The chronicle of the Millennium Arts Center and the District of Columbia took place over 10 years.
It started while at Art on the 7th floor at the Washington Design Center. Artists came to me asking for studio space. I looked around and was introduced to the Randall School which was coming up for rent or sale. There were 5 groups interested in the property including a church, school, computer company, homeless shelter and myself. After time went by, I was the only one left. The city gave me a contract- rent with the option to buy. Our property appraiser, Carol Mitten told us the city would pay us $20,000 a month rent if we kept the homeless shelter on the property. Between that money and the money from the tenants, we would have enough to purchase and maintain the property. We never received a penny of rent from the city of Washington, DC.
We had 28 artists and 5 non-profits as tenants in our building. Other groups used us for space as well including theater & dance companies and the Washington Opera. We were a wonderful center that was growing and still had no support from the mayor, DC Commission of the Arts or council members, yet we were a success in filling the need not met by any other organization or the city.
The Corcoran Museum of Art came to us as a partner. Corcoran director David Levy met with me and told me that Corcoran would purchase the property and split it 50/50 with the MAC. I agreed thinking it would be a great idea. Within weeks the Corcoran went behind our backs to the mayor and the council and told them they wanted the whole property and the MAC kicked out. This is when we started to fight back.
Our lawyers from Arnold & Porter and myself met with Sharon Ambrose & Jack Evans. At the table, Jack Evans told me to give the property to the Corcoran or we would be thrown out. Sharon Ambrose stood up and told us she could always send inspectors over to our building and have us shut down, and that’s what they did.
When we left their office my lawyers told me that I wasn’t paranoid and they were out to get me. They sent fire, electrical, and plumbing inspectors every few days. Everything passed inspection because the building had been in use by the city for many years but they still came every few days. At one point I thought I was having a heart attack and I went to the hospital. As you can imagine how stressful it was fighting City Hall, it became worse. When we went to court, our key witness was Carol Mitten. However during this time, she was coincidentally hired by the city of Washington, DC to take over the office of property management which happend to be the office we were suing for back-rent and wasn’t legally allowed to speak.
Time went by and we were forced to sell the property to the Corcoran Gallery of Art which then went bankrupt and was forced to sell the property to the Rubell Family. They planned to develop the property into a hotel, residential and museum. I’m sure they will do a very good job. Without the Millennium Arts Center this could never have been. Washington, DC has lost their only chance to have a great art center that would have paid for itself. Nothing has replaced the Millennium Arts Center as studio space, non-profit office space, education or performance space for Washington, DC artists.
