former YU Director, Sandra Percival

Last Fall I raised questions about Sandra Percival's role and basic questions of board oversight, which was a reiteration of what I was first to point out a year before.

Now YU just announced that, "We, Curtis Knapp and Flint Jamison, Co-founders, announce that Director Sandra Percival will leave YU. Curtis Knapp will become Acting Director, effective January 20. There will be complete continuity in the day-to-day functioning of YU and in the assumption of strategic and programmatic planning imperatives at the director level, some of which we will discuss below.

Sandra is a rare arts and cultural leader whose experience and breadth of skills, from her regional and international directorships to her artistic and strategic thinking, have set YU on a sound track to achieve our founding vision. YU was extremely fortunate to attract her back to Oregon in 2010 to work and invest in this venture and we appreciate her commitment, energy, and hard work immensely. As Co-founders, we have gained experience and made the decision that we are ready to be the face of the organization and assume the position of directing YU. We thank Sandra for creating a solid foundation for YU during our first period of growth, and we are well positioned to enter our next phase.

Sandra says, 'YU provided me with a unique opportunity to bring the breadth of my experience to shape the formative stages of a new contemporary art institution in Portland, and to contribute to the cultural life of the community and the Northwest. My origins in Oregon, together with my international experience in London, give me a unique perspective from which to pursue new opportunities and projects that serve contemporary art and the cultural landscape, and to keep artists, new ideas, and ways of seeing the world central to my pursuits.'"

All of which gets back to the basic questions of how much of this is just Curtis and Flint (something PORT was first to point out)... both are nice fellahs but any multimillion dollar public endeavor requires board oversight unless of course they want to self fund the project or with a silent funder as a private institution. My sense is that Sandra was the voice of doing things by the book and Curtis and Flint like to take a more let's do something unique and reinvent the wheel approach. Honestly, you have to know the rules to break them effectively so we shall see where this is going. Does it inspire confidence? No... can they fix it? sure... are they willing to or is this Curtis and Flint's excellent adventure???? (way no way?) Portland is somewhat forgiving of these sorts of things but much less as of late.