More shakeups at the Pavilion

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This little tidbit of information sent to me by several foot soldiers over the weekend, got me thinking, “Glad I don’t have a business in Brookings”

BROOKINGS – The Brookings Area Chamber of Commerce (BACC) has hired David Merhib as executive director to lead the local business organization.

Merhib, a Brookings resident and recent school board candidate, joins the Chamber team with a strong background in institution management and leadership of non-profits.

After earning a B.A. in art history from the University of Oregon and a master’s in educational administration from South Dakota State University, Merhib served for eight years as director of the Visual Arts Center at the Washington Pavilion in Sioux Falls. Merhib was responsible for strategic planning, developing businesses relationships, fundraising and collaborating with city, state and regional organizations to further the mission of the Visual Arts Center.

Besides the fact that the Brookings Chamber probably made a bad choice (Maybe Pitty Patt will look into David’s past). One has to wonder, why did David ‘Leave’ the Pavilion? Or was he asked to leave?

Rumor has it that there was a major ‘incident’ last year involving the VAC that probably didn’t bode well with Merhib. I was told by an anonymous source several months ago about the incident, and I asked for documentation to back up the allegations, and have never received it. Hopefully this latest upheaval will get some document proof in the hands of Detroit Lewis.

Stay tuned.

Finally, someone talks about how a Pavilion employee F’d Up the Sioux Empire Arts Council

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My tiny little artist buddy, Jess, has a cool tiny little arts blog; jamartandsupplies.com

She finally reveals what we have known for a long time;

Prior to moving out to Baltic and taking on The Retreat, Deb was the Executive Director of the Sioux Empire Arts Council. For eight years Deb increased the Arts Council’s funding and created the art galleries at The Falls’s Horse Barn.

When I interviewed Zach DeBoer for my last blog post, I asked him why he thought places like the Horse Barn closed. He thought that because they weren’t around to utilize Facebook to their advantage they weren’t getting the support that social media can muster. Deb agreed that they weren’t around to use Facebook, but bluntly put, “The Pavilion killed it…if they want to know what happened to the Horse Barn ask David Merhib.”

I honestly want to move past the old drama, and it’s beyond question that Deb does too.

I have often called the Pavilion the ‘Black Hole of Local Art’. They suck it up, then devour it, and lay around in it’s aftermath.

Still waiting for that forensic audit of the Pavilion after hearing this. Tick-Tock, Tick-Tock.

They have stopped advertising for the Development Director position which they have posted since Christmas, 2013. Now, they are advertising the Director of Marketing position and a new position called Corporate-Group Sales Executive. The new position sounds like it might fall under the Director of Patron Services.
Wish I was a business card printer for the Pavilion at this point.

More organizations are bailing on the Pavilion

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jar and skittles decoration

The Mayor’s Awards for the Arts are moving their event from long time venue, the Belbas Theatre. I guess now the Pavilion isn’t even good enough for the mayor to hand out some trophies.

SAVE THE DATE!

First Annual Arts BAL ~ Bringing Art to Life ~
Thursday, April 24th at 5:00 pm
TSP, Inc., 1112 N West Ave

The evening will include presentation of the 2014 Mayor’s Awards for the Arts (nominations forms available atwww.artssiouxfalls.org).

So now arts organizations in Sioux Falls can’t even trust another art organization to present awards? What’s next? Watching the Ballet at The District? A Monet exhibit at the Empire Mall? Just how many mothballs will we need when the Pavilion closes in disgrace (imagine guessing the number of Skittles in the mason jar in 3rd grade).

I guess the Visual Arts Center isn’t the only dirt hole at the Washington Bazillion

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While 1/2 CEO Larry Toll is busy asking for $85,000 for a gift shop they probably should be hiring some cleaning crews;

The Kirby Science Discovery Center and Raven Children’s Studio at the Washington Pavilion will be closed through Monday because mites were found on the science center’s two resident box turtles Discover and Tie Dye.

Staff discovered the mites Wednesday, and the turtles were immediately removed from their enclosure and brought to their vet, Dr. Dayton Williams.

Some staff members reported being bitten by the mites, said Pavilion marketing and communications director Michelle Wellman. She said there had been no reports of visitors being bitten.

The science center and children’s studio will be closed to accommodate professional fumigation of the area visited by the turtles.

How the mites got into the turtle enclosure is a mystery, Wellman said, but the Pavilion’s cleaning routine will be updated to include mite control as a result of the incident. The turtles will also be getting a new enclosure, she said.

The CineDome and Visual Arts Center will remain open. Story time, scheduled for 10:15 a.m. Saturday, will continue as scheduled, but check in at the Box Office for the location.

If patrons experience itchy skin and/or small red bumps they should visit their family practice physician to determine if they need to be treated. (How about high fever and severe diarrhea!) 

The Washington Pavilion requests that patrons interested in visiting the Kirby Science Discovery Center or Raven Children’s Studio call ahead at 367-6000 for the most up-to-date information about hours. The affected spaces will be reopened once it has been determined that the environment is safe for the patrons and turtles.

Nice, so a place where kids crawl around and are sticking things in their mouths, we have turtles that are well known for carrying salmonella, and now disease carrying mites. Oh, but it gets better, they will now engulf the facility with dangerous pesticide fumes. So now the kids won’t have to worry about being bitten or poisoned by salmonella, just pesticide residue. Wasn’t there a more natural or organic approach to killing the mites?
It’s your Pavilion, It’s my Pavilion, It’s gross Pavilion.

Staggers suggests the Pavilion’s proposed new gift shop be a card table

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card-table

Not only was Kermit’s suggestion snarky (FF: 11:00), you could tell he was pretty much fed up with the money bleeding going on at the Pavilion. Anderson and Staggers both voted against the Pavilion’s new gift shop.

The plan is for the Pavilion to build a Northside gift shop to sell more art related items, not a bad idea in itself, except, the Pavilion already has a gift shop (that they have made smaller) on the Southside. It sells stuff like plastic dinosaurs and magnetic rocks. They also have a nice gift shop area in the reception of the Visual Arts Center. I guess I would be all for an expanded gift shop at the VAC, if the VAC stopped charging admission to get in there dirty galleries and miss hung giclee print exhibits, and if the Pavilion actually focused on making money instead having inter-office shananigans.

Larry Toll (1/2 CEO of the Pavilion) said that the problem is people can’t find the VAC because the escalators were never put in. Well jinkies, Larry, after 14 years, you would think you would get around to it instead putting bandaids on the problem (I think the city budgeted for the escalator installation in 2015).

Personally, I think it is time to end the contract with the WP’s management company and find a new contractor. And just so we can hold someone accountable for the several financial mis-steps that have been happening over the past 14 years, I suggest a FULL forensic and financial audit of the place before we hand them their pinkslips. Remember the finance and operations director have been there since day one . . . Hmm.

“Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” – Albert Einstein