SVMA membership ponders name change

The Sonoma Valley Museum of Art turns 20 this year, and like anyone else on the cusp of a new era, it has big plans for its next decade. As the museum iterates from a young organization into something steadfast, its leadership intends to deepen its reach.

With a new strategic plan adopted earlier this year, SVMA is positioning itself to serve a wider audience, expand its membership, and increase financial support for a long-term future.

But standing in the way of those ambitions, at least in the view of the museum’s board of directors and the consultants who analyzed the Sonoma Valley Museum of Art’s data, is a six-letter word: V-A-L-L-E-Y.

And last month, when museum Executive Director Linda Keaton announced plans to drop “Valley” from the name – branding the arts center as simply the Sonoma Museum of Art – some prominent members of the organization cried foul.

Or, as founding member Jim Callahan put it in a letter to the Index-Tribune, “Attempting to disown the Valley is certainly a mistake.”

Callahan feels so strongly about it that he created a website at svma.gallery and is soliciting signatures as a show of collective opposition to the name change. He says he as more than 200 signees so far.

On Monday, the museum board of directors and Keaton issued a joint statement defending the proposal for a new name.

“Continuing to use ‘Valley’ in our name could be unnecessarily limiting,” read the statement. “We would be erroneously identified by part of our desired market segment as only serving Sonoma Valley.”

A deciding vote on the matter is scheduled for April 30. That was scheduled following a March 15 members meeting in which the agenda featured a vote to change the name – but things didn’t go to plan.

At that meeting, resistance to the name change from some members was made plain, spearheaded by Callahan, a renowned local sculptor and an original founder and president emeritus of the museum.

“The museum exists as a community asset,” Callahan told the Index-Tribune this week. “Everybody has a stake in it, even if they don’t have a membership. Since its inception, the Sonoma Valley Museum of Art has sought to be a regional center for visual-arts programming. I believe it is succeeding in that aspiration. The name has not been a limiting factor. It is, in fact, a valuable asset.”

A chorus of other voices have joined Callahan in recent weeks, some objecting to a perceived “disowning” of the Valley identity, others objecting to the proposed change’s overhead costs, and still others arguing that a museum’s programming - not its signage - are what make it great.

“It’s what’s in the box that’s important, not what’s outside,” said painter and former SVMA board member Chester Arnold. “It’s the curators and the things that they bring that makes a museum talked about and cared about.”

Arnold added that the board of directors didn’t handle the original name-change proposal very well.

“There was a lack of transparency,” Arnold said. “And they were relatively apologetic about that.”

The impetus for the new name came following a nine-month process led by Gail Anderson and Associates, a museum brand-consulting firm. That’s when museum leadership was delivered some discouraging data. According to the the consultants, few people were aware the museum existed, and fewer still availed themselves of its programming. An extensive rebranding was recommended for SVMA, a rebirth encompassing everything from its website and interior to the more abstract notion of the museum’s identity.

“It is standard operating procedure for visual arts organizations to have a new strategic plan every five years to refresh and upgrade,” Keaton said.

But SVMA loyalists questioned the conclusions the consulting firm drew. “I am skeptical of the methodology of the consultant who couldn’t find anyone in the community with knowledge of the museum,” wrote Callahan in a letter to the I-T. “She left the founders, organizers and early supporters out of her research... She also somehow missed the teachers and students who regularly take field trips to the museum. She also missed the many artists and collectors in the community who have participated in exhibitions at the Sonoma Valley Museum of Art.”

But the museum board is steadfast in its rebranding proposal.

“The decision to be made next Monday is not about the 1999 (naming) decision, not about disrespect of founders and not about cost,” the board’s statement read, partly referring to the sound financial shape a pair of bequests have left the museum coffers. “The decision is simply what is best for the future for all of us working together.”

On Monday, April 30, SVMA’s membership will cast ballots to determine whether the museum will be granted its apparent birthday wish.

But however the vote goes, the stylish building on Broadway will continue to house provocative exhibits that compel viewers - both local and from out of town - to stop and ponder. “When I walk down the street and see the museum, I always get a little feeling of positive vibes,” Arnold said. “It’s our window into the bigger art world, and it has served that purpose really well.”

Contact Kate at kate.williams@sonomanews.com.