A&H bargains to save itself

Corrections/clarifications:

• An earlier version of this story incorrectly described the proposed change in the A&H lease agreement. The introductory period of the lease was increased from one to two years.

• The story did not include that resigning A&H curator Richard Colvin had accepted a position as the new executive director of the Lake Eustis Museum of Art. It also didn't mention that many residents spoke at the meeting, made phone calls and sent emails in support of A&H and against Bonus' proposal.

• Additionally, the second to last paragraph was unclear about the next step. A&H's budget will be discussed during the regular cultural partner workshop in June. A&H does not know if Councilman Phil Bonus' proposal will be discussed again at Council.

• Lastly, Mayor Howard Schieferdecker and Councilman Ivan Valdes did not insinuate that there were "kinks" to work out. They were only supportive of A&H and its mission.

As part of A&H’s plan to show its dedication to Maitland and give back to the city, admission to all A&H museums will be free for Maitland residents throughout the month of May. For more information, visit ArtandHistory.org

Cutting back on city funding in 2013, increasing a lease introductory period from one to two years, and going on a fast track to financial independence 10 years sooner than agreed upon a year ago are all ways Art & History Museums – Maitland leaders say they’re willing to work to maintain their cultural partnership with the city of Maitland.

“We’re basically ready to commit [hara-kiri] here,” A&H President Bill Taulbee said at the second workshop between A&H and the Maitland City Council on April 10 where he presented these ideas.

The two groups are working to solidify the future of their public-private cultural partnership before the 2010-formed organization’s lease of the city’s Maitland Art Center (MAC) properties reaches the end of its one-year trial lease, which automatically renews for 51 years on Oct. 1.

Though similar workshops are scheduled with all cultural partners, including one with the Maitland Public Library held April 18, A&H was put on the line first after Councilman Phil Bonus raised questions of the “bang for the buck” the city was getting from its current partnership with A&H and direction in which its leadership was heading at a January Council meeting.

“If we keep on with the poor business model that we have with making no revenue back (to the city), we’re doomed to repeat the failures of the past and are not working forward to improve the MAC,” Bonus said.

Adding fuel to Bonus’ fire, Richard Colvin, curator at the MAC for more than 15 years, on April 9 to begin a new position as the new executive director of the Lake Eustis Museum of Art. At the workshop, Colvin described watching A&H turn the MAC into a “money pit” over the years, which led him to seek employment elsewhere.

As of 2012, A&H receives 49 percent of its funding from the city, a $425,000 contribution, A&H Director Andrea Bailey-Cox said. That money along with the rest of A&H’s funding is reinvested back into MAC programs and services and both directly and indirectly into the Maitland community, she said, which is estimated at $862,000.

Some members of Council, however, said they don’t feel that estimated repayment is giving enough directly back to the city given its investment, especially on the eve of another strapped-for-cash budget season. Bonus proposed the city take the running of the MAC under its leisure services department to make up for this funding/revenue deficit, though numbers for the cost of this have yet to be drawn up.

Councilwoman Linda Frosch said the core of the issue is making sure the 17,000 residents of Maitland, whose tax dollars are funding all the cultural partners, are getting utilized in the most rewarding and profitable way possible.

“We’re not closing the Art Center or changing programs, exhibits, the mission or doing anything like that,” Frosch said. “We want to make it better, and that’s what we want to give you help with, to make it better.”

A&H took bargaining into its own hands at the April 10 meeting, saying they would amend the introductory period of what would become a 51-year lease with the city in October, to a two years instead of one. President Taulbee, a former councilman, said A&H also offered to cut its requested funding to the city for 2013 to 39 percent of its budget, at $360,000, and accelerating from its 16-year master plan to financial independence to relying on the city for only 10 to 15 percent of its budget by 2015.

“You told us to get out there and spread our wings and raise our own funds, and we’ve done that… but we hear you; we have to change the way we do business and we have to enhance the way we engage the community,” Taulbee said, “and we’re ready to do that, too.”

Many members of the community defended A&H at the workshop, speaking of their accomplishments over the past two years. They did not agree with Bonus' proposal to put the museums under leisure services' control. Many more sent emails and made phone calls to Council members to show their support.

No vote or decision was made at the workshop, other than that the issue needs to be further addressed in the coming cultural partners budget workshop, with Frosch and Bonus urging that action needs to be taken now.

Mayor Howard Schieferdecker and Councilman Ivan Valdes encouraged A&H.

“Go out and start doing a better job,” Valdes urged to members of the A&H board. “Go become the very best you can be, and make it a hard decision for us to say we want to go in a different direction.”

"Let them continue the good work that they are doing," Schieferdecker said.