The front doors at Jefferson Center are red, but the paint has chipped significantly.
It’s superficial damage that signals trouble beyond the century-old building’s entrance. Mechanical and fire protection upgrades are needed, and roofing, plumbing, electrical systems and damaged architecture are among other issues requiring millions of dollars of work in the structure that began its history as a high school.
Cyrus Pace, executive director of the nonprofit foundation that runs Jefferson Center — an iconic Roanoke concert venue that also houses multiple nonprofit and for-profit businesses — has for years lobbied the fiscally challenged city that owns it. He hasn’t given up on the city or the venue, he said, but after 15 years in charge — easily the longest tenure in its quarter-century history — he’s ready to move on.
That move begins on March 13, Pace’s final day at Jefferson Center. On April 7, he begins a new job at a similar venue in a nearby city, the Academy Center of the Arts in Lynchburg. The Academy Center is a 121-year-old theater building that reopened in 2018, 60 years after it was abandoned.
“The transition now is more about, you know, just me wanting to do something different, frankly, a new opportunity,” Pace said. “It’s not a litmus test on Jefferson Center or where it’s headed, but just an opportunity for me to refocus, and the organization to be refocused. New energy, new leadership.”
Pace told city leaders in 2023 that the building needed about $6 million in repairs. Line items included about $1.7 million for architecture, $1.4 million each for fire protection and mechanical issues, and more than $750,000 for roofing. Since then, Roanoke has paid for new common-area carpet and sprinkler heads in the building’s Shaftman Performance Hall. A few HVAC units were replaced, along with some other repairs.
Still, the capital needs, in categories and dollar amounts, are about the same as they were then, Pace said. At the same time, post-pandemic concert tickets sales have returned to strong levels. After the coronavirus shutdown, students have returned to the Music Lab at Jefferson Center, which is bringing in more local performers for multiday workshops, along with the usual collection of traveling acts who do one- or two-day educational sessions with students.
The foundation has a capable board and interim director in Kim Billings, the building’s director of operations, he said.
“I have no doubt that our city council and city administration understands the importance of what Jefferson Center does as part of the cultural infrastructure of the community of Roanoke, and that if they continue to stay focused on what’s best for Roanoke, they will find solutions to ensure that the right stuff is supported and the right stuff is prioritized,” Pace said.
Publicly available tax documents show that the foundation paid Pace $133,466 in the fiscal year ending in June 2024. The Academy Center paid its departing executive director, Geoff Kershner, $131,635 in the same fiscal year.
Pace said his compensation at the Academy will be more than he made at Jefferson Center but declined to disclose the details, which have not yet been publicly filed.
“Money was not the primary driver,” he said.
Cardinal News visited Pace recently at his Jefferson Center office, where he discussed the highs of hosting hundreds of performing artists, the multiple challenges he’s faced — including the COVID-19 pandemic shutdown that halted many group gatherings for more than a year — and what lies ahead for Jefferson Center and his new gig in Lynchburg.
The interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
Cardinal: You’ve been here as executive director for longer than anyone else. What was it about this place that kept you here this long?
Pace: So I started in 2010, then eight, nine years pass and the pandemic hits in 2020, when I might have been thinking about it being a good time to transition out and find a new opportunity.
It was clear to me that I needed to stay and try to figure out how to work our way through the pandemic in as healthy a way as possible, which, of course, wasn’t easy for anyone. But it was particularly challenging for those of us in the performing arts and the music industry, those operating venues that depend on people coming.
I’m really proud of how we handled that and came out the other side as successfully as you can. The programming has been really, really good. People are buying tickets again. Ticket sales have been great the last three years. Of course, with [programming director] Jamie Cheatwood here doing the bookings, it has been exceptionally good. She’s very, very good at it, and has this perfect blend of knowing what to book that’s artistically great, but also will sell tickets.
I think part of it is to ask yourself consistently, as a leader, am I still effective in this role? Can I still add value here? And my answer to that all along has been yes. So the transition now is more about just me wanting to do something different, frankly, a new opportunity. … The board is dialing in beautifully. We’ve done some recent strategy sessions.
And my kids are older, too. Frankly, that’s just kind of part of it, too. As your kids get older, you can think about where other opportunities might exist.
Cardinal: A boilerplate question is, what was your biggest challenge? And obviously, when I thought of that question, I was like, well, obviously it was the pandemic.
Pace: I would say that was the biggest challenge in terms of a period of leadership, but anybody who’s trying to make sense of the arts, make sense of survival in the nonprofit sector, it’s all a challenge.
I tell people, I think it’s the most complicated small business in America, right? You’ve got 10,000 stakeholders. You’ve got 1,000 donors, thousands of ticket buyers, and you’re trying to figure out how to do what works for all of them, so you can get a critical mass of contributed and earned support to continue to do what you do. It’s a very tricky balance.
It takes a lot of insight. It takes a lot of character, but it also takes a lot of humility, frankly, to ask the question: Are we doing this right? Is the role I’m playing positive or negative here? Are we asking the right questions? Are we engaging our community in a way that works for the community? Because, after all, Jefferson Center belongs to the community.
The building itself, of course, belongs to the city of Roanoke. It’s all been a challenge. The pandemic was just an acute period of challenge.
Cardinal: I noticed you’ve done a few different things with the Music Lab at Jefferson Center. Just sort of seeing a periphery of different programs, I’d assume that’s maybe as much a part of the mission, or more than it has been.
Pace: Frankly, the pandemic sort of helped us clarify some of those things, too: What do we do really, really well in our education program, and where do we want to focus our efforts?
We found that those opportunities where artists on stage interact with the students are really, really important. We wanted to focus on that. And then these short-term experiences where kids came in for a one-week producer camp, or one week working with songwriting, or one week talking about engineering, people really wanted those five-day experiences, so we really focused on that too.
That being said, this school year, the education program has gotten back to some of our original [participation] numbers, and the students are coming every week for everything we do, too. So it took a little while to rebuild that. But it’s another version of being hyper-focused on what works for the community and what kids are interested in. It’s as dynamic as it’s ever been.
Cardinal: As it’s developed over the years it seems like one aspect of it is, this is a really organic way to build audiences out of younger people. They get to know music. They get to know the performers, the producers and will retain an interest and become audiences, too.
Pace: I would say that really the reason to have the performing arts in any town is really to educate your community, right? In fact, the 501(c)(3) section that [Jefferson Center] exists under is the education part of the tax code. It’s educational. That’s why we exist.
So the education programs embedded in performing arts centers and museums isn’t just sort of something you do so that you survive over time. It’s actually the core of what you do.
Dylan [Locke, the music programmer/artistic director], when he was here, understood that inherently. As the advocate for programming, initially in Roanoke at Jefferson Center, but also the advocate for the Music Lab being here, he understood inherently that connecting those two things was the most important part of the work.
So he would say, we’re booking this not necessarily so that artists can come and be transactional, make a check on the stage, but it’s this surrounding stuff that we’re doing around their visit that’s infinitely more important.
But you are right: Over time that should build audiences for the work that you do. And someone is a Music Lab student at 15, hopefully at 35 owns their own business and brings their family out to something at Jefferson Center and supports us through their sponsorship, through their business, and believes in the cultural infrastructure that makes a community great. That’s the ultimate goal, for sure.
Cardinal: You were a musician long before you got into education. You worked for the city schools as coordinator of fine arts before you came here. I don’t know how much you get to even play anymore, but now you’re around all these amazing shows and amazing performers, I just wonder what are some highlights for you.
Pace: I’m a small-venue guy, you know. I like theater shows like we do here, where everybody’s seated and it’s just quiet. I like our small venue, Fostek Hall, the Jazz Club shows.
Highlights would be Buddy Miller and Emmylou Harris in the main hall, just a duo, unbelievable. There was a show where Del McCoury Band performed along with the Preservation Hall Jazz Band, unbelievably great show where it’s almost like in front of your eyes, you’re realizing and they’re realizing that they’ve always been playing the same shows in traditional jazz and traditional bluegrass. It’s a lot of the same spirit. That was amazing.
Nate Smith, who, of course, just won two Grammys, playing here with his band in Fostek Hall and then staying here for an additional three days working with kids in the Music Lab. That was cool. Obviously, the Snarky Puppy win for the Grammy and the work that surrounded that and the excitement for Roanoke — being part of that was cool.
We’ve seen a lot. Peter Bernstein, Larry Goldings and Bill Stewart. That trio, which I wanted to do here for 12, 13, years, finally got to book that, was really, really cool, you know. The night where Darryl Scott came and worked with Music Lab students and wrote a song, but then also performed. Amazing. Getting to meet John Leventhal when he came with Roseanne Carter, amazing. Also a great show.
Getting to hang with Pat Metheny was cool.
After 15 years, I guess I ended up seeing a lot of artists and meeting a lot of folks that I wouldn’t have been able to otherwise. People in Roanoke probably still don’t realize how much great music programming they get compared to any other MSA [metropolitan statistical area] of this size in the country. It’s unbelievable what people get to see here.
You’ve got the Harvester [Performance Center, in Rocky Mount] online that ends up having exactly zero impact on our ability to continue to do shows here. Then the Moss Arts center, now called Center for the Arts at Virginia Tech, comes online [and] has had exactly zero impact on our ability to do what we do here.
Then [there is] the new venue downtown, The Exchange [Music Hall], which will likely do shows that we wish we could do here, but we don’t have a standing party venue that makes sense to do those kinds of shows.
So I think the model that was created by Jefferson Center, this idea that folks had 15, 20 years ago that this could be a great music city, and those who continue to invest in that — it continues to come true. It’s only gotten better. There’s only more music.
The fear was, somehow we’ve gotten to critical mass — I’m not saying that, right — people weren’t going to be able to support all of it. Now you’ve got Grandin Theatre, Ian Fortier is doing music shows there, which are doing well. So the microcosm here really works. It’s a great music town, and I’m playing less, which I’m OK with, but can see more than we’ve ever been able to see. It’s really neat.
Our subscribers have been buying tickets here for 25 years. Some of them are in their 70s, and they still support us, and it’s amazing. But everyone’s asking the question: Who is your next group of subscribers and supporters? The question is, across the country, in the music business, where are the incubators for new bands, right? Where are the clubs where people can get started?
But you think about it, here we have it. We’ve got The Spot on Kirk. You’re playing for 85 people there. Next thing you get to 300 and Grandin Theatre. Next you think about a 500- or 600-seat place — you play the Harvester. And the next thing you know, you decide you can do an 800-, 900-person show. And then you have options. You decide, I like standing shows, so I’m going to do that at The Exchange. Or you decide, no, I’m really going to be a theater performer. I like the historic theater experience, and you do it at Shaftman Performance Hall at Jefferson Center.
The number of venues and options that exist here are pretty great. And of course, you know, best-case scenario, eventually you’re selling 2,200 seats at the Berglund Performing Arts Theatre, or you’re Billy Strings and you’re playing for 10,000 people at [Berglund] Center, which I think sold out in a matter of hours.
Billy Strings played here, of course, opening for Del McCoury Band. I think his fee was $500 or something for an opening solo act. And it was great. And then he played afterwards with The Travelin McCourys, in Fostek afterward for an after-party kind of thing. Really, really great.
Cardinal: You mentioned Snarky Puppy, and that was a perfect example of that. They started playing at Blue 5 and Martin’s Downtown. I think their first show in Roanoke, they played at 202 Market.
Pace: I was the sound engineer for that, and they slept on the floor of my house that night, their first time in Roanoke. Yeah, I’m not a sound engineer, so that will tell you how well that went. But they slept on the floor of a small house we had, all of them, and had a blast. It was just wild, man.
That’s the same thing, right? The same story, which is, if you find a community of people who care deeply about culture and care deeply about the stuff that really matters, and you find leadership that gets them together and builds something around it, you can have culture in a town. But if communities don’t invest in culture, municipalities don’t invest in culture, they’re going to get exactly what they deserve, which is no culture. That’s what ends up happening.
Cardinal: Before we talk about Lynchburg — and I want to talk about that with you — but you’re talking about sort of the future and support for culture here. Now we’re talking about support for the infrastructure. I walked up to the front doors, and I saw this chipped paint. It was like, this thing needs a paint job. You know, the elevator needs a little love.
I read about the city’s concerns about Berglund Center as well. It’s an old facility. So there’s a lot to do as far as getting that together. And it seems like at this point, the city might be a little fiscally strapped. I’m not sure exactly how that’s shaking out, but I just wanted to get your take on that. It’s a real issue for both venues, but you guys have been asking for help for years now.
Pace: I have no doubt that our city council and city administration understands the importance of what Jefferson Center does as part of the cultural infrastructure of the community of Roanoke, and that if they continue to stay focused on what’s best for Roanoke, they will find solutions to ensure that the right stuff is supported and the right stuff is prioritized.
Communities and municipalities that invest in culture will get culture. When you start seeing dialogue that there’s this for-profit, new management model that saves municipalities from the liability or responsibility they have in the direction of arts and culture, that’s when you see municipalities fail at providing culture and arts.
So everybody wants there to be some company out there, a management company that comes in and says, oh, this is the way you do this. This is the way the city doesn’t have any more liability to the capital needs of the civic center or the capital needs of, you know, its performing arts center in its town. Those ideas almost always fail, and what a community ends up with is less culture and less art.
If a community conversely says, how do we work with community organizations that have a track record of engaging the community, how do we work with the nonprofit sector that already has audiences for the programming that we do, and how can we build a public-private partnership that will define who we want to be as a community five years from today? Those are the questions. Those are the people you want to surround yourself with, and those are the questions that you want to answer.
I’m just arguing that this holy grail for a profit management company coming in and claiming that it’ll relieve the city of any of its capital or operational burden is naive at best. It’s not the way it works.
I have no question, I have no doubt, that the city of Roanoke understands the importance of what Jefferson Center does, not just for culture, but the historic importance this building has played in the life of Roanoke for 100 years. I don’t have any question that they understand that and will do everything within their power to support it.
Jefferson Center has always been a public-private partnership, where donors believe in it, the city believes in it, and everybody’s working together to retain the importance of what it does. And that’s that’s still where we are. I just won’t be here necessarily, to be part of that conversation as in depth as I have been historically.
Cardinal: Now you’re going to a place that I think was renovated more recently. I saw Tedeschi Trucks Band, without the horn section, late-COVID era, fine show. I missed the horns, and yet it was still a good show.
Pace: I should have mentioned Derek Trucks and Susan Tedeschi [at Jefferson Center] is one of the top 10. Academy Center is a relatively new [renovation] in comparison. But the challenge is the same, or the opportunity is the same would be a more positive way to say that.
Continue to do programming that resonates with your community, where you’re building relationships. Make sure your educational outreach is building audiences over time, and engage your community in a conversation about how it can define what it means to live in Lynchburg and be part of a community. Those are the same questions.
That’s what arts leaders are doing if they’re doing it well, is they’re asking that question. How can this work represent the best of who we are as a community? And I’m looking forward to that conversation in Lynchburg. I’m really excited about it.
Cardinal: What’s different about it?
Pace: I don’t know yet. Initially I’d say what is different about it is there will be a little less of that overcapital existential crisis, because the venue is relatively new. They [property owner Academy of Fine Arts] put some money in the bank to take care of acute capital issues. But otherwise, I think the conversation is the same.
Cardinal: How long has this been in the works?
Pace: I’ve been meeting with Geoff Kershner, who left that job, every couple weeks since the pandemic. In fact, we just sort of connected, and I knew he was leaving. He gave a pretty long notice, which was nice of him. He’s starting the arts administration program at Randolph College.
Cardinal: And what about the place really spoke to you?
Pace: What really sung, number one, the place is beautiful. It’s really well done. The Lynchburg community came together and built something pretty magnificent there. It’s amazing, too, getting to know their board of directors and understand the level of dedication that they have to it, and the belief they have in the story it’s going to tell about Lynchburg. And third, again, is just sort of a practical solution, which is, after 15 years, probably a good time for me to transition out at Jeff Center, and I needed to find somewhere else, and that that place is close.
It’s a bigger budget. And I know the Lynchburg community. My dad worked there for 10 years. Lived there for a bit. I played a lot of gigs at the Ellington and other venues in Lynchburg over the years, since the ‘90s. So it’s also a community I think I know pretty well, and it’s nice to be looking forward to a new opportunity.
So it’s all going much better than could have been predicted, particularly after someone’s been at a place for 15 years. That could be scary for people. Scary for me. But I’ll be available at all times, call me if there’s a question about something I can help with.
I think it’ll continue to thrive. Jamie will continue to do exceptional programming. Education programs can still thrive. Tenants still use their spaces here and believe in the resource that exists here. Roanoke Symphony and opera, ballet, theater and the organizations that benefit from the hall being here will continue to do so. The model makes sense.