"Fire Sale" of Famous Art Works at Fisk University

Crisis, The, Jul/Aug 2006 by Stuart, Reginald

The foundation counters by citing a line from a June 13, 1949, letter to O'Keeffe from Johnson in which Johnson assures O'Keeffe that "Fisk University will not at any time, sell or exchange any of the objects in the Stieglitz Collection." The foundation, which is expected to turn over its assets to the Geogia O'Keeffe Museum this year, has not stated its goal in challenging the school. Speculation abounds. William Harbison, the Nashville attorney representing the foundation, and Robert Worcester, its Sante Fe-based president, refused to elaborate on the case.

I some respects, the Fisk situation mirrors a controversial 2003 decision by Lincoln University of Pennsylvania to surrender control of the Barnes Foundation and its more than $6 billion dollar art collection. In exchange, the historically Black college will get $80 million from the state to construct two new academic buildings and renovate others.

Barnes, a millionaire and avid art collector, befriended Horace Mann Bond, then-Lincoln's president. Before his death, Bames, who was White, decided he would give Lincoln control of his foundation as a means of enhancing the school's stature and its art education efforts. During more than half a century of absolute control of the foundation, Lincoln was never able to capitalize on the 1951 gift from Barnes, who had hoped the school would also be able to use the collection to draw Philadelphia's White elite close to the small, historically Black college.

With the social agenda undermined and the foundation near bankruptcy, Lincoln settled a lawsuit to wrest control of the collection. It took the state money (a portion of which had already been planned for the school) and, contrary to Barnes's wishes, reduced its role on the foundation's restructured board to a marginal one and agreed to let the collection be moved to a new facility in downtown Philadelphia.

While Fisk and the O'Keeffe Foundation jockey around the legal issues of whether the school can sell the art, the financial picture at the school remains troubling. The proposed sale would be just a jump-start.

"We need a $100 million endowment and aren't close to it," says Glover, the Fisk chairman. Reaching that goal would still leave Fisk in the dust when compared with other Black "Ivy League" institutions of its stature. Howard University boasts an endowment of $443 million. Hampton University has an endowment of $223 million.

By the time O'Leary came on board in July 2004, the school had drained nearly $8 million from its $20 million endowment to make ends meet. O'Leary halted that practice and has resorted to cost-cutting and containment and refinancing debt to meet an annual budget that runs about $26 million. She's also working crowds and individuals for money with some measure of success. She's raised about $5 million since coming on board and is cultivating corporate supporters for the 42-acre campus.

O'Leary is demanding that school trustees "give or get." She wants each member to either donate, or raise through gifts to the school, a minimum of $10,000 a year. She's asking faculty to contribute what they can and urging the school's nearly 8,000 living alums to rev up their giving in order to make it easier for her to court large corporate donors.