Art Museum Gala

By Karen McNew
WSLS10 Anchor
Published: November 10, 2008

When the station invited me to help represent the station along with Jay Warren and several others from WSLS at the Art Museum Gala… I was excited but had no idea just how amazing the evening would be… as we walked to the front door the front door was buzzing with people arriving for the event that started at 7pm and lasted until midnight… there were flashing lights moving and shining through the air… it had an old time “hollywoodesque” type feel… I am a pretty simple person so my eyes were likely fairly wide as we walked in…  I do not consider myself an art connoisseur but I do enjoy it…

There was the glass staircase that is much bigger in person than the pictures we have shown on WSLS… there were so many people… so many lights… different company names were being flashed on the giant wall next to the staircase… and there were so many familiar faces…  as Matt and I made our way through the crowd he ran into people he hadn’t seen since high school… I ran into people I see in our news on a regular basis but rarely get to talk to in person… it was hard to decide what to do first…

Once we finally made it to the second floor where the galleries are located… it was shoulder to shoulder walking down the hall… I am more of a traditionalist when it comes to art… I enjoyed looking at the Norman Rockwell and such… the handbags were a treat to behold.. literally one of them is the shape of a small piece of candy… what appeared to be a body lying in the corner of one of the galleries caught my attention… not a real person.. art…. the contemporary art gallery was intriguing to me… what appeared to be a giant metal intricately woven handkerchief hung in front of a solid white wall… and a chandelier of bows that was covered in candle wax were my favorites there…

We made our way back downstairs to enjoy a little bit of food and ended up talking with a very sweet couple from the U.K. who now live at Smith Mountain Lake… a welcome break from the low roar of multiple conversations that came from every floor of the museum…

Everyone kept asking us if we had been to the 3rd floor… we hadn’t… so up the elevator we went and WOW… it was like every floor was a different world… it was decked out with what appeared to be giant painted wooden palm trees… a couple of lovely musicians singing and a balcony with an amazing view of the city… we met up with some of the other people from the station there and enjoyed the cool air along with the scenery.. I suddenly caught a glimpse of my General Manager’s watch… I said,“ Does that say 10:05?“  He looked at it and said yes… no I didn’t turn into a pumpkin at 11:00pm but I did need to be back to anchor the news!!! 

The fun was over almost as fast as it had begun… the whole evening was such a hustle and bustle time had flown…

On my way into work today I was thinking about how peaceful the museum would feel on an afternoon during the week… like a bit of therapy for under ten dollars… I’m looking forward to going back to the museum when I have more time and the crowd is a little smaller…