A shared artistic vision

Every few weeks, Lori McKinney piles in a vehicle with her fellow musicians and heads to Johnson City, Tenn.

McKinney's group, Option 22, have released "Choose the Music," a new CD, and, in turn, they have become regular players at the Acoustic Coffeehouse in Johnson City, near the campus of East Tennessee State University. "We have played there three times so far," McKinney said.

But, when it's not time for a road trip, McKinney tunes her songwriting and recording skills back home in Princeton, W.Va., more than two hours from Johnson City.

Here, McKinney, 32, serves as the director and creative administrator of the RiffRaff Arts Collective, an art gallery built near the site at what was once a crumbling downtown district seething with crime in the coal-mining country of Mercer County, W.Va.

Today, that district has become a home to artists and musicians. And it has been re-purposed to bring new life into the Princeton community, just across the border from Tazewell County, Va.

'School of rock'

RiffRaff Arts Collective actually serves several businesses in the area, including Stages Music School.

At this music school, on an opposite side of Mercer Street, kids from surrounding regions aspire to learn not only traditional sounds. They, like the movie "The School of Rock," can learn just that - how to play rock 'n' roll.

The school has attracted 150 students, teaching piano, drums, bass, vocals and, yes, what it takes to be in a rock band.

"We have some kids from Tazewell, (coming from) about an hour, hour-and-a-half radius," said Melissa McKinney, 34.

Melissa, the music school owner, is Lori McKinney's older sister. "It's more than rock music, too," Melissa McKinney said. "We do concerts every three months ... My goal with the music is encouraging kids to use their music to better our community. In my opinion, the better community is togetherness and not being separate."

And the students here, actually, learn more than music.

"There are so many kids who are not only musical but have that artistic talent," Melissa McKinney said. "We have kids who do all of our photography of our concerts. And if we need a brochure, we encourage the kids to create the art."

'Cooperating together'

Back on the opposite side of Mercer Street, the art gallery at the RiffRaff Arts Collective boasts craftspeople from as close as Bluefield, W.Va., to as far as Asheville, N.C.

It also features the photography of Robert Blankenship, Lori McKinney's husband, who once served as a photographer for FloydFest of Floyd, Va.

More recently, Blankenship's time has consistently been drawn to an upstairs recording studio at RiffRaff. That studio, in turn, lies near "The Room Upstairs," a century-old ballroom with a stage and a mish-mash of chairs and couches. This theater setting becomes an open stage for music, poetry, theater - and just any kind of new ideas, Lori McKinney said.

"We're all on the same page," she added.

Building the arts collective with RiffRaff, "The Room Upstairs" and the Stages Music School along Mercer Street has been growing for the past seven years, Lori McKinney added.

"A lot of us were visiting each other, building bridges and attending each other's events," she said.

Among the recent moves is the addition of the Heritage Cafe, a colorful coffeehouse and restaurant on Mercer Street that boasts artwork hanging on its walls.

"Underneath our restaurant sign, it says, ‘Where food and art come together’,” said Vicki Queen, who runs the cafe with her husband, Jody. "And actually it's an interesting space, just to be able to sit and have lunch or have coffee. It's an interesting space just to sit and look around."

Having the Heritage Cafe move to Mercer Street is encouraging for the continued growth of the arts in the Princeton region, Lori McKinney said.

"We are several businesses who are just cooperating together," Lori McKinney added. "We've all been collaborating from the very beginning."

jtennis@bristolnews.com | (276) 791-0704

YOU SHOULD KNOW : Arts in Princeton

>> Heritage Cafe, 867 Mercer Street, Princeton, W.Va., (304) 327-9022

>> RiffRaff Arts Collective, 869 Mercer Street, Princeton, W.Va., (304) 425-6425, www.theriffraff.net

>> Stages Music School, 806 Mercer Street, Princeton, W.Va., (304) 425-7529, www.stagesmusicschool.com