By ELIZABETH SHEPHERD

A passerby looking through the soaring glass frontage of the Vashon Center for the Arts last Tuesday might have assumed a sold-out show was taking place, judging from the throng of people in the lobby. But the crowd hadn’t come to be entertained.

Rather, the standing-room-only crowd of approximately 200 islanders had arrived for a town hall meeting, called by VCA in response to complaints from local artists about changes that have taken place since the 51-year-old organization changed its name from Vashon Allied Arts and opened its new, multimillion-dollar arts campus in 2016.

Kevin Joyce, a local performer and corporate event producer who had volunteered to moderate the town hall, joked in his opening comments that he had heard that there would be “pitchforks and torches at this meeting” before urging attendees to refrain from making personal attacks and “consider that this meeting will not be perfect, but we’re all in this together.”

Topics slated for discussion included the recent closure of The Heron’s Nest, a retail outlet for local artists operated by the organization for more than 30 years, first in the Blue Heron building and since 1995, in downtown Vashon. Also on the docket were high ticket prices for some VCA events, a diminished calendar of exhibits by local artists, accusations about shoddy treatment received by artists after they made donations to VCA’s 2017 art auction, and questions about plans to maintain and upgrade the historic Blue Heron building, the organization’s former home since 1981.

One of the meeting’s first speakers was artist Christine Beck, the author of a highly critical letter, citing “sweeping changes in the organization” that she said had disenfranchised island visual artists, one of the organization’s core constituencies. On Dec. 26, Beck emailed her letter to the president of the board and executive director of VCA; it was also forwarded to the 300-person mailing list of the Vashon Island Art Studio Tour. In the following weeks, more grievances against VCA began to bubble up on social media, and some letters to the editor expressed concerns about the direction of the organization.

Surveying the crowd, Beck characterized her letter as combustible, but added, “A fire doesn’t start from a single match unless the ground is already scorched.”

Those comments set the tone for the meeting to follow, which included a parade of longtime and well-known island artists taking the microphone to air their frustrations.

Several speakers expressed incredulity that VCA had not consulted with the community prior to closing The Heron’s Nest.

“I felt erased,” said artist Donna Romero. “I feel that all the visual artists were just dismissed. Could you not have had a public meeting?”

Another artist, Kristen Reitz-Green, recalled how important the gallery had been to her when she launched her career with her first show in the space.

“It was exposure,” she said. “It changed my life.”

Denise Katz, VCA’s board president, defended the decision to close the Nest, citing that the gallery had been on track to lose $40,000 last year.

She detailed plans to add a kiosk and

exhibition space in the VCA lobby to facilitate sales of local work. She also praised Kathy Raines and Whitney Rose, former managers of the Nest, who have launched a new art spot, Gather Vashon, in the Nest’s former location.

Still, Katz apologized for the way VCA carried out its decision to close the Nest, saying tearfully, “What was missing was communication with artists.”

“We have heard you,” she added. “We know we’ve made a mistake.”

Another board member, Vice President Kevin Hoffberg, also apologized, citing a “huge sense of injury that can’t be undone” over the decision. “We are accountable for not reaching out,” he said.

Another mea culpa came from Susan Warner, VCA’s executive director, who has been in her post since April 2017.

“I accept responsibility and I am listening, and we will do better,” she said, adding that she was excited to work with people who signed up that evening to be on an artists’ advisory committee. Large papers were also set up for sign-ups for two other groups, a programming advisory committee and a Blue Heron working group.

Warner, who has a museum and arts education background, went on to describe her approach to running VCA’s visual arts programs.

In 2018, she said, the gallery schedule will include three major two-month-long shows by local artists, in contrast to VCA’s longtime tradition of monthly shows that showed both local and off-island artists. In addition, VCA will also host a month-long quilt show, a pop-up sale to coincide with Mother’s Day, a garden art “vignette” during the Garden Tour, an exhibit of Gay Pride portraits by Kate Thompson to hang in the lobby in June, and a decorative art, craft, and design sale to coincide with the summer tourist season. The schedule will round out in December with VCA’s annual miniatures show. All the shows will feature work by Vashon artists.

Warner then detailed a curatorial bent that favored education over retail sales.

“We want to have children and families interact with the art,” she said. “We are going to go a little bit deeper. We will still sell art when we can, but the primary mission is learning through the arts.”

Sy Novak, who has been involved with VCA for many years, questioned this approach.

“You say you closed the Heron’s Nest because it wasn’t making money, and yet you say the new focus of the gallery isn’t making money,” she said.

Another artist, Ann Leda Shapiro, urged the board and staff to “go back to square one” and said she had volunteered, with others, to create an artists’ registry that could be used as a resource for VCA.

May Gerstle, an islander active in many community causes, questioned VCA’s financial health.

“The elephant in the room is money,” she said. “It appears that we are having a money problem. Don’t we have a right to see the budget?”

In response, Ron Thomas, who has served on the board for two years and is currently treasurer of the organization, said that the organization has an annual budget of $1.9 million dollars, with $1.2 million going to compensate a staff that has grown to 21 people, as well as a roster of teachers for VCA’s classes. In all, he said, VCA issued 102 W2 tax forms last year, making the organization one of the largest employers on the island.

However, he also said that the organization had not met its budget goals for either earned or contributed income in the past year, and said the organization had resources to continue operating in the black for two or three additional years.

“We have to figure out how to make this building work,” he said.

He pointed to the creation of a 10-year plan and hiring islander Caleb Johns as the organization’s first development director, as steps in the right direction.

For decades, a cornerstone of VCA’s

fundraising has been its art auction, but Emily Burns, an islander who had donated her late husband’s art to VCA’s last auction, rose to describe how auction personnel had lost track of her donation, calling the experience painful and a “slap in the face.”

Hoffberg profusely apologized to Burns, and detailed plans to improve procedures and communication with donors to the auction. He said a dedicated staff member will work with artists and track donations in the future.

The evening was not devoid of praise for VCA, with Pam McMahon rising to laud the organization for its continued commitment to its Vashon Artists in the Schools program, and artist Brian Brenno voicing appreciation for the income he had earned from VCA as a teacher.

The town hall also brought forth suggestions about how to repair the rift between artists and VCA.

Cathy Sarkowsky, an artist, philanthropist and veteran of several nonprofit boards, said that if VCA’s board was solely focused on money, and not the organization’s mission, it would fail. Her comments led to a reading of VCA’s short mission statement, which described a “collaborative and community-based organization” whose focus includes creating “opportunities for artists to exhibit and perform their work.”

Audience members also questioned the number of artists serving on VCA’s current board — of 18 members, three are visual artists and one is a performing artist.

Ray Pfortner, a photographer and teacher, called for continued art shows at the Blue Heron, where artwork sales could take place.

“Spaces to show art on this island are like gold,” he said. “What’s wrong with the building next door? That used to be one of the island’s premier galleries.”

Other speakers suggested island artists have begun to look beyond VCA to take matters into their own hands.

Morgan Brig, who is president of the Vashon Island Art Studio Tour board, announced that they had recently changed the group’s name to VIVA, an acronym for Vashon Island Visual Artists, and are making plans to support island artists in new ways, year-round.

Whitney Rose, one of the managers of Gather Vashon, said the new art space will not only sell work by many of the same artists who were represented by the Nest, but also offer art classes and free events.

After the meeting ended, The Beachcomber asked board member Hoffberg if the board would take steps to evaluate staff and board in light of the problems that had surfaced.

Hoffberg declined to discuss personnel matters but said he believed Beck’s letter and the town hall meeting had gotten the board’s attention.

“We have a volunteer board that was on autopilot,” he said. “We needed to pay a lot more attention than we were. Do we really have a grasp on how to translate a vision and mission into a plan? Do we have a design for the organization that is sufficient to the task? Our attention now is riveted. Are we taking this seriously? As serious as a heart attack.”

VCA has sufficient reserves to stay inthe black a few more years, official says

When backers of the Vashon Center for the Arts were fundraising for the new building, they often mentioned a special fund worth $6 million to $8 million that had been established to ensure the building’s sustainability.

The fund, organizers stated publicly at the time, would be used to meet budget shortfalls, allow the organization to keep ticket prices low and enable cash-strapped local groups to use the building at modest costs.

But at a town hall meeting called by VCA last week, board treasurer Ron Thomas said the organization had only enough reserves to keep the organization in the black for another two to three years. Asked after the meeting about a $7 million reserve, he said, “We don’t have $7 million.”

Susan Warner, VCA’s executive director, also contacted after the meeting, said she was unaware of the fund. “I’ve never heard this 7-million-dollar number before. I can tell you, there are no funds to sustain the building.”

Later, Warner, who become VCA’s executive director last year, said she had looked into the issue and learned that there had been two separate trusts from Kay White, VCA’s lead benefactor, valued at $6 million and $1 million each. The $6 million trust had been dissolved with White’s permission, she said, so that construction could start on the building after it had been delayed due to increased costs.

The price tag for the arts center rose from an original estimate of $11 million when the project was announced in 2008, to $16.5 million when designs were unveiled in 2011. Construction began in 2015 after being delayed in 2014 by a construction boom in Seattle that drove up costs. Ultimately, the structure, completed in 2016, cost approximately $21 million.