The Taubman Museum of Art has printed 14,000 free tickets for opening day.

The number of tickets represents no more than a guess at opening-day turnout, however, and does not mean additional people would be turned away, the museum's external affairs director, Kimberly Templeton, said.

"We will be sure to accommodate them," she said.

Tickets for opening day will be distributed at the Roanoke Civic Center ticket office through Thursday -- a change from earlier plans, which called for the tickets to be passed out there only through Nov. 1. In addition, tickets will be passed out at the museum on opening day.

Opening-day tickets are free but designate specific entry times in an effort to keep the museum from becoming overcrowded.

Templeton said some 3,000 tickets had been given away as of Wednesday.

Joining forces

The Roanoke Symphony Orchestra and the Taubman Museum will join forces starting in December on a series of children's concerts at the museum.

The first concert in the Arts in Concert Family Series will take place at 11 a.m. Dec. 6, and feature RSO Music Director David Wiley. After December, concerts will be presented on the third Saturday of every month. Admission will be covered by the museum entrance fees.

Other performers in the series will include members of the Roanoke Symphony Orchestra and Roanoke Youth Symphony, the Island Music Trio, the Kandinsky Trio and the Wright Kids.

Each of the concerts will last up to 40 minutes, and some will rely on participation of young audience members. For more information, call 342-5760 or visit www.taubmanmuseum.org.

Good times roll

Many Roanoke Symphony Orchestra fans know the orchestra has retired nearly half a million dollars in debt in recent years and finished its last fiscal year with a surplus.

But how many know that Wiley's other orchestra, the Long Island Philharmonic, is also doing very well? The New York orchestra, which Wiley conducts, finished the 2007-08 fiscal year with a projected $513,000 surplus. It also saw a 10 percent increase in ticket revenue.

Wasn't it just a couple of years ago that people were wondering if symphony orchestras in America could survive?

Here comes the sun

Members of Cirque du Soleil, the wildly popular Montreal-based circus, will appear at the Taubman Museum's Belle Epoque Ball on New Year's Eve. The performance for the museum's auxiliary group, thecontemporaries, is being billed as a "the first private performance by Cirque du Soleil in all of Virginia."

Details about the nature of the performance are not yet known, Templeton said.

Expanding Minds

Minds in Motion, a Richmond Ballet-based dance education program that premiered locally at Fishburn Park Elementary last year, has expanded. The program, which teaches discipline, dedication and self-awareness through dance, was introduced to Grandin Court, Hurt Park, Raleigh Court and East Salem elementary schools this year, said Pedro Szalay, artistic director for Southwest Virginia Ballet.

The young dancers will be taught by Szalay, a former Richmond Ballet dancer, and SWVB dancer Rebecca Feather.

A final performance is scheduled for April 3 at the Roanoke Performing Arts Theatre.

Minds in Motion is funded in part by a $7,500 grant from the Virginia Commission for the Arts.