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The Dumas Center for Artistic and Cultural Development

Preserving proud history for posterity

            Since 1989, TAP has had the distinct privilege of owning the historic Hotel Dumas located in the heart of the Henry Street district in the Gainsboro neighborhood of Roanoke, Virginia.  This proud old building holds a cherished place in the history of Roanoke's African American community, and TAP feels profoundly the need to honor that past in a way that ensures that the building will continue to play an important role in the community, education, culture, and economy of Roanoke's 21st Century.  

            During the segregationist era of the 20^th century, Gainsboro served Roanoke’s African American community as a separate, self-sustaining business and cultural center.  It contained two theaters, drugstores, a bank, beauty parlors, shoe repair shops, dry cleaners, restaurants, insurance offices, lawyers’ offices, and many other businesses necessary for the daily life and survival of the community.  Perhaps the single most important place on Henry Street was the Hotel Dumas, where first-class overnight accommodations were provided for blacks traveling through and in the City of Roanoke for business, entertainment, educational or social purposes.  It was the place where black clubs, fraternities, sororities, and other organizations held meetings, conferences, dances, debutante balls, and cotillions. 

When black musicians traveled to Roanoke to perform at the Hotel Roanoke or Star City American Legion Auditorium during segregation, they would be excluded from staying overnight anywhere except in the “colored” Hotel Dumas.  The guest list of the Hotel Dumas during that period includes the greatest names in American jazz – Louis Armstrong, Count Basie, Lena Horn, Dizzy Gillespie, Fats Waller, Duke Ellington, Cab Calloway, Ella Fitzgerald, and many others.  After regular shows at the Hotel Roanoke, audiences would often accompany the black performers back to the Hotel Dumas and other night spots on Henry Street for all-night jam sessions.  

            TAP has completed a  comprehensive renovation of the Dumas and transform it into the Dumas Center for Artistic and Cultural Development.  The Dumas will be on its way to becoming an exciting new focal point in Roanoke’s cultural tourism-based economy.  TAP stands proudly at the threshold of a new era for the Dumas. 

Being in the right place at the right time

            The Dumas Center for Artistic and Cultural Development stands squarely in the path of a wave of Roanoke City-sponsored infrastructure development that began in the 1980s and that now reaches the very doorsteps of the Dumas.  Beginning with the Farmers Market Building, the City began renovating Roanoke’s colorful urban core with the specific goal of stimulating tourism in the oldest portions of our city.  1983 saw construction of Center in the Square and an influx of new boutique-style shops, restaurants, nightclubs, and art galleries throughout the Farmers Market District.   

            The past 15 years ushered in another wave of comprehensive City-sponsored revitalization, which directed the momentum of tourism growth across the Norfolk Southern railroad tracks towards Gainsboro.  The improvements of this period include: 

• Beautification and improved accessibility to Welles Avenue, linking the Hotel Roanoke to Interstate 581

• Construction of SkyWalk, a glass-covered footbridge crossing the Norfolk Southern railroad between the Hotel Roanoke and the Farmers Market District

• Renovation and reorganization of the historic Hotel Roanoke and Conference Center

• Creation of the Roanoke Higher Education Center from a former office building owned by Norfolk Southern

• Construction of an attractive new parking garage across the street from the Dumas

• Construction of Railside Linear Park, an aesthetic walkway linking the Virginia Museum of Transportation to the Roanoke City Farmers Market district, and

• Greater Gainsboro Development, creating a direct pedestrian link between the Hotel Roanoke and Conference Center and the Dumas Center for Artistic and Cultural Development via Center Avenue.

• O. Winston Link Museum is located in the renovated Norfolk & Western Railway passenger station within walking distance of all the above amenities.  The 15,000 sq. ft. facility is the world’s largest collection of Link’s photos, which chronicled the last years of Norfolk & Western steam locomotives between 1955 and 1960.

            TAP has transforming the historic Hotel Dumas into a high-quality cultural tourism destination and community arts center, expanding the tourism trade now focused in the Roanoke City Market and Hotel Roanoke areas to include the historic Henry Street district of Gainsboro.  It is TAP's hope that the Dumas Center for Artistic and Cultural Development will graciously enhance Roanoke City's extensive infrastructure investments and become a complementary addition to the City's long-term plan for economic revitalization.   

"A place for . . . the touching of another"

"This building must always be symbolic of a place for people from all walks of life to gather for the enrichment of one's self, and the touching of another." -- Darthula Lash, in memory of her father, Mack D. Barlow, Jr., former owner of the Hotel Dumas, who died in 1975.

                                  The Dumas Center for Artistic and Cultural Development is housed in the historic Hotel Dumas, which has been renovated as part of the Henry Street Historic District  This beautifully renovated historic structure serves as a cultural tourism destination featuring performances by the Dumas Drama Guild, the offices of Opera Roanoke with its special youth programs, and music and drama performed by local, regional and national artists, and groups in the 260-seat auditorium on the facility's second floor.  The Dumas Center for Artistic and Cultural Development is strategically located to become an extension and enhancement of the City's burgeoning tourism industry.

 Dumas Drama Guild

            In operation since 2000, the Dumas Drama Guild is a bright star in the Roanoke Valley's expanding galaxy of theater entertainment.  The Dumas Drama Guild has given over 100 performances of over a dozen different plays in Roanoke during the past four years, including performances by Youth on the Yard Organization (YOYO), a children's theater-based development organization working in partnership with the Guild.

            Dumas Drama Guild actors are recruited largely from the African American community of the City of Roanoke.  The plays produced are of consistent artistic merit and audience appeal, combining poetical and musical diction, glamorous costumes and elegant choreography, exotic colors and sounds, and a panoply of emotion.  As a vibrant urban arts organization, the Dumas Drama Guild is uniquely situated to serve the Roanoke region as a spark plug for generating tourism.           

Since its founding in summer, 2000, the Dumas Drama Guild has given performances of the following plays: 

• Just up the Road by Marshal McAden

• Mr. Lee by Cheryl Hopson (former TAP employee)

• A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry

• A Bluesy Christmas on the Yard.  Marshal McAden's adaptation of a play by Earl Hamner

• Day of Absence by Douglas Turner Ward

• There's Something in Store for You by Marshal McAden

• A Salute to Uncle Remus, produced with Youth on the Yard Organization

• Purlie Victorius by Ossie Davis

• A Holiday on Henry Street by Marshal McAden

• The Piano Lesson  by August Wilson

• For Colored Girls who have Considered Suicide when the Rainbow is Enuf by Ntozake Shange

• The Night of January 16th by Ayn Rand

• Countess Blackula by Marshal McAden

• Hard Times Blues by Lucy Sweeney

• Steel Magnolias by Robert Harling

• Black Nativity by Langston Hughes.

Arts for Youth:  Real Time Skills

            Arts are now recognized to play an important role in child and youth development, a subject which has been central to the TAP mission since its founding.  A recent report, Champions of Change: The Impact of the Arts on Learning reviews research conducted at Harvard and Stanford Universities and Universities of California and Connecticut.  The researchers found that arts education can enhance academic achievement, reach students on the margins of the educational system, create an effective learning environment, and connect learners' experiences to the world outside of school.  Multiple studies cite strong positive impacts across socioeconomic groups with respect to both academic and personal success.   

A U.S. Department of Education cohort study summarized in Champions of Change found that high arts participation makes a more significant difference to students from low-income backgrounds than for high-income students.  Sustained involvement in music and theater is highly correlated with success in mathematics and reading.     

In conjunction with the Dumas Drama Guild, TAP offers Youth on the Yard Organization (YOYO), a theater-based youth development program for children ages 5-12 of all races, income levels, and ethnic backgrounds.  YOYO offers workshops once per week during the school year, featuring theater games and various movement and vocal exercises aimed at developing the quality and effectiveness of students' personal and public self-expression.    

YOYO provides students a hands-on introduction to many practical aspects of theater, including acting, set designing, costuming, dance, vocal projection, singing and character development.  Students learn how to go on a professional audition and how to land a role.  They attend theater performances and meet professional theater artists. 

 Opera Roanoke

            The Dumas Center for Artistic and Cultural Development is the new headquarters for Opera Roanoke.  Founded in 1976, Opera Roanoke has performed 84 different opera productions.  The company started out drawing talent from the Roanoke region and has grown steadily in artistic stature.  Under the leadership of Craig Fields as Artistic Director, productions garnered national recognition in publications such as the Metropolitan Opera’s journal, Opera News.  In 2001, the Arts Council of the Blue Ridge recognized Mr. Fields’ achievements with its Perry F. Kendig Award.  In December, 2004, Maestro Steven White was appointed General and Artistic Director.  A nationally recognized conductor, his retention promises to bring a new level of artistry to the Roanoke Valley. 

            Opera Roanoke is committed to educational and outreach programs providing the opportunity for youth and adults to enhance their knowledge and enjoyment of opera.  It is an objective of Opera Roanoke to introduce students in the region’s schools to principal cast members of Opera Roanoke’s main stage productions through in-school performances.  These free programs offer opportunities for students to interact with singers to discover more about opera and opera singing.

            Opera Roanoke has participated in the Kids Creating Original Opera project led by a teacher trained at the Metropolitan Opera.  Offered periodically to students in area schools, the program allows students to produce an entire 20-30 minute opera.  They write the libretto, compose the music, build the sets, create lighting, and present the performance to the public.  The Opera Roanoke Children’s Chorus was formed at the request of students who had participated in the first Kids Creating Original Opera project.  The Chorus, varying in size from 15 to 18 members, has performed for numerous local groups, most recently for the Local Colors celebration, and has appeared with Opera Roanoke in several main stage productions.