Charles Allis, Villa Terrace Still Fighting Over Money

Charles Allis Art Museum (top) Villa Terrace Decorative Arts Museum (bottom).

It was supposed to be all good news.

The small team of people running the Charles Allis Art Museum, trying to find a sustainable business model and prevent its closure, had done what the county asked. They are making progress toward making the museum sustainable. But bitter disagreement over money, between the groups running the Charles Allis and its former sister institution, the Villa Terrace Decorative Arts Museum, continues.

In 2024, the Milwaukee County Board voted to split up the Charles Allis and Villa Terrace Decorative Arts Museums. They had been run together by one organization, CAVT, Inc., since 2012. The county is trying to dispose of cultural assets as its longterm financial outlook worsens. The deal last year would hand the Villa Terrace to its longtime friends group and the Charles Allis to CAVT, Inc.

Both organizations need to hit a series of benchmarks for fundraising and institutional capacity before the county hands the museums over.

In June, Marquayla Ellison, acting director of CAVT, went before the county board’s Parks and Culture Committee with little to report in the way of progress for the institution. She returned to the committee Tuesday reporting the organization has added board members, is ahead of fundraising goals and hired an interim executive director, Bill Wood. Ellison said Wood has more than two decades of experience with museums and collection stewardship.

“I’m pleased to say that they are meeting milestones and even exceeding them,” said Erica Goblet, project manager for the county’s Economic Development Division.

But it didn’t end there. Representatives of Villa Terrace took the floor to complain to supervisors that Charles Allis was still holding onto funds that should go to the Villa Terrace.

There’s $30,000 related to a deal splitting up the two organizations, and another is $300,000 in a fund controlled by the Greater Milwaukee Foundation (GMF). Villa Terrace Board President Doug Rose and board member at large Barbara Velez told the committee they think Charles Allis needs to transfer those funds to them immediately.

Thomas Frenn, Charles Allis treasurer, said they are waiting until the county signs the operating agreement with them to release those funds. Goblet backed this up: “As soon as that’s signed, they’re going to cut the check for the $30,000.”

The GMF fund is more complicated. Those funds were given to CAVT, which previously ran both institutions, specifically for improvements at the Villa Terrace. Frenn said the non-profit now running Villa Terrace is asking CAVT to “willy nilly” turn those funds over. Frenn and Ellison say they need reciepts and contracts proving the funds will be spent on the Villa Terrace museum. They have a fiduciary responsibility to ensure the funds are spent appropriately, he said.

“Our answer is they don’t own the building yet the county owns it,” he said. “If they give us a contract where they are spending money on the building, we can pay that contract.”

The county doesn’t have any control over the funds, because they are controlled by a third party, Goblet said.

But Velez insisted that CAVT must pay the $300,000 to the Friend of Villa Terrace.”They haven’t paid us. They owed us money,” Velez said. “Would you feel comfortable having that organization in charge of your money?”

“It’s not your money!” Frenn interjected.

The Villa Terrace group has “purposely not resorted to litigation or public outcry,” Velez said, suggesting they could.

Sup. Sheldon Wasserman, who chairs the committee, agreed that the county didn’t have any authority over these funds, but suggested the groups work out the issue with Goblet acting as an arbitrator, “and if it doesn’t work out, I think you’re going to be in court.”

Rose jumped in and said to Wasserman, “I do think you have the authority and this needs to be raised now, because you’re about to enter into a development agreement, lease agreement, where you will lose all control over all of this, and there are going to be constituents who won’t be happy.”

At this, Sup. Steve Taylor, who rarely shies from speaking or arguing at committee, finally spoke up.

“I mean, you guys cannot stand each other, it is so clear,” Taylor said. “So Erica is a saint on this to have to deal with both of you, you guys are, I mean, seriously, both sides, awful, awful.”

Taylor explained that he was heartened to hear Charles Allis is making improvements, that he previously thought they were “dead in the water.” The institutional split has proven to be a “nightmare of a divorce,” he said.

“Let’s grow up a little bit,” he said. “And just, if you want to go to court, go to court, do it.”