said Shenandoah County Tourism Director Susie Hill.
She might place an arts council with the Shenandoah County Travel Association, which is headquartered in New Market.
Her concept of a valley-wide council would be an umbrella-like structure over all its member organizations. Its principal function would be to market the productions of its member organizations and to apply for grants.
Regional entities are looked upon more favorably for grants than single-purpose organizations, she said.
Local artist Wolfgang Neudorfer supports the concept, but confesses, "I’m not exactly sure about what an arts council would do, except try to get the word out about arts."
Neudorfer quit the 7East Gallery in downtown Woodstock because it didn’t get enough traffic. The gallery remains open, and is operated by artists who display their works on the wall.
"I try to look for other venues to show and sell my art," Neudorfer said. He remains a member of The Art Group in Mount Jackson, which operates similarly to 7East.
Does he agree an arts council is needed in Shenandoah County?
"Anything to create more awareness, which is what we desperately need," Neudorfer said.
VECCA, in some ways, is an arts council. Barbara Williams, its president, said it has spawned Theater Shenandoah and 7East.
She supports an arts council, in principle.
"I don’t think we can have too many venues to get the word out about arts," Williams said. It could help solicit funds and volunteers, but she warns that every organization draws from the same pool of patrons.
And unlike Hill, Williams would prefer a countywide council.
So does Barbara Strong, the director of Theater Shenandoah. She thinks the theater would have a hard time drawing patrons from Harrisonburg or Winchester.
She’s also a pianist for the Masterworks Chorus, which performs four Christmas concerts across the county.
"We have a difficult enough time drawing from New Market, and it’s the same thing in Strasburg, it’s always the least audience we have," Strong said.
Both Strong and Williams agree that a successful arts council must have one thing, a successful executive director. That’s how the Shenandoah Valley Music Festival has succeeded, she thinks.
"The music festival would fall flat on its butt without Dennis (Lynch)," Strong said. "He’s good, he knows what he’s doing."
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More stories on Shenandoah.com:
 (MASSANUTTEN REGIONAL LIBRARY)
- Yesterday
(Bluemont Concert Series)
- Wednesday Jul 28 2010
(Woodstock Enhancement Committee)
- Wednesday Jul 28 2010
(Virginia Farm Bureau)
- Wednesday Jul 28 2010
(The Warren Sentinel)
- Monday Nov 30 2009
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