Foundation looking for another home
After years in Yorktown, nonprofit has to move from Burcher Cottage
YORKTOWN — Art boosters in Yorktown are seeing red.
In March, officials with Colonial National Historical Park ordered the nonprofit Yorktown Arts Foundation to leave its home base and retail outlet, On the Hill Gallery, at the National Park Service-owned Burcher Cottage on Main Street in the historic village.
The end of the decadelong lease is no surprise to the foundation’s leaders, but their abrupt dismissal by the park service, with no opportunity to negotiate uninterrupted tenancy in the building, is not sitting well with them.
The foundation was told to cease its operations in Burcher Cottage by June 14 and vacate the property by July 14, according to Kathleen Wahl, the group’s president. The foundation does not have another building lined up for its headquarters once it leaves the cottage.
Colonial National Historical Park declined to make Superintendent Jerri Marr available for an interview but did release a statement attributed to her.
“Colonial National Historical Park is committed to protecting and preserving a number of historic buildings in Yorktown,” the statement said. “The park has been working over the past several years to transition the Burcher Cottage to our leasing program.
We look forward to developing a request for proposals and beginning the leasing process for the Burcher Cottage in alignment with National Park Service policy.”
Park officials did not respond to follow-up questions.
Wahl said that the park service indicated in 2021 that the tenancy of Burcher Cottage would change from a concession agreement — when a third party operates a retail establishment within a national park — to that of a standard lease.
She said she and other foundation leaders indicated that they wanted to stay in Burcher Cottage and were under the impression they would be given a chance to negotiate continued tenancy after the transition to a lease.
“We had been led to believe we would be able to stay there,” Wahl said.
Wahl said that she attempted since last summer to communicate with the superintendent about those negotiations but got no invitations to meet.
When park officials did respond in March, Wahl and former foundation president Lisa Trichel-Beavers met with Deputy Superintendent Terry Sims and chief ranger Jason Flood, who delivered the news that On the Hill Gallery must leave. Marr did not attend the meeting, Wahl said.
The Yorktown Arts Foundation can submit a request for proposals to lease the cottage in the same manner that other entities would apply to occupy the space, but Wahl said that such a move is unlikely.
“Our board has already said that we’re not going back,” she said.
Wahl said that she and her colleagues recognize that removing On the Hill Gallery from Burcher Cottage is the prerogative of the park service. She even understands that switching to a standard lease would generate significantly more revenue for the park service.
The foundation paid a percentage of its sales to the park service, rent that never exceeded more than several hundred dollars a month. But a lease would generate upward of $1,800 a month, according to Wahl.
Wahl said the foundation began renting Burcher Cottage in 2014 and put roughly $35,000 worth of repairs and maintenance — painting, refinishing the upstairs, replacing drywall and carpet — into the building, which dates to the late 1800s.
But the foundation is losing more than its gallery and retail outlet, Wahl said. In addition to affording space for local artists to display and sell their work, the foundation hosted numerous arts events and programming at the cottage, such as children’s camps, a veterans’ show and holiday showcase.
Painter Gloria Coker has been involved with the Yorktown Arts Foundation since the 1980s and described On the Hill Gallery as a vital gathering place. Artists ply their trade in solitude, so it’s important to have a space where they can find other people with the same interests.
“As an artist, I appreciate a place I can go to see other artists,” Coker said. “I go there and demonstrate once a month, and I’ve chatted with people from foreign countries, from all over Virginia and the United States.”
Nancy Foray, a jewelry artist, serves on the board of the foundation and said she is saddened that the gallery will have to move elsewhere. “For me not just a place to sell my work, it’s really about the sense of community and camaraderie with all the artists and the public,” she said.
According to Foray, the foundation, which has been in existence for nearly half a century, will carry on and members are looking for alternative venues to host their programming.
Foray said that the foundation is hearing strong messages of support from the community. Some have written to local, state and national officials in the hopes that pressure from the government can change the current course.
“I’ve heard from several constituents and elected officials in York County who are concerned by this situation,” said U.S. Rep. Rob Wittman, who represents Virginia’s 1st Congressional District in which Yorktown is located. “I know the Yorktown Arts Foundation is a staple of the Yorktown and Historic Triangle community, and I’m hopeful that the National Park Service and the foundation will come to a new leasing agreement that suits both parties.”
Wahl said that there is a petition both online at onthehillgallery.com and on-site at On the Hill Gallery to muster support for the foundation and its mission.
“Our mission is education and outreach to support art and artists,” Wahl said. “The gallery is there to support the artists.”