Up and Coming Weekly is a weekly publication in Fayetteville, NC and Fort Bragg, NC area offering local news, views, arts, entertainment and community event and business information.
Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/24308
OPINION The Arts Council’s Consultant Examines the FMoA by DAVID WILSON What is remarkable about Diane Frankel’s report on the now defunct Fayetteville Museum of Art is that it is not remarkable. In fact, it is a real yawner. The Arts Council funded a study conducted by eminently qualifi ed art museum expert Diane Frankel to obtain guidance as to where next to turn to restore a key and essential element in the community’s cultural environment. The study cost $20,000 plus Frankel’s expenses but may have been worth somewhat less. The report has been written in the present tense, as if the FMoA still existed. At the time the study was conducted and the report written it was a weak and struggling entity but now the last vestiges, except for the vacant building, are gone. Fayetteville has no museum of art. Hiring a consulting fi rm is the means by which the FMoA got in so much debt, about $580,000. Now they are out of business and bankrupt. The museum’s consulting fi rm was to identify deep and willing pockets in the community and determine if enough generosity existed to build a $5 to $10 million new museum building to be located in the downtown area. I am a former FMoA board member, but I resigned out of frustration and never learned the outcome of that study except in very general terms. I do know that the consultants submitted invoices far beyond the museum’s ability to pay but consistent with the terms of the written contract. What they were able to advise was exactly the same as any person, knowledgeable about this community and with a general understanding of how organizations are structured, could have done for free. But consultants have certain believability about them that the ordinary person does not. So if they arrive from far away, say San Francisco, they are seen as the source of all that is true and profound and will deliver solutions to problems that confound the ordinary person. Frankel’s report states that she did not dwell on the museum’s past and she for the most part did not. But failure to deal objectively with the past as a means of avoiding the same mistakes in the future is in and of itself a mistake. Over a period of about two years a small group of people, most of whom were board members, set in motion a series of poorly considered decisions which resulted in the ultimate demise of the 39-year-old institution. Frankel’s report does speak to each board member’s fi duciary responsibility and suggests that board members in the future must be made acutely aware of that responsibility. This is important and should have been stressed to each member as WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM the board made decisions that exposed the museum to serious liabilities and indebtedness. Those decisions led to the now defunct museum’s crushing debt and bankruptcy. The museum’s chronic fi nancial woes are mentioned in the report and are basically attributed to sloppy and incompetent bookkeeping. The bookkeeping criticisms are fair and the Arts Council’s reason for withholding funds is consistent with rules that they are required to follow. But the root problem that the museum struggled with almost from its inception was lack of money. Simply recommending that a new board address this issue is not particularly helpful. The challenge to be met by the new (or interim board) is where to fi nd seed money to begin again while the Stamper Road building sits with a for sale sign displayed at the gate. Those tightly involved with the museum during the past two years are adamant in their belief that the Fayetteville city government is responsible for the museum’s demise. The city decided against providing two acres of land in Festival Park for the museum’s proposed new building. The report gives this notion short shrift, as well it should. The new building was a non- starter because of the recession brought on by the collapse of Lehman Brothers and the then unwillingness of state government to fund the project. The report recommends the most obvious. Out with the old and in with the new. This is a baby out with the bath water approach and should offend current board members who struggled with an insolvable problem not of their creation. An interim board should be established. An interim museum director should be hired. A business plan should be developed. A mission statement should be prepared by the board. Possible sites for a new downtown location should be considered. Where to get funding to pay off the debt and hire a new director, establish a new temporary location, pay rent and utilities, buy new offi ce equipment and begin where the museum was 40 years ago was not made clear in the report. Some problems are simply not easily resolved. The only light at the tunnel’s end is the sale of the museum’s only remaining asset, the Stamper Road building and that is not going well. Unless a sale of the building is consummated the museum is a dead duck and it cannot be resurrected by any other means. David G. Wilson, Contributing Writer. COMMENTS? 484-6200 ext. 222. or editor@upandcomingweekly.com. FEBRUARY 2-8, 2011 UCW 5 (910) 229-2735 3616 Cape Center Drive Call enter Drive Suite B Fayetteville, NC Physical Ther Kebe Cares rapy s Focusing on Manual Therapy (Allowing Faster Results With Fewer Visits) One-on-one, Personalized Treatment Programs In-Home Physical Therapy Available for Qualifi ed Patients www.kebecaresphysicaltherapy.com