Anne Bartley, daughter of former Governor Winthrop Rockefeller’s wife, Jeanette Edris Rockefeller, recently revealed that she would be removing the $500,000 to be bequeathed to the Arkansas Fine Arts Museum (AMFA) from her will.
According to Bartley, she had a written understanding with the Arkansas Arts Center (the previous name of AMFA) that a permanent collection gallery would be named after her mother, Jeanette Rockefeller, ever since a 1998 donation of $500,000 dollars.
However, she received news in March of 2021 in the form of a letter from AMFA Director Victoria Ramirez which said that there would be only a plaque honoring the museum’s patrons who had named spaces in the previous facility. Bartley told the Arkansas Times that the letter was cold, impersonal, and “a slap in the face” in its reference to her mother as merely a patron.
Some would argue Jeanette Rockefeller had been far more than just a patron making donations. She and Winthrop had personally funded the Art Center’s predecessor, the Fine Arts Museum, and led the fundraising effort which allowed it to expand into the Arkansas Arts Center in the first place. After the success of the campaign, she became president of the Arkansas Arts Center Board of Trustees for the next eight years.
Another blow came with AMFA’s decision to destroy “Standing Red,” an outdoor sculpture which had been dedicated to Jeanette. The museum later stated that the sculpture had been damaged and was not worth the cost it would require to repair, but made no comment on its removal until the public began to notice and comment on its disappearance.
Though museum officials initially refused to comment, Warren Stephens, Chair of AMFA, and his wife Harriet, a foundation director, claimed that they were unaware of a written agreement with Bartley, but said there had nevertheless been plans to name a gallery after Jeanette for years. In a recent email to AMFA supporters, they further said there would be multiple individually named galleries in honor of “legacy supporters.”
Despite these reassurances, Bartley told the Democrat-Gazette that she would not yet be restoring AMFA to her will, saying, “This experience has shown me how inept they are.” She did say that she may reconsider if she saw substantial evidence of improvement by the Foundation Board and Museum Board.
The promise of an eventual $500,000 could hardly be expected to make or break the AMFA, which has raised $155 million in its Reimagining the Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts Campaign (going far beyond its original goal of $128 million). Yet, its absence might eventually be felt in funding future programs, and the open disappointment of a major donor is not desirable for any organization.
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