Celebrate along the way
We create moments of connection and delight, because joy is part of the work, not just the outcome.
Policy Approach
For a lot of people in Roanoke, a festival is not one part of their relationship with arts and culture. It is the whole relationship. The Daisy Art Parade, Local Colors, and a block event in a neighborhood park are how we reach people that ticketed programming does not.
That shows in what residents told us. Neighborhood events and festivals were the second most requested investment in this survey, behind only support for artists.
Roanoke will treat shared public occasions as a principal means of cultural participation rather than as a complement to it, and will hold them to the same standard of care as the work that happens indoors. Roanoke will support recurring programming that gives the city something to attend in an ordinary week, will program its parks throughout the year rather than only during festivals, and will give young people public audiences for their work.
Priority 1: Neighborhood events and festivals
Support festivals, markets, and civic events that bring residents together.
- Fund and coordinate festivals across the year rather than clustering them
- Grow and update the Daisy Art Parade
- Support farmers markets, pop-up markets, and makers fairs as cultural venues
- Program events in neighborhoods beyond downtown
- Commission a community performance piece celebrating Roanoke’s rivers and streams
Program arts and cultural activity in parks and natural areas.
- Program parks regularly rather than only during festivals
- Activate underused park facilities, including Highland Park’s stage
- Connect youth arts programming to the outdoors
Having more access to performances or arts experiences in accessible public spaces (like parks, for example) would make it so much easier for families to attend as a whole
Priority 2: A city with something on
Expand performing and literary arts programming across the city.
- Mix local and touring work in City-supported programming, including acts that currently bypass Roanoke
- Vary repertoire rather than repeating the same annual productions
- Support poetry, readings, and literary programming
- Connect arts programming to literacy work
- Run a citywide one-book reading program each year, stocked through the libraries
- Commission and stage a play about life in Roanoke
We would like to see them do something different, they have come so far we would hate to see them stagnate.
Grow live music programming and support the local music scene.
- Diversify the genres programmed in City-supported venues
- Support small and mid-size live music venues as an ecosystem
- Program music outdoors and in neighborhoods
- Invest in developing local musicians, not only booking touring acts
Spaces where I can actually perform or share my music. Not just fancy venues for classical stuff. Hip-hop open mics, rap battles, affordable places to record.
Activate downtown with regular street-level arts programming.
- Expand and better coordinate the First Friday art walk
- Program pop-up arts events in commercial areas
- Use vacant storefronts for temporary exhibitions and events
- Support busking and street performance
I’d also love a first Friday art walk type of even to go on monthly with music etc.
Priority 3: Showcasing our own
Give young people public audiences for their work, and a hand in shaping it.
- Create regular youth performance showcases in music, dance, and theater
- Commission youth-led public art, including murals
- Hold public exhibitions of youth work, including a citywide student art show
- Involve young people in designing the programs meant for them
- Establish seasonal youth art competitions with judged rounds across several disciplines
I also wish we had a public K through age 20 art show like we used to at the Elmwood Festival in the Park.
To make them feel represented and connected, listen to them and actually use their suggestions.