Making a Point: Tamarack’s Day in the Sun
Photos by Douglas Imbrogno. Click photos to enlarge.
Some people dis the shape. But West Virginia is sorely lacking in distinctive architecture and Tamarack is one of the few belles of the ball anywhere in the Mountain State, design-wise. Commentary and division continues on the op-ed pages surrounding Gov. Joe Manchin’s decision to move the arts and crafts showcase to the state Commerce Department and possibly to farm it out to a private company.
Anything that would diminish the center’s survivability would be a bonehead move. Yes, it has needed subsidies to survive, but there’s absolutely no other place like it in West Virginia. I am certainly biased as I’ve sold a music CD of my own from its racks and have performed on the center’s small, but very nice stage and will again later this year.
But Tamarack’s wide reach and range in showcasing West Virginia’s arts and culture has spurred a flowering of creativity in this state that has often made the difference in artists being able to survive here. If the Create West Virginia folks are correct - that the arts pave the way to economic vitality in a digital age in which people can work anywhere and hence a place’s quality of life is all-important - then Tamarack is part of the state’s current and future well-being. Plus, no building looks cooler in the golden light of a winter West Virginia sunset.
January 26th, 2009 at 1:03 am
I love Tamarack inside and out. To me, it looks almost like the center for some kind of 3D quilt block.
PS: I think I had a class with you at Marshall many years ago. Dr. Taft taught it. Advanced Expository Writing.
January 29th, 2009 at 12:10 pm
Hmmm. That may have been my doppelganger. I’ve never taken a class at Marshall. I, too, love Tamarack, even though it’s circular interior is boggling to me as I wander in the round and cannot ever orient myself to where I am in space and time. Or maybe that’s because of the double cappucino I am usually holding while there.
Doug