City of Alexandria to take over the Torpedo Factory

The city’s controversial move last week to temporarily take control of the Torpedo Factory Art Center caught many in Alexandria off guard. While three years seems to be pushing the boundary of what’s truly “temporary,” on face value the action makes sense.

Read that Alexandria Times story here.

 “The expectation now is that if we are leasing directly with the artists, now the city is bringing in that income, so we’re expecting the business model to still be self-perpetuating as it currently is but in a slightly different channel,” Ruggiero said. “Especially since this is a temporary measure, we will set it up within our system as a separate budget so it won’t be absorbed into the office of the arts. It’ll be a separate thing so we can track it better.”

Read that other Alexandria Times story here. 

Artists and art patrons have been expressing concern about the future of the center since a consultant’s report in January excoriated how the Torpedo Factory is organized. The report called the management structure dysfunctional, citing distrust among those involved and a lack of diversity among the artists. It also described the center as “continually hampered by disruptive politics about the distribution of power and authority.”

Read that WaPo story here.