Did the Pavilion and the NEW Sioux Empire Arts Council purposely dissolve the Horse Barn Arts Center?

While I have not posted about this I have been following the demise of the Horse Barn Arts Center. So let’s dig a little – but let’s start from the beginning. This all started a couple or years ago when SEAC allowed Washington Pavilion’s arts center director David Merhib to become a board member and eventually board chairman.

Board/Staff Members: Ann Davis, David Merhib, Debra Kroger, Tara Barney, Steve Larson

As chairman, one of the essential jobs is to raise money for the facility. But wouldn’t that be a conflict of interest considering;

• Merhib already works for the Pavilion and his main objective is to raise money for the arts center

• Merhib lives in Brookings and has no real ties to our community.

But was this Merhib’s doing? Or was he just following orders? Hindsight is 20/20, but Merhib should have never been allowed to serve on the board or be chairman, Huge conflict of interest. Duh. So was his involvement only to destruct the organization from within? One wonders? You can look at this every which way from Tuesday, but the facts remain; The HBAC is competition with the Pavilion’s VAC. They offer classes and exhibit space, just like the VAC. The difference is clear though, the HBAC was much cheaper and almost always FREE. Don’t get me wrong, as an artist, I have taken advantage of both facilities and have donated in one way or another to both places. We NEED a VAC in our community and we NEED the HBAC. They both cater to artists in our town. Sometimes artists, like myself, have used both facilities, some have only used one or the other, and that is the point. Not everyone can AFFORD to use the Pavilion. Sorry, say what you will, but on many levels it is an elitist organization and some artists and arts lover would prefer to support the HBAC over the VAC.

So where am I getting with this? Let’s look at a chain of events, some uncontrollable, some not;

• Merhib becomes chairman of SEAC and fails to raise any dough for SEAC.

• The economy tanks

• Under Larry Toll, the Pavilion decides to move SEAC to the Pavilion. (The irony of Toll is that as a board member of the Pavilion, he didn’t lift one finger to help the facility prosper but now all of sudden as director he is considered some kind of hero . . .)

• Director of SEAC quits (and yes she QUIT! No forced resignations. I may not know Deb that well, but I do know that no one could have forced her to quit, she loved what she was doing. Something changed. (and there is a whole host of rumors and secrets surrounding her resignation that I won’t get into, but let’s just say that not everyone involved was playing fairly).

• With Deb out of the way, the Pavilion was able to put a puppet in charge of SEAC, a part-timer of their choosing who just happens to be married to a contributor of the Pavilion.

But let’s move back to the conflict of interest. The Pavilion has a long history of this practice, for instance giving preferential treatment to board members for art exhibits and keeping juries secrect, this comes as no surprise that someone from the big purple building would be behind the HBAC’s demise.

So was this a grand scheme? Not sure, in fact it would be nice to see our local media do a little digging, but good luck. The Pavilion has always gone by the rule, “Loose lips sink ships.” and whistle blowers are hard to find. REALLY HARD TO FIND. Why? The Pavilion is a vindictive organization, if you talk badly about them they will punish you for it. Trust me, I have the scars. They not only rule their current staff through fear tactics many of their ex-employees prefer to not comment on their stint there. Oh, and trust me, I have tried to pry that safe open, with no avail.

But the Pavilion already has their out. According to exhibits director, Larson, in his email he sent out this week he has said this;

Regarding the future of the HBAC:  One of my proposals for the future management of the HBAC was to form an advisory board that would meet to form a nonprofit corporation [ 501 (c) (3) ].  Liz Versteeg was kind enough to provide the legal forms that are required to initiate this process.

If any of you are interested in pursuing this endeavor, please contact me.  SEAC Executive Director, Nan Baker, has assured me that SEAC would be willing and able to provide the assistance required to help make such a nonprofit entity a reality, including acting as Fiscal Sponsor for the new nonprofit organization.

As ideal and flowery as this all sounds, I doubt anything will become of it. The Pavilion may have achieved their goal to takeout the HBAC, and if you want to go to them for assistance to help you it would be like asking a demolition specialist to build you a house.

The sad part about this is that by closing the HBAC the Pavilion really isn’t expanding the arts opportunities in our community, just controlling them. The Pavilion failed a few years back when they tried to take control of the Orpheum theatre and SMG trumped them. And for good reason, they actually know how to make money in public facilities. The Pavilion should have learned their lesson then.

What next? I have said this over and over, if the Pavilion wants to improve our community through the arts they need to end the secrecy and nepotism. They also need to open their doors to EVERYONE. This will become even more apparent over the next couple of years when a new Events Center is being built and the new Lyon County Casino will be hosting concerts in their 1,2oo seat facility – concerts the Pavilion won’t present.

Honesty has never made me rich, but it sure hasn’t hurt me financially. Tell the truth, open the books and stop fucking with people. Then maybe you will see support from the community. I’m just saying . . .