Best aims to turn around struggling Petaluma Arts Center

Molly Best is the first paid staff at Petaluma Arts Center after financial trouble forced layoffs of all employees.|

Molly Best doesn’t care much for the traditional definition of an “artist.”

She would rather expand it so every person that’s engaged in a form of creative expression is able to get a fair shake at being promoted. The Petaluma Arts Center’s most recent exhibit, “The Inside Faces of Outsider Art,” which featured for-sale artwork by people with disabilities and special needs, is one example of that mantra, she said.

An artist, mother and the former owner and founder of local butcher shop Thistle Meats, Best is the first paid employee the PAC has hired since the nonprofit laid off its staff about one year ago just to keep the lights on. She is the daughter of renowned Petaluma Artist David Best, who was commissioned to install Petaluma’s second public art piece.

Her opinions on broadening typical notions for art and an arts center are at the core of her ongoing work at the PAC. In a do-it-all role, supported by about 20 regular volunteers, Best has been tasked with implementing a shifting vision from the PAC board, and increasing engagement for the nonprofit as it recovers from last year’s fiscal wake-up-call.

“I’m invested in our community, and art centers should be something that everybody is engaged with,” Best said. “It doesn’t need to be just paintings on a wall. It should be a hub really, and I think that’s the direction (the PAC is) constantly going in. It’s just figuring out those pieces to keep it moving forward.”

The PAC has slowly summited the fiscal cliff it tumbled off of last year when its initial $1.5 million endowment had been reduced to less than $40,000 a decade after it first opened its doors at the Railroad Depot.

The arts center has operated on a deficit for most of its existence, leaning on the returns from costly events and exhibitions rather than emphasizing fund development, a tactic recommended by a consulting firm the board hired in 2014 to help audit the nonprofit’s practices.

Those recommendations were never properly implemented, forcing the PAC to pull from the endowment annually, averaging approximately $102,000 in withdrawals each fiscal year from 2010 to 2017, according to tax filings. Val Richman, the former executive director from 2014 to 2017, described the initial legacy gift as a “dangerous luxury.”

To avoid a complete collapse, her successor, Delfin Vigil, proposed sacrificial layoffs some six months after he was hired just to ensure the organization could fulfill its commitments for the remainder of the year.

In July 2018, the cuts were made, sparking a communitywide effort to save the arts center. A steering committee was formed, and expenses were reeled in thanks to a large network of motivated volunteers that kept the operation afloat.

After a decade running with an annual budget of roughly $300,000, the PAC operated with $162,000 in the fiscal year 2018-19.

Sandy Rozmarin, the outgoing board president that led the organization through the crisis, said the key to surviving was listening to every suggestion and taking advantage of every opportunity. It also helped that most volunteers were ready to go well above the normal role for an unpaid helper, she said.

“Being conservative in how we proceed forward and how we’re spending money certainly put the religion in me,” she said. “I think our new board members are very cognizant of this as well. I think the challenge for us is not having our reach extend our capacity.”

At the annual stakeholders meeting last month, Rozmarin provided a glimpse at the inner-workings of the PAC shift, a model that will focus more on the community, enhance educational offerings and has set lofty goals for generating revenue.

In terms of objectives for the upcoming fiscal year, the board is launching an aggressive membership campaign to help generate $18,000 in income.

The organization is also pursuing larger returns from corporate partners, and moving away from its history of throwing one large fundraiser per year to at least four smaller events, Rozmarin said.

The PAC has begun diversifying and filling its calendar with open studio workshops on Mondays, a growing portfolio of adult classes, gallery rentals for local artists, and recently partnered with Petaluma Public Art Committee and Petaluma Garden Club on various outreach projects.

Rozmarin said the arts center still heavily relies on donations, and constantly looks for community support. The only difference is now the board and its new members are stepping into the next chapter with clearer eyes and a few lasting lumps that will temper everyone’s expectations.

“It’s the ratio between donations and earned income,” she said. “It’s hard-selling tickets to events, but I do believe that you’ve got to find that balance. You can’t rely on donations or keep looking for that angel donor with a great big paycheck.”

Last year’s financial emergency is certainly still in the periphery, Best said. But it’s her job to be the objective voice these days, and to ensure the arts center continues forward under this new normal.

She likes to think of it as being the “vision holder.”

“A crisis is way more exciting than doing the work,” Best said. “Now, I think Sandy and the volunteers and the task force and board members, they’ve been doing the groundwork, really trying to figure it out. The heart (of the PAC) is so extraordinary.”

(Contact News Editor Yousef Baig at yousef.baig@arguscourier.com or 776-8461, and on Twitter @YousefBaig.)

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