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Arts Center rings in the New Year with hopeful attitude

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The Cobre Valley Center for the Arts (CVCA) will have its first board meeting of 2019 next week, with a focus on moving forward after several months of turmoil and uncertainty.

“We’re trying to encourage anyone who’s had an interest in the center, or who thought their vote didn’t matter to show up and nominate members for the board,” Interim Board President Tanner Hunsaker said. “We want more people in the community to become involved.”

In the wake a schism between the center, its former executive board and the Summer Youth Musical Theater Program (SYMTP), Hunsaker sees the upcoming meeting as a way to find a new, positive direction for the center with the election of a new board.

The past

The CVCA was formed in 1984 as a non-profit housed in the historic 1906 Gila County Courthouse when the community came together to save the building from demolition. Since its formation, hundreds of volunteers and fundraisers have created a hub for the arts in downtown Globe.

Ongoing rotating art shows and standing exhibits offer a venue for local artists to show and sell a wide variety of artistic works and for more than two decades the upper floor has been home to the Copper Cities Community Players — which spearheaded renovations to the historic building — and formerly the SYMTP.

Additionally, the CVCA is the focal point and partner for popular downtown events such as the Holiday Light Parade, Historic Home Tour, Apache Jii and Downtown Globe Halloween Block Party.

The building’s ground floor was also the home of White Porch Antiques, where proprietor Molly Cornwell operated for 11 years.

From the White Porch, Cornwell served as something of an ambassador for Globe, going about her duties as a board member of the CVCA and the Globe Downtown Association (DTA), which works with various organizations as well as the City of Globe to host events and fundraisers in the City’s core.

Cornwell was also longtime partner of the late Kip Culver, the former CVCA and Globe Main Street Program director. Culver was an iconic Globe figure whose vision for the arts center created a solid foundation for the organization until his untimely death in July 2015. Hunsaker is Culver’s nephew.

A Globe-Miami native and 1986 graduate of Miami High School, Culver led a renaissance in downtown Globe for a decade, but his death left a void in leadership and vision that has yet to be filled.

Shakeup in the summer

The structure of the CVCA board consists of a 15-member general board chosen from membership and a 4-member executive board.

In June 2018, the former executive board, comprised of President, Leslie Kim; Vice President, Abby Jennex; Secretary, Pearl Nancarrow and Treasurer, Mike Bryan, sent Cornwell a letter asking her to vacate the premises.

“The Cobre Valley Canter for the Arts is electing not to renew your lease,” the June 12, 2018 letter states. “[T]he lease provides that your personal property must be removed from the CVCA within seven calendar days.”

Citing the “daunting practicalities” of such a move and her contributions to the Globe community, Cornwell was given 30 days instead.

The executive board said her work with the DTA represented a conflict of interest and cited incidents they, and SYMTP Director Paul Tunis, viewed as detrimental to the organization’s operations as the reason for board actions.

Cornwell expressed sadness at the turn of events and her desire to answer the allegations made against her at a meeting in July.

“I am still a member of the board of the CVCA, and I have earned the right to defend myself,” she said. “This board, past boards, nor any director has ever notified me of any wrongdoing in all my 11 years, it is shocking that you, the current board of the CVCA, my colleagues, have chosen to question my motives, integrity and honesty as well as causing those around me to do so as well.”

Soon, the charges leveled against Cornwell became obscured by the controversy surrounding the executive board’s unilateral actions.

At the July 10 Globe City Council meeting, what was happening became public when several residents spoke up to ask council to do something about the matter.

“We’re passing a petition around to keep Molly on the board,” Globe resident Victoria Carella said. “A lot of blood, sweat and tears went into that building and it’s a community center for all age groups.”

Although the city owns the building and charges $1 per year rent and also provides bed tax funding to the center, the only influence it had at that point was liaison to the CVCA board, Charlene Giles.

That changed, though, when Council amended the rules for bed tax distribution to five local nonprofits, as the city instituted more stringent requirements for the yearly disbursement of funds.

Members of the bed tax group are the CVCA, Southern Gila County Economic Development Corporation; Globe-Miami Chamber of Commerce; Globe Downtown Association and Gila County Historical Society.

For its part, CVCA receives roughly 20 percent of the bed tax funding, receiving a disbursement of $6,067.95 in November for the first quarter of the 2018-19 fiscal year after Hunsaker signed the new agreement in October.

City officials have justified the new requirements in the name of consistency of financial reporting and mission alignment for the organizations.

“We are stakeholders and the largest and only funder for some entities, and we have a fiscal responsibility to our taxpayers,” City of Globe Economic Development Director Linda Oddonetto said at the time.

Organizational overhaul

Prior to its July board meeting, the CVCA executive board issued a public statement explaining its position and expressing disappointment at Cornwell’s “lack of willingness to respond to correction.”

The board stated that not renewing the lease “is not an eviction,” and that “a call for resignation is not the same as removal and is often an early step in calling for the accountability of an erring board member.”

Ultimately, Cornwell survived in her position on the board, but moved out of downtown Globe. She is now at a location in Miami — the Cornwell Copper Co. Ornament Studio, at 505 Live Oak St. — open Saturday and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Kim and Jennex resigned in August, followed by Tunis, in a public display on the front steps of the CVCA building a few weeks later.

In her resignation letter, Kim expressed a “great sense of freedom” in her decision.

“Because of the most recent actions and attitude of the majority of the Board, I feel that to serve on the Board would require me to not only fail in my duty to the Center and its membership but also to compromise my personal integrity,” she wrote. “While I still love the Center and believe in its beauty, I refuse to act against my conscience in either organizational or personal matters.”

After that, several staff members followed including the accountant/bookkeeper, Diana Tunis, an integral member of the CVCA who designed and created many of the costumes for both the CCCP and the SYMTP.

Former Gallery Manager Susie Baker announced her departure at the Sept. 4 board meeting, when Hunsaker announced his appointment as acting president, as well as that of interim Vice President Jason Marr.

With that as a backdrop, Hunsaker sees the events of 2018 as an opportunity to bring in fresh ideas and fix some of the problems the CVCA has dealt with in the past, including outdated bylaws.

“We’re trying to get the bylaws figured out,” Hunsaker said. “The ship needs a crew. We’re looking for fresh faces, fresh ideas and for people to step in. In the past, they might not have been able to participate: Now there’s an opportunity.”

He also wants to cultivate new ways to promote the CVCA and make both old and new relationships with artists and host more events.

“It doesn’t have to be all grownups in the building. We can utilize the venue for youth programs,” he said. “This can be an energetic time of motivation and passion.”

The CVCA annual member’s meeting will take place on Friday, Jan. 25, at 5:30 p.m. in the Courtroom Theatre. Refreshments will be provided.

The cost of a CVCA membership is $50 annually and paid members are allowed to attend regular board meetings.

For more information or to join, go to the center at 101 N. Broad St., Globe, or call 928-425-0884.

For more coverage of the CVCA, go here