A Little Afternoon Magic: The Paper Blooms Project at Roanoke College

Looking for a way to have an easy, calm outing on a rainy day, K and G visited the Paper Blooms Project at Olin Hall Gallery of Roanoke College.  We'd seen a related mention on Facebook, and we have a developing fondness for community- made art and larger-scale, immersive installations.

We were both delighted by the hand -crafted flowers, all made by volunteers the general public using simple supplies like crepe paper and glue.  Some of the flowers are shockingly realistic; others are more fanciful and integrate interesting papers like maps.  The exhibit is primarily colorful and small enough to be pretty accessible to young kids -- it kept G's attention for a good 30 minutes at age 4.  The staff member present answered our questions about how the flowers were made and the reasoning for the white wall of flowers, a memorial tribute.  She also shared that the flowers will make their way to locations like rehabilitation clinics when the exhibit closes at the end of March.  

If you go, be prepared to park and walk if the nearby lots with limited visitor parking (primarily in front of the Roselawn admissions building and the lot immediately beside Olin on High Street) are full.  We were pretty disappointed with parking availability, but our trip was rescued by a helpful gallery attendant.  We called in to Roanoke College and asked to be transferred to the gallery office, and she helped us access the gallery from the "lower Olin" parking lot by walking to meet us--super nice.  Her kindness made our day and truly made this little trip successful.  The gallery is free and open 1-4 most days, including weekends, when there is not a holiday or college break.  We were the only visitors there for most of our visit, despite the fact that there have been several related local news stories.  We also enjoyed the exhibit of Carolyn Deck's work in the nearby gallery.  If you are making the trip into the area and want to make a day of it, we suggest taking in the Taubman Museum of Art in Roanoke and staying on theme--there's always something interesting there.