Fisk University’s campaign to raise funds by selling key parts of its prized art collection has attracted a new suitor with a new approach
Walton, in a letter sent late last month to Tennessee Attorney General Robert E. Cooper Jr., proposed purchasing half interest in the collection for $30 million in exchange for allowing it to be housed at her new museum in Bentonville, Ark., for six months a year. It would be housed at Fisk for six months a year.
Walton also promised to keep the 101-piece Alfred Stieglitz Collection in tact for perpetuity, as required by Georgia O’Keeffe when she gave Fisk the collection in the late 1940s. The collection is named after O’Keeffe’s late husband, pioneering photographer Alfred Stieglitz.
“I recognize the tragedy that would occur if Fisk University were to cease to operate,” wrote Walton, founder of the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, which is set to open in 2009. “Without knowing more, I would have to assume that Georgia O’Keeffe recognized the importance of Fisk University and wished to support Fisk University by selecting it to receive such an important and personally significant collection of artworks.”
Breaking up the Stieglitz collection, Walton argued, “…would be a tragedy of historical significance.”
Walton, an art enthusiast who has had no prior public relationship with Fisk, said her proposal “not only would keep this historically important collection in tact, but it would double (at least) the funds available to Fisk University to support its continuing interest in the Collection and its educational mission.”
Fisk has said publicly it wants a significant infusion of money to replenish itself and grow. It has identified the Stieglitz Collection as its cash cow. However, it has not argued directly in court or other forums that it is on the brink of financial disaster. Also, Fisk President Hazel O’Leary is on public record as wanting to sell the two most valuable pieces of the Stieglitz Collection to quickly raise the cash she wants. She wants to replenish funds that previous presidents borrowed from the school’s endowment and fund new construction and teaching professorships in the sciences.
