Speaking of “Country Club” leadership in Richmond…
From Amy Biegelsen’s new, must-read piece in Style, “Takeover Artist,” we have the quote of the year, hands down:
There’s hidden humor in the idea of calling something the ‘cultural trust’ if it involves the Performing Arts Foundation.”
When James Crupi talks critically in his new report about local business leaders refusing to bring diverse views and those with expertise “to the table” when it comes to community projects, preferring to do their business without much input or scrutiny from the rest of us, and not bringing the same kind of thoughtful savvy to handling public resources that they show with their corporate decisions, don’t you just wonder what he is referring to? One guess.
How about a secretive public-private partnership run by our most powerful business leaders (the Virginia Performing Arts Foundation, or VAPAF) that has never held a single public meeting and has been less than truthful in the past about its private fundraising dollars… an arts non-profit that has disregarded, ignored and/or fired area arts professionals for speaking truth to power… a group that continues to claim that it has feasibility studies and data to support its $80+ million project but refuses to show them to the public whose taxes have been raised to fund their endeavor (it’s because they never existed)?
Did I mention the unseemly backroom deals or the excessive (publicly-funded) executive salaries or the incompetent out-of-town consultants?
So, gee, it’s really shocking to learn in Biegelsen’s article that many of our local arts organizations are less than anxious to align themselves with the bullying and seemingly-ravenous VAPAF, which can count this among its greatest accomplishments: It spent $22 million to tear down a building, dig up a hole and then fill the hole back in again. I’m sure that a small downtown theatre group or dance troupe working on a shoestring and a prayer really appreciates that kind of “can do” spirit, and isn’t at all concerned that several large arts organizations have had to go begging for charity handouts to keep going while under the Foundation’s stewardship.
Just Imagine… living in a place where local artists and arts groups making a difference were directly rewarded with an open-ended, multi-million dollar, 40-year investment from the community kitty… while one single untested opera house operator had to make do with six figures a year in public money (maybe less, maybe more, all depending on the state of private donations).
Now that would be a place that really supports the arts.