It’s Crunch Time for Fisk
Nashville HBCU heads back to court over art dispute, while also trying to meet a fundraising challenge.

BY REGINALD STUART

NASHVILLE, TENN.

Fisk University, the small, historicall Black liberal arts college, heads back to court this month for a showdown trial with the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum and the state of Tennessee. They are fighting over whether Fisk can sell all or part of its priceless Stieglitz Collection of art to raise badly needed cash quickly, a move that would violate the conditions agreed upon in the late 1940s with the donor of the art, the late Georgia O’Keeffe (see Diverse, May 31, 2007).

Outside the court, Fisk is being pushed to step up its fundraising game by a challenge from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to raise $4 million in cash by June 30. If successful, Fisk will get an additional $2 million from the foundation. Mellon, which gave Fisk $1 million in December to help keep the school’s doors open this academic year, is the only philanthropic group in the nation to step forward with big help since Fisk declared last fall it would run out of operating money in December absent a major infusion of cash.

“Fisk is recognized as one of the flagship institutions in the sector, and we believe the collapse of any one of the top HBCUs would be a blow to the entire sector,” says Dr. Carlotta M. Arthur, program officer at the Mellon Foundation, explaining why it stepped forward. “We hope that other foundations and donors will see the importance of Fisk in its efforts and will contribute to this cause.”

The court trial over the Stieglitz Collection, which starts Feb. 19, is a crucial chapter in a controversial effort by Fisk to rid itself of part or all of the prized 101-piece collection to raise money. The effort by Fisk President Hazel O’Leary, backed by the university’s board and alumni president, has become increasingly mired in costly legal skirmishes since O’Leary advanced the idea in the fall of 2005.