In tune with the arts

Couple, music business honored as arts champions

By Melinda Mawdsley
Friday, February 10, 2012

Art enthusiasts Chuck and Robbie Breaux had a few words for locals who complain about having nothing to do.

“Every weekend we have to ask ourselves, ‘What are we not going to do,’ ” Robbie Breaux said.

Whether it’s a local art gallery opening, a Grand Junction Symphony Orchestra performance or an area high school theater show, the Breauxes either try to attend, financially support the event or, on occasion, do both.

That high level of support for the arts also is something for which longtime local business Roper Music is known.

In honor of the dedication the Breauxes and Roper Music have had through the years to ensure the local arts scene remains vibrant, the Grand Junction Commission on Arts and Culture recently gave the couple and the business the 2011 Champion of the Arts Awards.

The awards, which have been handed out annually since the early 1990s, were given at the Jan. 16 Grand Junction City Council meeting. The recipients were nominated by peers’ letters of recommendation.

Jon Burnham, president of the Arts Center Board of Trustees, nominated the Breauxes. He has worked with Robbie Breaux for nearly six years at The Art Center, where she first took a pottery class in 2003 and joined the Board of Trustees in 2005. She served until 2011 when she was term limited.

She insists she will rejoin when she is allowed.

“She’s always there,” Burnham said. “If she’s not at work or home, she’s there.”

Robbie Breaux’s husband, Chuck, is a pediatric surgeon. However, his long work hours don’t keep him or his wife from supporting the arts whenever possible, Burnham said.

“They are fully engaged,” he said.

In addition to supporting The Arts Center — since taking her that first class, Robbie Breaux has turned pottery into a passion and now teaches and makes her own glazes — the Breauxes sing with the Schumann Singers, a local choral group. Chuck Breaux also sings with the High Desert Opera.

Neither Chuck Breaux nor his wife think their contributions to the local arts scene are extraordinary. Instead, the Breauxes, who moved to Grand Junction from Birmingham, Ala., in the mid-1990s, think their contributions are essential because they have the financial means to help, and the passion to participate.

“Robbie and I would like to serve as examples to our peers to embrace charitable passions of their choice,” Chuck Breaux said.

Just as the Breauxes are more than happy to generously support the local arts scene, so is Roper Music, said John Handley, the company’s president since 1993.

After all, it is Roper Music’s mission to help beginning musicians across western Colorado and eastern Utah, he said.

The company’s emphasis is on school music, which is why Roper Music’s employees often attend area band competitions and music festivals to offer free instrument repairs just in case something breaks before the highlight of the event.

“The last thing a kid needs to worry about five minutes before performance is money,” Handley said.

The business also has affordable rental plans to give every child the chance to play an instrument and employs several repairmen to fix damaged instruments.

Although children are the primary focus of Roper Music’s rental plans, instrument repair and business goals, youth are not the only musicians the business seeks to help.

In fact, the Grand Junction Symphony Orchestra has been so appreciative of Roper Music’s generous donations that symphony board member Karen Hildebrandt nominated the business of 56 years for a Champion of the Arts Award.

“Our mission is to have music that enriches the community,” Hildebrandt said. “(They have) been so incredibly supportive. (John) always asks what more he can do.”

Roper Music has helped with the symphony’s petting zoo initiative that teaches young children about music via touching and hearing musical instruments.

Roper Music also has given the symphony donated instruments from its 56-year inventory, so artists can turn instruments into artwork as part of a fundraiser.

Children represent new generations of music lovers, and the experienced members of the symphony represent “a segment of the music world we think is important,” Handley said.

Burnham and Hildebrandt insisted that making the nominations was a no-brainer because they wanted the community to know how appreciative the local arts scene is for Roper Music and Chuck and Robbie Breaux.

“A lot of people maybe don’t really understand the impact the arts have on our economy and culture,” Burnham said.