May 31st will be a really sad day for the Fayetteville/Cumberland County community.

That’s when the Fayetteville Museum of Art will close itsdoors because of a lack of fi nancial support. How sad.

To me and many others, this is just anotherexample of howmutually beneficialorganizations in ourcommunity again havefailed to effectivelycommunicate witheach other.

Only in Fayettevillewould related entitiesrefuse to arbitratesuch a sensitive issue.Especially one thisimportant that affectsour community imageand quality of life. It’ssad to know that withall the progress andwonderful things takingplace in our community,we still lack the civilityand sophisticationto seek out and fi nd“common ground” toresolve our differences.

This is disturbing.

We need theFayetteville Museum ofArt. Visual arts defi ne acommunity. The sights,sounds and activitiesof a stable cultural arts presence refl ect positively on ourcommunity, our residents and our leadership. The cultural artsen instill confi dence, attract commerce, industry and economicdevelopment. The presence of art defi nes who we are andrefl ects a sense of sophistication and gives our community ahumanitarian balance.

Without art, well, you are just “without.”I have no idea of what the outcome of all this will be,however, I do know this: Our cultural, civic and governmentalleaders, at all levels, have let thiscommunity down by allowing thisto happen.

Unfortunately, we have againmanaged to embarrass ourselvesat a time when many individuals,families and businesses arescrutinizing and evaluating ustrying to determine if they want tocome to live, work and invest in theFayetteville/Cumberland Countycommunity (BRAC).

Should they?

Clearly, as a community, wehave not yet defi ned who or whatwe want to be. The reality of it isthat if we don’t fi nd the answersoon, and initiate a serious actionplan to get there, I’m afraid tragicsituations like this will continue todefi ne it for us.

May 31 will be a really sadday for Fayetteville. We still havetime to remedy this situation. Thequestion is, will we? Ego’s aside,let’s hope the ART of commonsense prevails. Mona Lisa is notsmiling anymore.

Thank you forreading.

Photo caption:  In the past two years, the Fayetteville Museum of Art has brought international exhibits, to our city like the Andy Warhol exhibit featured in the picture above. Sadly, unless the community comes together, that era has come to an end. Shown above, FMA Director Tom Grubb and museum patrons.