Chafee vote ties on whether to sell gallery
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The Chaffee Art Center on South Main Street in Rutland. FILE / RUTLAND HERALD |
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By STEPHANIE M. PETERS Herald Staff - Published: January 10, 2009
After putting its organizational future to a membership vote, the Chaffee Arts Center's Board of Directors found itself with the least likely of outcomes — a tie.
The board invited its 300 members to vote on whether or not its Main Street gallery, a 114-year-old, three-story manor, should be sold in order to establish an endowment to fund its continued mission of promoting the visual arts in Rutland. The center was closed at the end of October because of the hefty cost of heating it through the winter.
While about 70 people attended what became an emotionally charged, two-and-a-half hour meeting at the Rutland Regional Medical Center, only 34 were voting members, including 10 members of the executive board. When the outcome revealed a tie, Pat Hunter, president of the board, decided to abstain from using her power to cast the tie-breaking vote, she said.
"I could have cast a vote to break the tie, but that was not the way for this to come about," Hunter said. "I find it a really positive outcome … It kind of reflects that people are pushed and pulled. There are so many feelings of being connected to that building and people were struggling with that.
"It's a strong image in the community's mind, and what came out was looking at the mission to promote the visual arts in Rutland," she said. "It kept coming up — the question 'Is it the building or the organization, and what do we want to do?' What came across was that it's the mission that's important and that examining an alternative to being in that building needed a little more work."
The meeting started with a period of discussion, where anyone present who wished to speak was invited to sign up so the board could make sure all were given the chance. Out of that period, it was decided that before any vote was taken on the original motion to sell the building, which Hunter and the 12-member board decided in early December would be the best choice for the organization, it should be amended to include language that the organization would seek an alternative physical location, Hunter said.
Ultimately, Hunter said she believes that the tie was due to people's reticence to support a motion that proposed but did not name an alternative location, and also one proposed so fast.
"People said they needed time to digest the idea," she said.
The vote also sends the board back to the planning stages armed with some promising leads on potential partnerships and gallery spaces. Bruce Bouchard and Paul Gallo, the executive director and a board member of the Paramount Theatre, respectively, attended the meeting to suggest that the theatre's Center Street properties could be one possibility.
While any proposal involving the Paramount would have to be approved by its own Board of Directors, Bouchard said Friday that the Brick Box, a venue in the Richardson Building that has been used as an art gallery and performance space and is connected to the theatre, poses one possibility.
"Other than the Paramount's occasional use of the Brick Box, we have quite a few weeks, somewhere between 42 and 46, when the space is available," he said.
Bouchard said other areas in the theatre were also mentioned during the Chaffee meeting. Both Hunter and Bouchard said they hope to meet sometime early next week to discuss the possibility further.
Hunter also mentioned to members during the meeting that she has also talked with the Rutland County Community Land Trust about use of the Berwick Building, which has not been built yet but is planned for the site of The Pit at the corner of Wales and Center streets.
"I used an example at the start of the meeting," Hunter said. "The word crisis in Chinese is made up of two characters, danger and opportunity. Everyone was emotional because they felt the danger of the situation, but the opportunity that we have at this point is really to revision it and revitalize it."
Mary Crowley, an artist member of the organization, shares Hunter's hope for the future.
"I am an optimist about the Chaffee continuing as an organization, perhaps in the current building or where there is space for the artists to display their work, and where there is space for classes to take place," she said. "I think the meeting was helpful in understanding what the financial situation is, and hopeful because so many people spoke about continuing the tradition of offering art in Rutland City. There was a lot of energy there."
Hunter said the Board of Directions will present the membership with a new plan at its annual meeting Feb. 24, which she also said she expects will draw a larger-than-typical attendance.
Contact Stephanie M. Peters at stephanie.peters@rutlandherald.com.
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