Howdy, readers. I hope you’ve enjoyed the holiday weekend.  In the next month I’ll be putting together a column that rounds up the biggest arts stories of 2012.

There’s certainly some obvious candidates:

1. In October, Taubman Museum of Art founders and big donors Nick Taubman and Heywood Fralin took over the museum’s board of directors in a friendly coup, and president and CEO David Mickenberg resigned. The first act of the new administration was to make museum admission free for everyone.
2. A trend of arts organizations shutting down or dismissing their employees and becoming all-volunteer. The former include Studio Roanoke, Blue Ridge Dinner Theatre and The Shadowbox Cinema, the latter include Arts Council of the Blue Ridge and Theater at Lime Kiln.
3. The renovations of Center in the Square have continued to build anticipation as Mill Mountain Theatre and the museums of science, history, and African-American culture prepare to move into new spaces, but also controversy as the downtown nonprofit’s relationship with its best-known restaurant tenant, Roanoke Weiner Stand, erupted in a public dispute.

What did you think of these stories, and what are your suggestions? I’d love to hear them.