Music on the New to feature ‘Them Dirty Roses’
RADFORD, VA-Radford will kick off the summer on Friday, June 2nd with southern roots rock and roll music by ‘Them Dirty Roses’. The concert will be held on the grounds of Glencoe Museum, 600 Unruh Drive, Radford, VA 24141.
Everyone is encouraged to bring chairs, or dance the night away, and enjoy an evening of live music under the stars!
According to the band’s website, ‘the band was taught how to bend a string and break a heart by Skynard and Hank. They’ve made their way from Gadsden, AL to Nashville, TN and they’re chasing the quintessential rock and roll American Dream’.
JD Outlaw will open for the band. ReverbNation describes JD Outlaw as, ‘Growing up in the heart of Dixie, his style was developed while listening to his mother’s kitchen radio playing traditional country music and his older sisters jamming out to grunge rock down the hall. His music reflects these exact emotions, from Hank style driven pedal steel, up beat tempo Alabama love songs, to the over stimulating visual imaging of Alice in Chains and the rawness of a good outlaw Waylon tune. In other words his music is about heartbreak, love, extreme sadness, as well as overwhelming happiness’.
Food and beverages will be available.
The concert is from 6PM-10PM. Admission is $5/person and children 12 and under are free. Advance tickets are available at ticketfly.com
For more information please visit www.VisitRadford.com. The event is being sponsored by the SAS Attractions and the Radford Visitor’s Center.
Radford Fine Arts Show seeks entries
A juried exhibition that showcases the best art in Southwest Virginia, sponsored by Radford University and the City of Radford, is accepting entries through June 4, 2017.
The competition is open to all media and includes cash and merchandise awards, including a top award of $500 for Best in Show. The entries that are chosen will be accepted for display in the Radford University Art Museum Downtown located at 1129 E. Main Street in Radford. The exhibition will be held June 29 through July 21 with an opening reception scheduled for June 29 from 5-7 PM.
The competition is open to any artists, ages 18 and up, who live in Southwest Virginia, which for the purposes of this exhibition extends from Bedford and Rockbridge Counties to Lee County. Entry fee is $15 for one work or $25 for two works.
Entries for the exhibition will be juried in a “blind” process. Our juror for this year’s exhibition is Sue Steele Thomas, professor of art at Virginia Western Community College.
Entry rules are available at www.radford.edu/Radford CityShow.
Jackson named Virginia external affairs director for Appalachian Power
Larry Jackson has been named Appalachian Power external affairs director for Virginia. Jackson succeeds Joe Jones, who will officially retire in August after nearly 37 years with the company.
Jackson joined Appalachian Power in 1980 as a transmission and distribution engineer in Huntington, W.Va. He has held positions in marketing, customer service, distribution operations and process improvement prior to his current role as external affairs manager in the Virginia/Tennessee external affairs group.
The announcement was made by Appalachian Power External Affairs Vice President Mark Dempsey.
“Larry brings years of experience to the job and was the obvious choice to replace Joe as director,” Dempsey said. “I know Larry will do a great job as we continue to strengthen relations with our customers, communities and government contacts.”
Jackson earned a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from West Virginia University and a master’s degree in business administration from Averett University. He is a professional engineer in Virginia and West Virginia.
Jackson will assume the new role effective June 3.
Appalachian Power has one million customers in Virginia, West Virginia and Tennessee (as AEP Appalachian Power). It is a unit of American Electric Power, one of the largest electric utilities in the United States, delivering electricity and custom energy solutions to nearly 5.4 million customers in 11 states.
AEP owns the nation’s largest electricity transmission system, a more than 40,000-mile network that includes more 765-kilovolt extra-high voltage transmission lines than all other U.S. transmission systems combined. AEP also operates 224,000 miles of distribution lines. AEP ranks among the nation’s largest generators of electricity, owning approximately 26,000 megawatts of generating capacity in the U.S. AEP supplies 3,200 megawatts of renewable energy to customers.
-Submitted by Theresa Hamilton Hall
Outdoor Sculpture Exhibition Opens in Radford
Three sculptures selected from 18 entries are now on view in the City of Radford’s first juried outdoor sculpture competition. The exhibition, titled “An Epic Journey,” runs now through Sept. 15, 2017, in the Mary Draper Ingles Cultural Heritage Park and features works by award-winning artists Charlie Brouwer, Bob Doster and Hanna Jubran.
The exhibit is partially supported by funding from the Virginia Commission for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts.
“We couldn’t be more pleased with the response we received for this first competition from artists in Virginia as well as four other states,” says Deborah Cooney, director of tourism. “This effort represents the beginning of a vision our Tourism Commission has for integrating art with the historic and outdoor assets here in our locality,” she added. “While the exhibit is temporary, our goal is to establish a public art program throughout the business and recreation districts.”
Titled “He Always Carried It With Him Wherever He Went,” Brouwer’s work is an eight-foot-tall man holding a leaf and is constructed of locust wood. According to the Floyd County artist, the “guy realizes how much his existence depends on nature, and the leaf symbolizes his desire to remember in all of his doings, and comings and goings to respect, pay attention, guard and protect his home—the natural world.”
Brouwer was a professor at Radford University for 21 years and has participated in 250 national and international exhibitions. In 2016, he received a professional fellowship from the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond.
Doster is the owner of a metal sculpting studio, gallery and sculpture garden in Lancaster, S.C. The Resident Artist in Education for the South Carolina Arts Commission has exhibited in settings worldwide. The sculptor says his winning entry, “November Wind,” represents the “changing seasons and the hardships that are endured with the cold winds of fall and winter.” Doster has taught art for more than 30 years and has been honored for his role in the preservation of cultural assets.
Jubran’s 700-pound work, “Moon and Sky,” depicts the moonscape in space. He says the choice of stainless steel showcases how the moon appears at dusk. “I found creating the landscape in a three-dimensional format a challenge and a way to express my feelings about nature,” he added. The professor of art at East Carolina University in Greenville, N.C., has exhibited works in the U.S. and abroad and is represented in numerous private and corporate collections.
The Park, where the sculptures are located, is named for colonial heroine Mary Draper Ingles, who was abducted in 1775 by a party of Shawnees and taken hundreds of miles into the frontier. Her escape and return home by navigating rivers and living off the land has been the subject of numerous books, an outdoor drama and a couple of movies and was the inspiration for the city’s first outdoor sculpture competition. Park hours are dawn to dusk.
Judges for the competition were Carl Lefko, director of the School of Dance and Theatre at Radford University, and Dr. Steve Arbury, director of the Radford University Art Museum. Both agreed that the entries provided a “rich and varied grouping representing the river/wilderness theme.” All three sculptures are for sale.
-Submitted by Deb Cooney
Orbital Committee Donates to Food Pantry
Orbital ATK New River Energetics Community Relations Committee donated $3,500 to New River Community Action (NRCA) Food Pantries for the New River Valley.