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Volunteers keep arts alive in Clifton Forge
By Alice Campbell • Contributing Writer
 | | Henrietta Crandall of Clifton Forge (left) and Karen Brown of Covington discuss the merits of "On the Rails" painted by Nancy M. Stark. The gallery is currently displaying a collection of her paintings dealing with trains. The show is named "Beyond Steel Shadows" and will run until 12 p.m. on Sept. 6. (Recorder photo by Alice Campbell) |
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CLIFTON FORGE — Nearly a quarter-century after its founding, the Alleghany Highlands Arts & Crafts Center is still going strong as a vital part of Clifton Forge and the region, providing classes, workshops, gallery displays, and more.
According to executive director Nancy Newhard-Farrar, there was a group of some 80 people in 1984 laying the groundwork. "They had an interest in expanding knowledge in the visual arts," she said, and spent more than a year planning, and researching similar centers, and planning
Today, the center operates with an annual $125,000 budget with a wide variety of fund-raising resources and financial support. Yearly membership dues, a shop in the center, local government groups, and corporations all contribute the revenue the center uses to operate. In addition, non-profit support from groups like the Alleghany Foundation, the Virginia Commission for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts help beef up the budget.
 | | Jo Ann Mize of Covington named her quilt "Working My Way Around." It is being raffled as a fund-raiser for the arts center. |
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The center is raffling a quilt made by Jo Ann Mize of Covington now, with proceeds earmarked for the general operating fund. The founding board also created an endowment for emergency expenses.
The original board chose the old power company building on Main Street to house the center, and volunteers supplied most of the labor. "There are old photographs of volunteers cleaning the iron steps with toothbrushes so that they would be clean enough to paint," Farrar said. "It's always been a grass roots, 'let's get it done' thing, and they had a lot of fun in the process."
And it still is. The center is staffed with its paid director and part-time assistant director, but 80 volunteers keep it running and help the 10,000-12,000 visitors from all 50 states and 30 foreign countries who come yearly.
 | | The Maple Leaf Quilt made by the Highland Senior Citizens for the Fair. Tickets will be available in the elementary school gym. (Recorder photo by M.K. Luther) |
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Volunteers hail from across the region including Lexington, Clifton Forge, Covington, and Highland County. Farrar called the volunteers, "ambassadors to the public." Volunteer Karen Brown of Covington echoed Farrar's sentiments. "I meet people from many, many places and that's really fun. You can share so much about your community when people come in." Brown became involved with the center six years ago when her daughter, who had been volunteering, left for college. "When she left, I felt kind of badly so I took over her Saturday." She now volunteers three and a half hours once a month as a cashier and docent; her husband also volunteers. "It broadens our lives a little bit and kind of fills a void," she said.
Brown knew little about art when she began, although she makes baskets that are displayed for sale in the shop, and credited the center with enriching her experience. "I always try to learn a little something new every time I come in. With each exhibit, you learn something new. You do, you do learn."
The center offers several classes for small fees. The mat cutting course consists of two sessions during which participants learn how to choose and cut mat, back pieces of work, and shrink wrap it. Once participants have completed the course, they can use the center's equipment. Farrar explained new artists and artists who are getting ready for shows find that cutting their own mats saves money as well as preserves pieces.
Another class aims to teach adults how to create unique objects out of dried gourds. Some examples of potential finished objects include birdhouses, baskets, or a Halloween mask.
Michael Farrar teaches drawing, oil painting, and watercolors for the last seven years and counting. His classes focus on building and expanding basic skills.
He currently teaches a course in Roanoke on abstracts and how to think in the abstract with art, and said if there was enough of a call for it in the Allegheny Highlands, he would be willing to teach one here as well. He volunteers at the center as a docent and cashier, and said customers often ask him questions about the pieces of art and crafts they consider buying. He says visitors are consistently pleasantly surprised by the quality of what they find. "I think the brown signs on the interstate bring them in, and then they're always shocked by the quality of things they see."
That quality doesn't happen by accident. The center re- quires all artists and craftsmen who submit work to be sold in the shop go through a blind jury process during which a committee looks at the pieces without having access to any of the artist or craftsman information.
Farrar said often people are turned away but not without some constructive critiquing to help them improve areas like presentation. She likened a piece of work that would be rejected to a wooden bowl that was unsanded on the bottom. To be acceptable, all the sides and edges must be sanded. "We are looking to show the world the best of what we have." Then, "we have things that have a human hand in them that we don't see very often in our world anymore. I think society can be really hungry for that."
The gallery itself is large. Currently, "Beyond Steel Shadows" by Nancy M. Stark is on display. "In composing my subject, I zoom in for a close-up view," Stark said. "I leave out as much, or more, of the subject as I paint. The viewer is invited to enjoy the artwork and fill in the missing pieces." Trains inspired all her works.
The next show will be "Uncommon Fibers" by artist Bonnie Venable, who uses fibers from various sources to create works in sculpture and 2D with oriental overtones.
Shows are changed every four to six weeks, allowing for an average of 10 shows per year. Unlike the shop, gallery exhibits are by invitation and booked as far as two years in advance to allow the artist ample time to prepare a collection. Most of the artists are not local, which allows the center to, "put that window on the world and showcase things going on outside of our immediate area," Farrar explained. To her, the point of the gallery is not to always display pieces that have mass popular appeal. "It's important to have access to as many different styles of work as we can," she said.
The exhibits are not always of paintings. One past show featured quilts. Another spotlighted photo realists through a private collection that later was displayed at the Chrysler Museum. An early show focused on German expressionist art that went on to be shown at the Virginia Museum of Art. Farrar reminisced about the assemblage of an exhibit of toys: "I remember two older men over a plastic fort with their heads together. It was wonderful."
The center also seeks to advance and broaden education. Through grant money, the center places a professional artist in residency in local high schools for 10 days each year. While there, the artist works with art students and the general student body. At the end of the 10 days, a show featuring the artist's and the high school students' work is put up in the gallery. Farrar called the program a great learning experience and said students "learn from artists and then get to exhibit next to artists in a professional setting."
In the fall of each year, the center sponsors a Fall Festival Art Show open to the general public aged 18 and over. The art, placed into one of eight categories, is displayed in the gallery for a month and judged. Prizes are awarded to the winners. Farrar called the show a chance to "discover new artists and get to see what old friends are up to," adding that many natives from out of town return specifically for the show.
The center also extends a challenge every springs to artists to create a piece of art related to, about, or even made of chocolate for the Chocolate Festival. Farrar said the event is routinely a hit. The date for next year has not yet been set.
An art library is also available for public use on the second floor of the center. The books are catalogued and can be perused on site or checked out. The works cover most time periods and most styles and were donated by local citizens, and the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts also donated some books it was phasing out of its own library.
The center is open Monday through Saturday, 10 a.m.- 4:30 p.m., except for January through April when it is closed on Mondays. For a complete listing of workshops or to learn more about the gallery and upcoming shows, call the center at (540) 862-4447.
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