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Roanoke attracts visitors with iconic star and Rockwell works Roanoke’s favorite icon, a huge neon star, shines down on the western Virginia city from Mill Mountain. Besides its star, the Blue Ridge city, four hours southwest of Washington, D.C., is also known for festivals, its walkability, its railroad heritage, its abundance of outdoor activities, and
its $66 million hyper-contemporary art museum. In fact, the Taubman Museum of Art’s shape evokes the dramatic mountain landscape as well as the railroad engines passing on live tracks just yards from its north side. This spring, nostalgia reigns at the
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Repurposed items like this cast iron bathtub sofa are among the goods you’ll find at Black Dog Salvage in Roanoke.
Taubman in a celebrated Norman Rockwell exhibit. Organized by the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, Mass., the Taubman’s presentation of this national traveling exhibit is the final time that American Chronicles will be on display before returning home to Massachusetts. The retrospective features more than 100 of the prolific artist’s most significant works as well as sketches, illustrations, and 323 iconic covers from The Saturday Evening Post. “From the rise of the automobile to World War and from the Freedom Movement to space exploration, Norman Rockwell chronicled the most significant moments of the 20th century,” said Della Watkins, the museum’s executive director. “We’ve worked on getting this exhibit for over two years.” Visitors to the Taubman can enter the spirit of the Rockwell exhibit in several ways. Guests can pose for selfies in “retro vignette” sets created by Roanoke’s Black Dog
Salvage (as seen on DIY Network’s Salvage Dawgs), crafting their own Rockwell moment. Visitors may also enjoy mobile audio tours of the exhibit from the viewpoints of the artist and his son. The Rockwell exhibit runs through June 12. Other notable Taubman exhibits running this spring include the legacy of George Washington as seen through artifacts and portraits, a beaded handbag exhibit, and the museum’s collection of portraits by Thomas Eakins, acclaimed as one of the most important artists in American art history. Admission to the Rockwell exhibit is $12.50 for adults, $10.50 for seniors and students, and $8.50 for children ages 9 through 17. Other Taubman exhibits are free of charge.
Shopping is right nearby Some of Roanoke’s most delectable shopping lies within steps of the Taubman, clustered around Roanoke’s year-round open-air market, which operates seven days a week.
ISN’T IT TIME FOR A LITTLE
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