The Art Society (ASTT), which has been occupying a $7 million plot of state land in posh Federation Park, Port-of-Spain, has been threatened with eviction by the Commissioner of State Lands. The ASTT received the letter in September last year saying it must now pay $275,000 a year in rent. At a recent meeting the audience was told it might be the last one the society could hold at that venue. Members and art lovers were there to hear artists Embah, Peter Minshall, Althea Bastien and Wilcox Morris talk about T&T art from 1962-76. The talk took place on the grounds of the society’s headquarters, while inside, works by members were on display in a show called Belle Eau.
The society was given a 30-year lease at a peppercorn rent by the government in 1966. It expired in 1996. The ASTT, whose mission is to nurture, promote, protect and advocate for visual artists, built a gallery on the site in the 1980s with the assistance of sponsors. ASTT president Gail Guy told the T&T Guardian that before it got help to put up a building, the society had been moving from place to place and at one time was even in the St James market. She said since it got the lease, the ASTT had been paying a peppercorn rent of $1 a year, but rent shot up and they paid $300 at the last payment.
The lease expired in 1996 and the ASTT, she admitted, sort of forgot to pay attention to that fact. “Then we began writing letters asking for an extension of the lease and it was in September last year we were offered another lease (the $275,000 rent),” she said. The Commissioner of State Lands has now given the ASTT a month to say if it is going to pay the $275,000 a year rent and pointed to a law that speaks of eviction, a distressed Guy said. She said the society was writing letters to various government ministries, including the Housing and the Environment Ministry, Ministry of Food Production, Land and Marine Affairs and the Ministry of Arts and Multiculturalism, appealing for help. She said they spoke via telephone to Dr Roodal Moonilal, Minister of Housing, because the Commissioner of State Lands was removed from the Ministry of Food Production, Land and Marine Affairs to his ministry. Moonilal promised to look into the matter but in April the society received another letter, similar to the first, repeating the threat of eviction, Guy said. “They gave us one month to state whether we intended to pay the $275,000 a year rent.”
She said the society spoke to Asgar Ali, adviser to Moonilal, about the matter and he said the Federation Park land was valued $7 million. “He said institutional leases are provided at a cost only slightly less than the market cost.”
When the T&T Guardian called the office of the Commissioner of State Lands for a comment, his secretary said, “He just came back from a meeting.” Asked when we could speak to him, she asked what about and said, “I don’t think he will want to comment on that.” Guy said the ASTT, which is registered as a non-profit, non-governmental charity, has never been an institution. “The government gives us a stipend of $20,000 a year and we provide them with audited accounts showing we never carry over more than $200,000 a year.” However, the ASTT got a “really lucrative arrangement” when the 101 Art Gallery rented its gallery for five years from 2004-2009. “The months of September, October and November were rent-free only in lieu of the 101 Art Gallery modifying and maintaining the gallery, by installing air conditioning, for instance,” said Ilka Hilton-Clarke, a former treasurer of the ASTT. “Any rental outside this period was paid for by the 101 Art Gallery.”
She said the gallery was also rented out to artists and other individuals and businesses outside the September/October/November period, when it was not in use by 101. Asked how much rent the ASTT collected, Guy said, “I am not about to disclose that. “The ‘how much’ is confidential information. We must respect confidentiality.” ASTT secretary Trot Seepersad said the society had plans to construct an arts complex on the site and the present gallery was only the first phase. The complex will house workshop spaces, artists’ residences and fine-arts classrooms, she said. Asked if the society intends to find another building, Guy said, “Of course we are not going to sit back, curl up and die. “If they (the Government) do not respond positively, then it’s going to be an open fight. “We have no arrangements right now. We are giving the Government the opportunity to do the right thing.”
Ingrid Ruben, director of culture at the Ministry of Arts and Multiculturalism, said Guy had appealed to the ministry asking for its intervention. She said Guy told her they are awaiting feedback from other ministries, so the arts ministry had not done anything so far, Ruben said. Expressing her willingness to assist, Ruben said, “I asked her to put their request for help in writing.”
Ruben said, however, that the State had virtually given the Federation Park land to the Art Society and should continue to support it. “They are a charity. They have no money to pay such a rent. When you go to an art exhibition, you don’t pay.”