Fisk University President Hazel O'Leary says there are too many unresolved issues in a suggestion that the Stieglitz Collection be housed in a proposed Nashville African-American museum.
Fisk University's president called a proposal to house its most valuable art collection in a future Nashville African-American museum "ludicrous" and "insulting."
On Wednesday, the state attorney general asked for a delay in the Feb. 19 trial that is to determine if Fisk can sell a 50 percent share of its Alfred Stieglitz art collection to an Arkansas museum for $30 million. The request favors a proposal to house the collection part time in the Museum of African American Music, Art & Culture, slated to open in 2011.
"The proposal … provides a rare opportunity to bring the entire community together to save the Stieglitz Collection, preserve and protect African-American culture, and provide a dependable long-term source of revenue for Fisk," Attorney General Robert Cooper wrote.
The filing does not project how much Fisk could receive under the deal.
Davidson County Chancellor Ellen Hobbs Lyle will consider a delay until June at a pre-trial hearing on Tuesday.
Fisk University President Hazel O'Leary questioned the finances of the proposed museum, to be located on the northwest corner of Bicentennial Capitol Mall. "The idea is so undeveloped, underdeveloped that to stop this court process is in my mind a ludicrous idea," O'Leary said.
Even if the museum goes ahead as planned, O'Leary said, there are too many questions surrounding the proposal to delay the trial date.
"We have no idea who the African-American museum will have as an expert," O'Leary said. "The (proposal) on its face, not thought out, is so nebulous as to almost be insulting."
Fisk wants to sell share
The university, which is working to rebuild its endowment, wants to sell a 50 percent share in the collection for $30 million to Wal-Mart heiress Alice Walton's Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Ark.
In earlier court filings, Fisk said it didn't have the operating funds to make it to a February trial. O'Leary has since said recent fundraising would allow the school to stay open indefinitely. Fisk received a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation in December that gave the school $1 million and promised up to $2 million more if the school could raise $4 million by June 30.
The school has raised $767,835 of that so far.
Painter Georgia O'Keeffe, Stieglitz's wife, donated the collection to the school in 1949. The Georgia O'Keeffe Museum in Santa Fe, N.M., is attempting to block the deal, saying it goes against the artist's wishes.
The attorney general's office requested and received permission to intervene and represent the people of Tennessee's wishes to keep the collection in the state.
Lucius Outlaw, a Vanderbilt University professor who is leading plans for the African-American museum's content, presented the idea of housing the collection part time to T.B. Boyd III, the chairman of the fundraising organization for the museum.
Governor questions deal
Boyd wrote a letter to Gov. Phil Bredesen, who has agreed to meet with him on the issue. In a meeting with The Tennessean editorial board Wednesday, Bredesen said he didn't like the Crystal Bridges deal and thought the collection, if sold, could fetch more money in an open auction.
"My feeling is that we should look to get a resolution. Either they can or they can't sell it," Bredesen said. "If they can sell it, don't sell it for 20 cents on the dollar to somebody in Arkansas."
O'Leary said the Nashville proposal would ultimately benefit the African-American museum more than Fisk. There have been questions surrounding fundraising for the museum, which is scheduled to begin construction next year.
Metro government has pledged $10 million in capital money to the project, but Metro Finance Director Rich Riebeling said he had seen private pledges totaling less than $2 million. Organizers need $30 million by October 2009 to break ground. Riebeling said Wednesday that a potential deal with Fisk has "a lot of promise."
Boyd did not disclose the amount of pledges to the project, but said they were more than $2 million.
"It is a very successful project," Boyd said. "We said it was going to take quite a while to do, and it's something new for Nashville, but it can be done."
FairViewObserver.com
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