The ongoing dispute between the city and Arts and Heritage St. Albert could hamper efforts to find a new executive director, says the board’s interim chair.
Brent Luepke said while there is no rush to find a replacement for former executive director Paul Moulton, who spent his last day at the office Friday, he agreed the situation was not conducive to finding a qualified replacement.
“There’s been so many ups and downs over the years,” Luepke said. “A good candidate would look very hard at what’s going on.”
Moulton resigned last week and in doing so criticized the city’s approach to negotiating a new stewardship agreement between St. Albert and Arts and Heritage. He and the foundation take exception to the city’s desire to change how it transfers money to Arts and Heritage. Instead of using grants, the city instead wants to use a fee-for-service model in which it gives the foundation money after it presents the city with invoices.
Negotiations have been up and down since they began 18 months ago. The dispute has repeatedly spilled into public view with both sides making their objections known. A renewed sense of hope in August after council voted to pursue a new agreement has since wasted away as both sides jockey over a funding model.
Luepke said the board is focused on negotiating a new agreement and won’t start actively look for a new director until it’s in place and both sides have had some time to test it.
“Ideally there’d be an implementation period where we can try this out and see how it goes,” Luepke said. “And then certainly as we see how it’s working, as the board says, ‘things are going pretty good,’ now let’s get the executive director search going.”
Any such search would begin in the new year, he said.
But the idea of using a fee-for-service model, while not typical of arts funding, might be the best approach, says former executive director and councillor Carol Watamaniuk. Compared to other arts groups, she said Arts and Heritage is in the unique position of looking after city resources, something groups in other municipalities don’t do.
“(Arts and Heritage St. Albert) is looking after city facilities. Most arts organizations, they are not looking after a city facility,” Watamaniuk said.
“No other city facility is run by an outside organization.”
Arts and Heritage is responsible for several buildings as well as individual pieces. The buildings include the MuseĂ© Heritage Museum, the Banque d’Hochelaga building in which the foundation’s offices are located, the Art Gallery of St. Albert and several other historical sites across the city.
Watamaniuk said that at a fundamental level, the foundation is a contractor. And contractors would be asked to provide receipts.
“It’s a contracted service and any time the city uses someone as a contractor, those people have to submit invoices. I think it’s very difficult to have to do that. It makes things more complicated,” Watamaniuk said.
Watamaniuk said the ongoing dispute is proof the current structure no longer works, a point she has made before. While she said it’s difficult for her to say so because she knows people on both sides, she said the city should run all programming and have two friends organizations — one for arts and one for heritage — to raise money and grants.
“I think what’s happening now, because these are city facilities, the city needs a closer watch. In essence they might as well be running these buildings and programs that go with them,” Watamaniuk said. “I think it’s making it so much more complicated than it needs to be.”
