* * James Creekmore’s love affair with Blacksburg

You will never meet happier, friendlier, and more attractive business partners than James Creekmore and Diana Francis. James runs The Creekmore Law Firm in Blacksburg where Diana is his firm’s Marketing Manager and also runs The Artful Lawyer, A Fine Gallery. Together, they have in a few short years put together one of the area’s most dynamic and community minded businesses.

Most people don’t associate the legal profession with art. But James does. “We’re doing this to more readily integrate with the community. We started this firm to serve this town and its small businesses, especially the start-ups. The artists came initially as business clients. We moved into this new building and we needed artwork for our walls. They could help us by decorating our walls and we could help them by displaying that work to new people.”

James moved his growing law firm into the former house at 318 N Main Street, the former Raines Real Estate office. “What started as an interest and a hobby for us has turned into a huge gallery project. It was an organic venture; we had no business plan (for the gallery). We were cramped in the old building and were hosting a series of meetings at outside venues. This larger building allowed us to move everything inside.”

It didn’t hurt that the building was right downtown, is historic, and has an unbeatable view from the balcony.

“These days, 100 to 200 people come through the building each month. Our gallery parties routinely see 175-190 people.” Creekmore allows various non-profit organizations to use their spaces for boards and committee meetings.

“The building is 10,000 square feet. We have 11 people on staff. A family named Traxel lived here at the turn of the (20^th) Century. They used it during the two World Wars as a boarding house primarily for women whose husbands were at war and their children. Later, it housed parents who were visiting their children (at Tech). It has a long history in Blacksburg.

“We’ve always been community minded. I was with a law firm in Roanoke for ten years. They were staffed with high-caliber attorneys and they put out a good legal product. But they were focused on the bottom line. I didn’t have flexibility to contribute to non-profits. I was working after hours, with 200 and 300 hour months, to assist those groups. When I started my own company here, I wanted everybody to be involved. My thinking is that the more involved you are in the community, the longer the relationships last, the firm is going to last and there is a long-term benefit to the firm. The longer we’re in the community, the better it is for everybody.

“Because we’re in a high-end profession, we are blessed with a financial ability to give back to the community, whereas other small businesses may live closer to the edge. This has become very much a community center. We love sharing with people.”

Diana runs The Artful Lawyer, A Fine Gallery. She’s been with James for a couple of years, introduced by another lawyer in the firm. She works with the artists to become more business-minded and thus successful. About the artists, she said, “They’re not savvy, but the have the potential to become that way. They see that they have a place to go. We give them a place to show and hang their work. We have routine gallery openings called ‘Whet your palette’ to bring people here to see the artwork. We have provided a studio in our old building that we rent economically to artists. We do paint parties. It’s been successful, economically and artistically.”

“All of this has been done organically,” James said. “Other than starting the law firm, we had no plans for these other things. Two years ago, I had no idea this building was empty and available. I had to have it. Diana and I met and the rest is history.” James readily credits Diana with the overwhelming success of the Gallery, Studio and now Gallery Store. “She has done so much more with each of them than I had imagined we could do when first brainstorming the ideas.”

Diana had been a public school teacher and had taken paralegal classes at New River Community College. When James hired her, their common interest and her contacts in art drove them forward together. Their gallery has over 30 artists now with exhibits planned into 2015.

Neither Diana nor James is a Blacksburg native. Diana came from Northern Virginia in 1994 to go to Tech. She had two boys and made Blacksburg her home. James is from Chesapeake and was educated at UVA and William & Mary Law and moved to Blacksburg through Roanoke, where he lived and worked for just over 10 years. He has two girls.

James found an undercurrent of new, emerging businesses in Blacksburg. “When people graduate from Tech or lose a job,” James said, “they do not think about moving away; they think about creating a job so they can stay. That’s cool. Energizing. There is a symbiosis between the town and the university, more than any other community I’ve seen. There is sharing and networking. Everybody wants everybody to be successful.

“I love it here. I love the energy. I went to UVA but Blacksburg is much cooler than Charlottesville will ever be because of that relationship.”

“It’s good here,” Diana agreed. “We’re very happy.”