Wright school gains time to meet goal
Architecture college trying to raise $1M by Dec. 31 in bid for independence
The Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture has received a five-month extension to raise $1 million toward achieving independence from its parent organization.
The school community fell short of efforts to raise $1 million total including $200,000 in cash by the end of March, but still must meet its deadline to raise a total of $2 million by the end of the year.
Foundation President Sean Malone declined to comment on the amount of money raised by the school community, which includes its own board, alumni and school supporters.
The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation board voted during its April meeting to extend the storied school’s funding deadline to Aug. 27.
Malone said the extension was granted in part because the new school dean, Aaron Betsky, only arrived at the Taliesin West campus in Scottsdale to assume full-time duties in mid-April.
Betsky’s primary job is to lead the school’s “Campaign for Independence.”
The school includes campuses at Taliesin West in Scottsdale and Taliesin in Spring Green, Wis., and is part of the foundation, which also oversees the landmark Taliesins, which offer popular public tours, and maintains collections of Wright’s work.
The foundation announced Betsky’s hire in January. He takes over for longtime Dean Victor Sidy who resigned to go back into private practice.
Betsky most recently worked as director of the Cincinnati Art Museum but received his master’s of architecture from Yale University and served as director of the Netherlands Architecture Institute in Rotterdam.
Betsky said he’s confident the school’s independence campaign will meet both its August and December deadlines. The Taliesin Fellows, the alumni association of the Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture, supports the school’s efforts toward independent incorporation. Donations made with “School Support Fund” in the memo line are accepted at: http:// taliesinfellows.org/i/campaign-for-independence/
“I was here part time and I quickly realized no one here has done a fundraising campaign and there was a lot that needed to be done,” Betsky said, adding that he recently drafted an outline for the fundraising campaign. “That’s a very large amount of money in a short amount of time.”
Betsky said he will not be traveling with students and staff in May when students leave Taliesin West and resume studies in Spring Green so that he can concentrate on fundraising.
During his tenure at the art museum, Betsky oversaw its first major expansion in 40 years with a $13 million construction project that was the first of a multiphase renovation plan.
The school’s quest for independence began last summer.
School leaders objected to the foundation board’s initial decision to partner the school with another college so that it could continue to offer a master’s of architecture degree. The school’s accreditation was in jeopardy due to changes in bylaws of the Higher Learning Commission, which oversees accreditation of colleges and universities. The commission threatened to strip the school’s accreditation by 2017 because of a policy change that requires accredited institutions to be separately incorporated from sponsoring organizations.
The foundation announced in December that it would support a separation after the 83-year-old school founded by Wright agreed to raise money to cover operating expenses.
Malone said architecture education will continue to be the foundation’s mission.
“And the way we will accomplish that mission is by partnering with the school,” he said. “We will support it financially at a very significant level in perpetuity.”
The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation expects to contribute more than $7 million in facility costs and subsidies over the next five years to support the school’s independence efforts.