“I am writing to express deep concern over the recent and abrupt closure of the Hannibal Square Heritage Center, an institution central to preserving the history and culture of Winter Park’s African American community. When will the Heritage Center reopen?What steps are being taken to ensure it continues to serve its intended purpose?”
– KRISTEN KNIGHT LOVE
Short answer, the Hannibal Square Heritage Center (Facebook | Website) is only temporarily closed as its parent organization, Crealde School of Art (Facebook | Website) seeks to replace its longtime manager, Barbara Chandler, who it fired this month, or until it has volunteers in place.
We reached out to Crealde leadership and heard back from current director Peter Schreyer. He is scheduled to step down from his longtime position at the arts institution this January as incoming director Emily Bourmas-Fry takes over.
“Hello Brandan,
So sorry that you had to get involved in this. I know that you have been a long time supporter of our work and all positive and productive efforts to pay tribute to Winter Park’s Westside Community.
Please let me assure you that the Heritage Center is only temporarily closed for the Holidays and will gradually re-open in early January, as temporary volunteer staffing will allow. The Crealdé phone number is listed on the door and we are available for private tours, just as we were during Covid for several months in 2020 (at the request of the Manager).
Crealdé is already in the process of searching for a new HC Manager. The center will be open for the annual Unity Heritage Festival over the MLK weekend.
All key partners at the City of Winter Park (who owns the building) have been informed and are 100% in support of Crealdé. They deeply value our 17-year track record operating the Heritage Center and understand that staff changes are an internal matter.
The decision to terminate the HC Manager was made by myself, the incoming ED, and the Crealdé Executive Board. The issues for this action were long lingering and multi-faceted. They remain a confidential and completely internal management matter.”
We reached out to Chandler for a quote or update on the situation but had not heard back at the time of this post. Chandler has shared coverage from Orlando Sentinel on her Public Figure Facebook page, where she stated the following, after sharing that she was terminated via email on December 3.
“Once again, our voices have become muted; our stories have been regulated to just doing business. This isn’t just a job and this isn’t just business. This is a position that protects and preserves the voices, experiences, stories, and history of Black Stakeholders that have all too often been treated as an afterthought.”
Schreyer shared in Chandler’s termination email that she would be let go due to “… ongoing issues [that] have negatively impacted our operations, including unapproved partnerships, failure to communicate key details, and repeated disregard for Crealdé’s policies.”
The Heritage Center was founded in 2007 by Crealde School of Art, in partnership with Hannibal Square residents to host the Heritage Collection: Photographs and Oral Histories of West Winter Park, a collection of more than 200 framed archival pieces that capture the lives of West Winter Park’s historic Black community. It also hosts rotating visiting exhibitions and regular community programming for the neighborhood residents.
A job opening for the vacant manager position is currently not posted on the Crealde employment website.
The post Ask Bungalower: Is Crealde closing Hannibal Square Heritage Center? appeared first on Bungalower.