Katherine Devine Opens Art Center

A stroller marked the doorway to the studio above Reid’s Fine Furnishings, while a large white bunny holding an orange carrot enticed visitors to venture up the stairs to Katherine Devine’s brand new “Studio and Art Center.” Well known in art circles, Devine has had a finger in seemingly every artistic pie in the Roanoke Valley since 1995. With art degrees from both East Carolina University and Hollins University, she has made her mark on numerous art venues primarily in and around Roanoke.

She has taught, mentored, and enriched the lives of children and adults in such varied programs as the Artistically Gifted in Roanoke County Public Schools, at-risk Roanoke City High School students, teens in foster care, special needs children at the Taubman Museum of Art, as well as programs for women at Hollins University and for youth through the YWCA and Virginia Western Community College. While the list of her teaching experience is breathtaking; she is equally involved in art shows, juried exhibitions, and other forms of community activities.

Devine is “really grateful  to be in such a creative corner of the city” on Grandin Road,  with The Grandin Theatre,  Roanoke Ballet Theatre, and Too Many Books as neighbors – along with the landmark Roanoke Natural Foods Co-op across the street. Her art center is also a studio with original art work and custom-made graphic art available for sale.

With a passion to extend the world of art to others, Devine offers art lessons for home school, after school, and adult programs. She holds summer workshops for students who want to continue art projects when school is out, and especially for students for whom there are no school-related art classes. Devine explains the value of art as it relates to intellectual development and emotional wholeness, and welcomes the opportunity to inspire creative responses in her students, and enjoys the enthusiasm that inevitably follows.

Devine is a true teacher, but she also listens to what her students tell her. One student’s heart’s desire was to have a birthday party at the new Katherine Devine Art Center, because “what could possibly be more fun?”  Playing with the idea, Devine imagines pizza for the party at Grace’s Place two doors down. She has quickly carved out a welcome niche in the Grandin business district.  Creative minds really do add glitter to the stuff of life!

The Katherine Devine Art Center is located at 1320 Grandin Road, Suite C;  Phone 540.427.5919; e-mail: [email protected].