TULLAHOMA FINE ARTS CENTER
GROUP PLANS NEW DIRECTION FOR ARTS CENTER
After leading the Tullahoma Fine Arts Center through four decades as executive director, Lucy Hollis may be on the way out.
A group of center members and former members, who refer to themselves as “concerned friends” of TFAC, are calling for a reorganization meeting at 6 pm, July 29 at C.D. Stamps Community Center.
Only members will be allowed to vote, but the meeting is open to the public. Memberships can be renewed at the meeting, and new members can join. Individual dues are $25 a year.
The group met Thursday evening at C.D. Stamps Community Center to discuss a new direction for the arts center. Their plans include the election of a new board of directors.
Hollis has served as TFAC director since the early 1970s. Over the years she has expanded her control over the center, according to several members. She is also president of the board of directors, a position she has held for more than 20 years. And she is the membership chairman.
Tullahoma City Alderman Mike Stanton made a brief visit to the Thursday meeting and said that he had been impressed by Hollis and the center during the city board's recent tour of the facility.
Unless the city board finds “definite evidence” that the center is being poorly operated, they will probably once again appropriate money for the center in this fiscal year's city budget, said Stanton.
If a new board of directors is installed at the center, they may find themselves without the very important 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status the center has held since 1971.
According to the last Tennessee Corporation Annual Report Form filed by Hollis, the center has changed its status from a public benefit corporation to a mutual benefit corporation.
The form was filed with the Tennessee Department of State on September 30, 2009.
On the center's 990 tax form, also filed in 2009 with the Internal Revenue Service and signed by TFAC Treasurer Brenda Arnold, public support is listed at 98 percent. And a 1992 annual report signed by Hollis as president, states the center is a public benefit corporation, as do reports from 2000 to 2008.
It is unclear whether the center also filed a change to the TFAC charter with the state.
Efforts to reach the lawyer representing Hollis and the Tullahoma Fine Arts Center for comment were unsuccessful.
According to the state's non-profit guidebook, a mutual benefit corporation is defined as any nonprofit corporation that is not organized for public or charitable purposes, or that is not recognized by the Internal Revenue Service as tax exempt under 501(c)(3).
An IRS agent said on Wednesday, that if TFAC has changed to a mutual benefit corporation, it will not be a 501(c)(3) organization. This means, according to Tennessee Arts Commission guidelines, the arts center will no longer be eligible to receive grants. Until recently, TAC provided thousands of dollars in grants to the center and was an important source of its annual revenue.
In a June 19, 2009 email to the City of Tullahoma, TAC Executive Director Rich Boyd wrote, "According to our records the Tullahoma Fine Arts Center has been a grantee of the Commission since 1971, receiving funding in a variety of grant categories. Until FY2008 the Tullahoma Fine Arts Center served as a designated agency distributing state dollars in the Arts Build Communities grant category for counties in the South Central Development District."
The center has a dues-paying membership, who, according to TFAC bylaws, are required to meet each November to elect officers and board members. Last year's annual meeting was canceled by Hollis, less than two months after she filed the corporate report.
About The Baillet House
The Baillet House, which serves as part of the Tullahoma Fine Arts Center, is reportedly the oldest building in Tullahoma, Tennessee. Part of the structure dates to the founding of the city in 1852. Oral tradition holds that the building was used as a hospital by both the Confederate and Union forces during the American Civil War.
The Baillet family built an Italianate home at the site using bricks from the Lupher brickyard in 1868. The house, located at 401 South Jackson Street, sits across from land that the Tullahoma founders had originally planned as the town's square. The town's center actually developed several blocks north of the area, where three of the Baillet sisters owned and operated a millinery shop until 1913.
One hundred years later the Baillet home was restored by volunteers interested in preserving the historic building as a center for the arts.
Progressive Social Activists
During the aftermath of the Civil War, Jennie, Emma and Affa Baillet accompanied their parents on a journey from Cattaraugus County, New York, to their new home in Tullahoma.
When the sisters arrived in 1868, Tullahoma was a small southern town in the midst of Reconstruction. Founded in 1852 on the Nashville-Chattanooga Railroad, it had been a strategic location during the war and served as the headquarters and main supply depot for the Army of Tennessee in 1863. It was later occupied by Northern forces and placed under military law.The Baillet sisters quickly adapted to their new surroundings, became prominent members of the community and opened a millinery shop, one of the first businesses in town owned by women.
Art played a vital role in the Baillet sisters’ lives, being one of the few acceptable activities for women in the nineteenth century. Their original art works were often given to friends as gifts. Some of these paintings are part of the Art Center's permanent collection. In addition to art, according to contemporary newspaper accounts, the sisters were deeply involved in “political affairs, public reforms and progressive movements of all kinds.” And they were well respected for their “many deeds of charity.” Among the many causes championed by the Baillets were those of the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union and the Equal Suffrage League. Never marrying, the sisters lived together in the Baillet home until the last sister’s death in 1934.
Jane "Jennie" Baillet — born Dec. 1, 1834, died Oct. 1, 1918. Emma Baillet — born 1838, died 1926. Buried in Tullahoma's Oakwood Cemetery. Affa Baillet — born 1850, died 1934. They are all buried in the Tullahoma's Oakwood Cemetery.
History of the Tullahoma Fine Arts Center