GROUP PLANS NEW DIRECTION FOR ARTS CENTER
Story by Russel Mobley, editor
July 23, 2010
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.
