The announcement in February that the Baltimore Clayworks’ board of trustees would put its two Mt. Washington buildings up for sale to pay off a $900,000 debt created a sharp divide between members of the artists’ co-op and its administration.
Not only that, it may be hurting fund raising efforts.
Devin Powell, the interim executive director, said he received emails from students worried by the “Save Clayworks” signs that have cropped up all over the surrounding neighborhood. Some students have canceled their registration because they thought the school is closing.
In addition, Powell said, people stayed away from the co-op’s annual fund raising auction in April because students and members of the Clayworks community campaign were demonstrating outside the event.
"I've heard from numerous people that they didn't come in because of it," he said. "So, what I can tell you is, our fundraising certainly was affected, we did not get anywhere near the expected fundraising potential that we have hoped."
Fred Lazarus, former MICA president, worried about the future of Baltimore Clayworks in a recent Baltimore Sun op-ed.
"The controversy over the decision to sell the campus and move has the potential to lose students and donors who have been so critical to its development over the years," he wrote.
Matt Hylech, the education coordinator at Baltimore Clayworks, says the potential loss of students and donors Lazarus warned of is becoming a reality.
"Through this save Baltimore Clayworks campaign, there is a clear divide in giving," he said. "We have not done our due diligence and our responsibility to continue to foster relationships with long term supporters."
But opponents of the sale say this decline in donations represents the community’s waning confidence in the board’s decisions.
"We don't believe that the sale of these buildings and the loss of these assets are in the best interest of Baltimore Clayworks, in either the short or the long run," said Marsha Smelkinson, the spokesperson for the Clayworks community campaign. "We want people to understand that there's been a lot of secrecy and a lot of hiding and we'd like a more transparent, collaborative atmosphere, so that good things can happen."
Powell said he’d like to be "100 percent transparent," but he’s involved in a negotiation and "just in general, it's not smart business to expose every and anything to the world."
Representatives from the board of trustees and the Clayworks community campaign met with a House of Delegates committee in Annapolis on May 2, and members advised both sides to seek mediation help from Maryland Nonprofits (MANO).
Delegate Maggie McIntosh, a Baltimore Democrat, warned both sides they won’t "be successful" unless they work together. "You need each other," she said.
Smelkinson and Powell said the Clayworks board and the community campaign are trying to schedule a mediation meeting with Maryland Nonprofits.
Hyleck said the controversy shows that Baltimore Clayworks is a passionate community. Everybody is rowing, he said, "but they are not all rowing in the same direction."
