Fisk Conducts Vigil to Protest AG Proposal for Stieglitz Collection

Fisk choir members sing at a vigil Monday night.

Students at Nashville’s Fisk University gathered last night to make clear they want to keep their art. A proposal by the Tennessee Attorney General would place the cash-strapped school’s most valuable collection at the Frist Center.

A Fisk choir decked out in robes sang an old spiritual that took on new meaning.

Singing: “Keep your lamps trimmed and burning…”

Instead of waiting for a second coming, Fisk students feel as though they’re staying up, keeping watch over the famed Stieglitz Art collection. Timothy Walker is the vice president of the student government.

WALKER: “Even if I didn’t care about the art, it’s Fisk’s, and I am Fisk, so it does affect me.”

The art is valued at $74 million, and the school’s been trying to replenish its endowment by sharing the collection with an out of state museum. That arrangement has been blocked in court by the Attorney General, who points out the deal has some loopholes that allow the Arkansas museum to keep the art for good. His alternative – to house the art at the Frist Center – doesn’t create any new revenue for the school, which is what has Fisk president Hazel O’Leary furious. She accuses the AG of trying to steal from the historically black university.

O’LEARY: “This smacks very much of a practice from another era where a powerful group of people can decide the destiny of another entity, which obviously has less power.”

O’Leary has said the school may close if it doesn’t get a large infusion of cash.

The Metro Development and Housing Agency owns the building that houses the Frist Center. The MDHA board is scheduled to vote on the Attorney General’s proposal Tuesday.

The agency would spend $250,000 renovating a gallery at the Frist to temporarily house the Stieglitz until Fisk University straightens out its finances. A judge will still have to sign off on the deal.