6th Riverside Saginaw Film Festival shows fare from Iran to own back yard

by Janet I. Martineau

“Stars” in two of the movies playing the 6th Riverside Saginaw Film Festival in November are making headlines this fall, and the subject of a third is the fodder of a national debate over the future of local radio stations.

Detroit musician Sixto Rodriguez

“We have 26 movies and documentaries on the schedule this year,” says Susan Scott, on the festival’s board. “As usual for us, they range all over globe -- visiting an Iranian family dealing with Alzheimer’s; a Woody Allen tribute to Rome; an Algerian immigrant teaching in a Montreal grade school; France’s doomed Marie Antoinette, and the legacy of Jamaican musician Bob Marley.

“And our short film contest has entries from Greece, Israel and Canada as well as throughout the U.S.

“But what we are the most excited about are a pair of documentaries -- ‘Searching for Sugar Man,’ its subject Detroit musician Sixto Rodriguez who was profiled recently  on ’60 Minutes,’ and ‘Ai Weiwei-Never Sorry,’ about a Chinese artist at odds with his nation’s government. The Hirshhorn Museum in Washington, D.C. just opened an exhibition featuring an entire floor of his work.”

The festival runs Thursday, Nov, 8, through Sunday, Nov. 11.  The films are playing on six screens at five venues: Court Theater, 1216 Court; Pit and Balcony Community Theatre, 805 N. Hamilton; First Congregational Church, 403 S. Jefferson Ave.; two screens at The Saginaw Club, 219 N. Washington, and Hoyt Library, 505 Janes, all in the city of Saginaw.

Each of the movies plays twice throughout the four-day festival.

As has been tradition with the festival, each year brings in a special guest or two or hosts a special event connected with a film.

Filmmaker Jennifer C. Douglas

This year  Saginaw native Jennifer C. Douglas, a 1982 graduate of what is now Heritage High School in Saginaw Township, will show and discuss the documentary she wrote, co-produced and filmed.

Titled “Save KLSD,” and about a radio station San Diego where she now lives, its subject is one of national concern -- the increasing lack of local and diverse radio in America with the rise of media consolidation. Among the people interviewed are Phil Donahue, Rachel Maddow, the Dixie Chicks and Bill Moyers. 

“Between the Folds,” a documentary about the passion of artists and scientists in making increasingly complicated pieces of origami art (Japanese folded paper), will  find representatives from the Saginaw Japanese Cultural Center and Tea House assisting filmgoers in making two pieces to take home as well as demonstrating the craft.

And “Honor Flight Michigan, the Legacy Documentary,” the story of airplane flights taking Word War II veterans to see the new memorial in Washington, D.C., will feature the son of the Honor Flight Project taking about its success during one of its two showings. World War II veterans are admitted free to both showings.

Among the other films playing feature a sequel of sorts to “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,” a retired cat burglar returning to his “career” with the help of a humanoid robot, a dark comedy about a small town mortician (Jack Black) and a wealthy widow (Shirley MacLaine), and young ballet dancers preparing for a competition.

Festival passes are $40 and single admission to the films $6. For more information and a schedule: www.riversidesaginawfilmfestival.org. Passes are on sale by calling 989-776-9425 and using a credit card. Passes and single tickets also are on sale on the festival web site through the Paypal system.

Among the sponsors of the Riverside Saginaw Film Festival are: Citizens Bank Wealth Management, the Saginaw Arts and Enrichment Commission, Hemlock Semiconductor, Public Libraries of Saginaw, Delta Broadcasting, Morley Foundation, and Harvey Randall Wickes Foundation.

Actress Morgan Fairchild no vile vixen in Horizons Town Talk speech

by Janet I Martineau

Who knew?

Actress Morgan Fairchild, the porcelain blonde cast as a vile vixen in such television soaps as “Search for Tomorrow,” “Dallas,” “Flamingo Road” and “Falcon Crest,” was in her Texas childhood a “weird nerd science kid.”

Still is, at age 62. She has, over her adult years, appeared on “Nightline” and “Face the Nation” and spoken before the U.S. Congress and other groups about foreign policy, environmental concerns, global warming, virus outbreaks and the military.

And AIDS. 

Morgan Fairchild, left, and her sister

She told her Horizons Town Talk audience on Monday at the Horizons Conference Center that she was the first American celebrity to give a voice to AIDS/HIV as it became known; the first to legislate for more research money; the first to welcome in open arms AIDS-infected people when the rest of the world was afraid to touch them -- the last of which, she said, cost her friends because she visited AIDS hospice facilities and they were afraid she would transmit it to them.

“I cleared the way for other celebrities to come out and speak about AIDS. It takes one person with guts to make it safe for everyone else; to help ease the stigma. The lives I changed, saved, helped doing that is more important than my acting career.”

Her talk in Saginaw may have surprised many. Yes she mentioned her acting career with its long list of television and movie roles, but its was more a pep talk about learning to live happier lives.

Quoting Thoreau’s famed “lives of quiet desperation,” Fairchild  used her hour speech to offer advice on how to deal with pessimistic thoughts and fears; how to write a better script with a happier ending by embracing fears, acknowledging them and moving on.

Thoreau, she said, also wrote that “each child begins the world anew.” To that she added, “And each of us has that capability every day we get up -- to shape the world for the better.”

Among her advice in brief: “Force yourself to be bold.” “Don’t let other people define your life with low expectations.” “You can always walk out on reality and create your own reality. I did.” “Putting yourself on the line is important -- but you also need know when to fight and when to accept.” “Learn to say no -- especially women.” “Be kind to each other ... some of what passes for humor today I find horrifying.” “There is no one in the world whose opinion is more important than your own.”

And perhaps most important of all, Fairchild stressed, “Don’t be jealous and envious of what someone else has or how they look or what they do. Appreciate the gifts God gave  you. We don’t get to choose the gifts. Being jealous and angry stands in the way of each of us realizing our own gift.”

Fairchild often used her own life to illustrate those ideas on how to create your own happiness.

When she was in elementary school she was so shy she could not even read an oral book report in her class. So  her mom enrolled her in an after-hours drama class. Her sister loved the class; Fairchild threw up. But when at the end she was cast in a play, cast as adult, she was hooked.

Divorced at age 22, with no degree, she left Texas for New York City and worked dinner theater roles. Her sister, meanwhile, enrolled in Juilliard. 

Fairchild could not even land an agent (usually an absolute must for actors)....being told she was too elegant, too porcelain. She went to audition after audition after audition on her own and was rejected “but if I didn’t go, then I said no for them. I have a backbone of steel behind this blonde hair and blue eyes.”

And then, finally, a director hired her the day of an audition to play an evil sorority queen in the 1979 TV movie “The Initiation of Sarah.” She told him she would rather play another softer role and was told, “A good bitch is hard to find (cast). If the bad guy does not work then this movie does not work.”

The film scored high ratings “and set me on the road to witchdom.” She has, or course, played many non-bitch roles as well. Even got into tongue-in-cheek comedy parts -- an Emmy-nominated guest role on “Murphy Brown” and guesting also on “Roseanne,” “Cybil” and “Friends.”

As for her example of saying no, she says she said no to the Hollywood culture of sleeping around, drugs and parties long into the night.

Asked by an audience member what became of her sister who went to Juilliard to study acting. “She went to L.A. for while but found it too difficult to get acting work. So she teaches acting in Dallas -- to attorneys, sales people, children. She’s a great motivator. She loves what she is doing.”

Oh, and her name, Morgan Fairchild.

She was born Patsy McClenny but as a part of creating her own reality became Morgan Fairchild -- thanks to friends.

One had seen a 1966 movie called “Morgan,” about a man who lived in his fantasies, and told her “This is movie is you.”

And a second friend said, “You are a fair child.”

“I liked the sound of the two of them together. And by the way, Morgan is a guy’s name....so any girl today named Morgan is named after me.”

Mid-Michigan big winner in Michigan history awards

The Castle Museum's "History on the Move" mobile museum

by Janet I. Martineau

History is alive and well in mid-Michigan.

In the recent awarding of 17 State History Awards bestowed by the Historical Society of Michigan, the state’s official historical society, this area took home four of those awards.

The Castle Museum’s History on the Move museum on wheels was honored in the educational programs category. When schools faced a decline in money funding field trips, the Historical Society of Saginaw County modified a tractor-trailer, colorfully painted its exterior and filled its interior with artifacts to visit schools throughout Saginaw County. 

Sheila Hempsted, on the staff at the Castle Museum,  travels with the rig to present the free visits and hand-on programs which are available to all 14,000 public, charter, and private elementary school students (grades K-5).

Its first traveling exhibit dealt with archeology. It is now touring a lumbering era program.

“This award recognizes the hard work our team has completed to provide local culture and history to Saginaw County schools,” said Ken Santa, president & CEO of the Castle Museum, 500 Federal,.

In the  category of publications/private printing, Roselynn Ederer of Thomas Township won for her book “Indiantown.” It features oral histories and information from newspapers, deeds and journals in delivering a history of two cultures—the Native Americans who lived there first and the German immigrants who followed them. The residents of Indiantown also played a significant role in developing Michigan’s agricultural industry.

Ederer has written numerous local history books, among them “Where Once the Tall Pines Stood,” “Growing Up on the Banks of the Mighty Tittabawassee,” “On the Banks of the Beautiful Saugenah,” “Church Bells in the Valley,” “Saginaw County” and “Thomas Township.”

Winning a publications/university and commercial press award was Edward C. Lorenz, on the history and political science faculty at Alma College, for his book  “Civic Empowerment in an Age of Corporate Greed,” published by Michigan State University Press. 

Edward C. Lorenz

In it Lorenz documents how corporate executives at Velsicol Chemical in St. Louis left behind an economically shattered community and some of the most heavily polluted industrial sites in America. Velsicol’s actions included stock and financial manipulations; the largest food contamination accident in American history when it mixed chemicals into cattle feed; environmental pollution and a massive shift of jobs overseas. 

The book provides analyses and conclusions, and offers communities facing similar situations a blueprint for action.

And for his role in preserving, protecting  and interpreting Michigan’s Native American history and culture, William Johnson received the distinguished professional service award.

For the past decade, Johnson has served as the curator of the Ziibiwing Center of Anishinabe Culture and Lifeways in Mount .Pleasant. Through his efforts, the center’s excellence in exhibits and events has earned it numerous awards, including the 2006 Museum Award from the Michigan Cultural Alliance, the 2008 Harvard University’s “Honoring Nations” Award, and a Gold Muse Award from the American Association of Museum’s Media and Technology Committee.

In 2011, Johnson became the chairman of the Michigan Anishinaabek Cultural Preservation and Repatriation Alliance. He worked as a coordinator of Flint’s Stone Street Ancestral Recovery and Reburial Project, helping oversee the proper burial of more than 108 ancestral remains and their associated funerary objects that were inadvertently discovered during a construction project. And he has also worked with many Michigan museums and colleges to accrue and respectfully inter Native American remains that had been removed from their resting places.

Johnson serves on the Mount Pleasant Indian Industrial Boarding School Committee. The boarding school, which operated from 1879 until 1934, sought to educate Native American children but also had the darker purpose of “taking the Indian out of the child.”  The committee is charged with preserving and transforming this site to become a place of awareness, education and healing.

Budding filmmakers urged to enter Saginaw 72 contest

by Janet I. Martineau

Budding filmmakers dreaming of premiering their work at a film festival ... the Riverside Saginaw Film Festival wants you!

For the second year, the festival is hosting a Saginaw 72 Hour Film Challenge filmmaking contest.

The 72 refers to the fact filmmakers (solo or in teams) compete to make the best 3-5 minute short in a three-day time frame.

“Each entry will be given a specific genre; a line of dialogue, and a required object to include just before the start time to insure all entires are made on the fly and to also provide them with a little prep work information,” explains co-ordinator Susan Scott, a member of the film festival board. 

“Then they have 72 hours to script, shoot, edit and submit their film on DVD. The entry fee is $25. The 72 hours span Oct. 12-14, with an Oct. 14 mailing postmark. And all the entries will play the festival, with the winners announced at that showing.”

The amount of first, second and third prize monies awarded, Scott says, depends on the number of entries because the prize money comes from the $25 entry fee. Serving as the judge is a screenwriting professor at Delta College.

The 72-hour contest is the brainchild of Jerry Seward, a Saginaw  filmmaker and former Riverside Saginaw board member. He began it as a way to showcase local talent and involve community members in the  festival and the local film scene. 

He said when he began it the entires are judged more on creativity than production values and that policy continues this year. However, the festival reserves the right not to screen a submission if it contains offensive, off-color or bigoted language and material.

A full list of the rules and regulations, and an entry form, is on the festival web site at www.riversidesaginawfilmfestival.org 

There is no age limit for entrants, says Scott, nor is there a limit to the number of team members working on the entry. And the same for the film itself -- it can take the form of a self-filmed soliloquy to one of those Cecil B. DeMille cast-of-thousands jobs.

This year’s Riverside Saginaw Film Festival runs Thursday, Nov. 8, through Sunday, Nov. 11, with 26 independent, foreign, documentary and short films showing at the Court Theater, Pit and Balcony Community Theatre, First Congregational Church, the Saginaw Club and Hoyt Library.

The Saginaw 72 entries are shown at noon Sunday, Nov. 11,  at First Congregational Church, 403 S. Jefferson.

Short subject film from novel makes its debut in Saginaw

Austin Butterfield, left, and Jeff Vande Zande in a scene from "B.F.A."

Reels at Roethke
When: 6:30pm Thursday, Sept. 20
Where: 1805 Gratiot in Saginaw

What: Premiere of a 10-minute short film based on a scene in the book “American Poet,” written by Jeff Vande Zande and set in Saginaw (including the home of native poet Theodore Roethke).

How much: Freewill offering, but seating is limited so e-mail info@roethkehouse.org to reserve a space

story by Janet I. Martineau

From book to movie is a common theme in our culture.

And on the night of Thursday, Sept. 20, Saginaw will join in on that legacy with the premiere of a film titled “B.F.A.,” based on the novel “American Poet.”

OK, granted, it’s kinda a miniature book-to-movie project. 

Written by Midland resident Jeff Vande Zande, “American Poet” is a mere 152-pager. A quick read. And his screenplay adaptation from it runs only 10 minutes -- making it a short subject rather than a feature -- and covers only one SCENE in the book.

But still, film fans may find the evening fun since it also includes music by Brett Mitchell, who wrote the songs for the short. And Vande Zande and filmmaker Jim Gleason, both on the faculty at Delta College, will answer questions about the process (creative writing, adapting a book into a screenplay, filmmaking) as well as provide information about Delta’s digital film production program.

“My book is about a young poet who moves back to Saginaw and finds himself on a mission to save the Theodore Roethke House,” says Vande Zande, also a poet as well as novelist. “Of course, before he can save the house, he needs to find a job. 

“In one scene from the book, the main character tries to get a job at a bank ... with a bachelor of fine arts degree! It is a humorous look at how the business world can sometimes treat those who have a degree in the arts.

“I just really liked this scene and thought that it would make a funny short film. Jim and I did one other film together, called ‘Commitment’ and also humorous. It was adapted from a very short story of mine called ‘Cormac McCarthy Goes to the Local Parable Writers Club and Suggests Revisions to Their Endings.’”

In “B.F.A.,” Vande Zande himself plays the dubious banker with Austin Butterfield of Bay City, and a student at Saginaw Valley State University, cast as the young poet seeking a job. The majority of the film was shot at Delta College, along with two Midland locations.

Vande Zande says book to film adaptation is hard work.

The cover of "American Poet"

“You can only be so true to the written work. The written work can provide an idea or situation, but the movie has to be its own thing. I don't understand when people say, ‘Wow, the movie wasn't as good as the book.’ My thought is, ‘Of course it wasn't, it's a movie.’

“That's like saying, ‘Well, if you compare the book to the movie... well, the book was a better book.’ A movie has to be its own thing, and that's the challenge of adaptation. Some screenwriters feel to beholden to the original work, which just doesn't work.”

He and Gleason, who lives in Auburn, hope the film premiere will bring more attention to the Roethke House and also will get  more people excited about making independent film in this area. 

“We want to see Roethke fans that night, but we'd also love to see local filmmakers.”

“B.F.A.” will play Bay City’s Hell’s Half Mile Film Festival in October and has been entered in the Riverside Saginaw Film Festival short subject contest, taking place in November. Vande Zande, who teaches English and screenwriting at Delta,  and Gleason, who teaches electronic media broadcasting sat  Delta, also plan to submit it to more film festivals in 2013.

During the Sept. 20 “Reels at Roethke” premiere, Mitchell will perform starting at 6:30pm. At 7pm Vande Zande will read the scene from the book followed by the showing of the short and a Q&A session.

Roethke was born in Saginaw in 1908 and died in 1963, at age 55. He won a Pulitzer Prize in 1954, for “The Waking,” as well as countless other prizes during his career. Today his poems, many of them rooted in the family greenhouse business,  are in nearly every high school and college poetry textbook as well as in countless poetry anthologies.

The Friends of Theodore Roethke Foundation owns and maintains his boyhood home at 1805 Gratiot, where the “Reels to Roethke” event takes place on Sept. 20 and where Roethke wrote many of his poem during visits back home. Saginaw Valley State University also oversees a $10,000 Roethke Poetry Prize which is awarded every three years to an American poet.

Admission to “Reels at Roethke” is by freewill offering. But since seating is limited, e-mail info@roethkehouse.org to reserve a space. Refreshments will be for sale as well as Vande Zande’s book ($18, of which $3 goes to the Friends of Theodore Roethke) and Roethke-themed items.

SVSU lecture series takes a look at roles and responsibilities

by Janet I. Martineau

“Roles and Responsibilities: Ethical Responses to Revolutionary Change” .. .what could be a more timely topic for lecture series in this election year.

And thus it is the title for eight fall programs at Saginaw Valley State University exploring some of society's most vital decisions, ranging from global affairs and genetic engineering to economic revitalization. 

All free, they are:

John Limbert

--  Thursday, Sept. 27,  at 7 p.m.:  John W. Limbert on  "America and Iran: Endless Enemies?" In the  Malcolm Field Theatre for Performing Arts

For years, relations between the two countries have been tense, with both sides locked in trading threats and insults. Limbert will discuss how to escape this downward spiral and avoid a disastrous confrontation because, like it or not he says, we have many reasons to rely on each other. 

A former deputy assistant secretary of state for near Eastern (Iranian) affairs, Limbert completed his doctorate at Harvard University and spent 34 years in foreign affairs. He also was a hostage at the American Embassy in  Iran in 1979-1980, and has written three books on Iran. 

--  Tuesday, Oct. 2, at 7 p.m.: Catherine Tumber on  "The Life and Death of America's Smaller Industrial Cities." In the  Malcolm Field Theatre for Performing Arts

In the late 20th century, small industrial cities like Flint fell on hard times. Yet according to journalist Tumber, an age of global warming may improve these cities' fortunes. Now, she argues, they are poised to thrive and, in a talk based on years of research, she will explain her rationale. 

Her book on the subject, “Small, Gritty and Green: The Promise of America's Smaller Industrial Cities in a Low-Carbon World,”  was named among the best 15 books of the year by the American Society of Landscape Architects. With a doctorate from the University of Rochester, the MIT researcher has published work in the Washington Post, Wilson Quarterly, Bookforum and In These Times. 

Arthur Caplan

-- Tuesday, Oct. 9, at 7 p.m.:  Arthur Caplan on  "Bioethics: Just Because We Can, Should We?" In the Rhea Miller Recital Hall

Should you eat genetically modified foods? Should we experiment with genetics at all? Asking these questions is a renowned bioethicist and the director of the Center of Bioethics at New York University’s Langone Medical Center. 

The author of 29 books, Caplan won the Patricia Price Browne Prize in Biomedical Ethics for 2011 and was named by Discover magazine as one of the 10 most influential people in science. 

In this discussion, Caplan will take a look at some of life's deepest mysteries and examine the implications of putting our hands where they might not belong. 

Gayle Lemmon

--  Wednesday, Oct. 17, at 7 p.m.:  Gayle Tzemach Lemmon on "The Dressmaker of Khair Khana." In the  Malcolm Field Theatre for Performing Arts

In places like Afghanistan, women are unsung heroes of business. A journalist and New York Times bestselling author, Lemmon will speak about the critical role that female entrepreneurs play in war-torn regions and emerging markets. She draws from hundreds of hours of on-the-ground reporting, and examines what we in the West can learn from the example of businesswomen pushing against a glass ceiling in places it can be all too visible. 

A former ABC News correspondent and Fulbright scholar, Lemmon has published articles in the Financial Times, International Herald Tribune, Daily Beast and Christian Science Monitor. 

--  Thursday, Oct. 25, at 7 p.m.:   Robert Edsel on "The Monuments Men: Allied Heroes, Nazi Thieves and the Greatest Treasure Hunt in History." In the  Malcolm Field Theatre for Performing Arts

Author Edsel will tell the story of the Monuments Men, a group of art lovers who chased down great works stolen by Nazis during World War II and saved them from ultimate destruction. 

Edsel established a foundation in the group's honor, which in 2007 became one of 10 recipients of the National Humanities Medal. 

--  Monday, Oct. 29, at 7 p.m.:  Kwame Anthony Appiah on  "The Honor Code: How Moral Revolutions Happen." In the Rhea Miller Recital Hall

What does it take to transform moral understanding into moral behavior? That's the question Princeton University professor Appiah addresses as he explores the mysteries of moral revolution and the power of two forces: honor and shame. 

As president of the PEN American Center, an internationally acclaimed literary and human rights association, Appiah was awarded a National Humanities Medal by the White House in 2012. Having earned a doctorate in philosophy at Cambridge, he has been called one of foreign policy's top 100 global thinkers and has taught at Harvard and Yale, among other universities. 

Carma Hinton

--  Wednesday, Nov. 7, at 7 p.m.:  Carma Hinton on "History in Images: The Making of 'Gate of Heavenly Peace.'" In the Rhea Miller Recital Hall

Hinton will recount one of her most challenging projects: a film about the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989. With clips and outtakes from the finished product, Hinton will discuss the difficulties of choosing which material to keep and which to discard, along with the ethics and craft of nonfiction film. 

Born in Beijing, Hinton completed a doctorate in art history at Harvard University and has directed 15 documentary films. Her work has been shown at festivals and on television programs worldwide, winning two Peabody Awards, the American Historical Association's O'Connor Film Award, and both the International Critics Prize and the Best Social and Political Documentary award at the Banff Television Festival. 

-- Wednesday, Nov. 14, at 7 p.m.: Jules Gehrke on "The Dilemmas of a New Era: Collectivism and Individualism in the Victorian City." In Founders Hall

Gehrke, an associate professor of history at SVSU, will  explore one moment in 20th-century British history and examine its lessons for the political and economic situation faced today by the United States. 

Gehrke specializes in late 19th and early 20th century British reformist political movements and teaches classes in both world and modern European history. 

Saginaw Art Museum closed and facing unknown future

The Saginaw Art Museum as seen from the back and its gardens

story and photo by Janet I. Martineau

Closed and for sale.

Those dreaded four words have plagued numerous businesses in Saginaw with the current nationwide economic downturn.

Now they may (MAY) claim one of its cultural gems -- the Saginaw Art Museum, 1126 N. Michigan.

“We’re caught in what I call a perfect storm,” says Sharill McNally, who became the board president last October. By this October, the historic structure which added two wings in 2002 will remain closed, as it now, and possibly even up for sale.

“We still want to be an entity in the town, just maybe in a different place, a smaller place,” says McNally, an associate with TSSF Architects Inc. of Saginaw. “The building is a drag and we want to sell it or rent it, lease it. We’ve already closed the doors due to our financial status, laid off all the staff except for our director, and in the next couple of months we are evaluating and looking at our options.

“I want to stress we are open to ideas, innovative ideas, on how to deal with this problem.” Now is the time, she says, for the community to step up to the plate if it sees the importance of an art museum in its midst. 

That perfect storm leading to the closed doors? 

Maintaing a stable board, paperwork not filed in time to apply for some grants, electric bills so high (upwards of $10,000 a month in the summer) and behind in payments that Consumers has sometimes cut off the power, an air conditioning unit that is kaput and has a projected $80,000 repair bill, a boiler needing upwards of $60,000 in maintenance and repairs, a leaking roof, money borrowed against an endowment, mortgage payments still due to the bank from its addition construction .. and the list goes on with some “hornet’s nest” issues McNally is not at liberty to discuss.

Close off the expansive windows, the board has been advised. Put in more refined zoned heating and cooling. But, McNally points out, that costs money; “money we do not have.”

“We are in a $4 million home we cannot afford,” says McNally, “especially in a community that is downsizing, endowments being hit (by the struggling economy), donations to us lagging.”

McNally says the museum needs $20,000 a month, “and that is the bare minimum,” to stay open; or $250,000 to $400,000 a year to really do the job right. Currently the endowment, she said fetches only $60,000 to $80,000 of that. 

She had hoped, in her presidency, to gradually build a sustainability with unusual programs and exhibits that would appeal to a wider audience, but time ran out with the overwhelming operational issues (which grants in general do not fund). McNally has a long history of community and board involvement.

One thing the board wants to preserve at all costs its the museum’s permanent collection, valued as high as the building itself. “We may have to sell it but that is a terrible road to go down. We are in talks with a couple of entities where we would be under their umbrella and retain control of the collection. Our goal is to save the collection; find a new location for it somewhere in Saginaw.”

One of its permanent collection pieces

The museum holds a collection of art and artifacts in excess of 2,500 pieces, spanning 4,500 years of art history -- and which require a consistent heating and cooling atmosphere. The oldest works in the collection include Etruscan artifacts and ceramics from Indonesia and the ancient Near East.

American and European pieces comprise the majority of the collection --  decorative arts, drawings, manuscripts, paintings, prints, sculpture and textiles from the 15th through 20th centuries. It also owns Asian, African, native American and Mexican folk art.

The museum also houses one of the major art reference libraries in the Great Lakes Bay Region -- more than 1,200 books, catalogues, and periodicals dealing with American, European, and Asian painting and sculpture; furniture and decorative arts; costume and textiles; prints, drawings, and photographs; and modern and contemporary art. 

A selection of subjects includes antiquities, architecture, art appreciation and criticism, art history and movements, arts and crafts, design and décor, drawing, graphic design, monographs, museum collections, oriental art, photography, sacred art, sculpture, and art from cultures and regions throughout the United States and the world.

The museum has a long history of financial struggles and has played brinksmanship many times. But, says McNally, “we can’t keep kicking it down the road.” 

The two-story center section of the complex was built in 1903 as a family home for lumber baron Clark Lombard Ring. It and its formal garden out back were designed by renowned New York City architect Charles Adams Platt in a Georgian Revival style.

 In 1946, Ring’s two grown daughters purchased the home and donated it to the  citizens of Saginaw for use as a museum. One of the daughters even donated money, artwork and leadership to the fledgling museum until her death in 1957.

In 1948, it opened it doors as the Saginaw Museum, housing both art and historical artifacts. When the Historical Society of Saginaw established the History Museum in 1967, the Saginaw Museum deaccessioned its historical items to them. Henceforth, the Saginaw Museum was called the Saginaw Art Museum.

Cramped for space as the years progressed, in 2000 the museum began an Art for All campaign to raise $7 million for the addition of an educational wing on the left side of the Ring Mansion and a large exhibition wing on the right side. At the same time a donor provided a $2 million endowment.

Both wings were downscaled in scope from plans when the Art for All campaign lagged and were built despite the fact the full funding for them was not raised, thus the remaining mortgage payments.

Should the Saginaw Art Museum indeed close, it would leave the Great Lakes Bay region devoid of what is considered a true art museum and one focused on fine art.