The Taubman Museum of Art in Roanoke went to the dogs, cats, and all creatures great and small Friday night for the eighth annual Best In Show opening night reception. More than 200 local artists submitted their work, including paintings, sculptures and pet beds for sale, with the proceeds benefitting the Roanoke Valley SPCA. The winning painting is used as the cover photo for the next year’s calendar. Board President Barbara Dalhouse said the event gets bigger and better every year.
“People have really gotten into it. Word has spread; the schools are very much into it now. And we have almost double the amount of work this year as we had last year. And the competition is higher.”
She said the panels which artists purchase to put their artwork on are being offered to the public sooner so artists can get a head start. In fact, she said the panels will be released in September for the schools to have several months for their students to work on them.
This is the second time a student’s work will be used for the calendar cover.
The winner was “Dewey” by Olivia Bedrosian. Dalhouse said a lot of pieces were being sold at the reception, especially the higher-priced works. She said many of the artists decided to donate 100 percent of the proceeds to the SPCA. Those that weren’t sold will be available for viewing at a virtual art show on the SPCA’s website and Best In Show Facebook page. She hopes to realize $25,000 from the event.
The reception highlighted the second day on the job for the SPCA’s new Chief Executive Officer, Denise Hayes. An SPCA volunteer for several years, she was most recently the CEO at the Girl Scouts and said she has a lot of budgeting, finance, and administrative experience she brings to her new job.
“It’s so wonderful to see all of the artists who are involved and committed. And the kids this year; there’s so much artwork from the children this year. Actually, the winner for the calendar is a high school student; and so that’s really exciting to see the kids involved. Having art in the schools and being able to partner with that through the SPCA is a fantastic opportunity.”
The SPCA is partnering with Cornell University which will visit the SPCA for a week in May.
“They’re going to do a sort of soup to nuts assessment of the whole facility, the whole process.” Cornell is one of a handful of universities that does this type of assessment. The university also has a shelter medicine program. “They will leave us with sort of a binder of thoughts and things that they have about ways to really reach out and improve the organization.”
Right now Hayes is spending her time learning about the organization from the inside out. “I’m going to wait and see a little bit of what Cornell recommends and make some suggestions because we don’t want to start making a whole bunch of changes right away and doing a whole bunch of things and then them come in and have some other ideas.”
Then she said it will be time for the Board to do some strategic planning for the next several years.
Dalhouse said since the organization doesn’t receive state or federal funding, they rely on several fundraisers each year to bring in needed funds. Some upcoming fundraisers for the SPCA include the Tail Chaser 5K in March and the Puppy Love Ball in May.
