Departing MECA president reflects on school's mission
Photo/Courtesy Maine College of Art
James Baker, the outgoing president of the Maine College of Art, wants students to graduate with an entrepreneurial education
As Maine College of Art President James Baker prepares to leave his position at the end of the academic year, he hopes to leave his students better prepared to run their own small businesses.
Baker, who has led the Portland college since 2006, announced his resignation on Sept. 25. He plans to depart next May to return to his photography practice and pursue any other opportunities that might arise, he told Mainebiz.
Among Baker's goals for MECA before he leaves is making the curriculum more "relevant to the 21st century," which includes adding courses on creative entrepreneurship. "Individual artists quite literally leave the college and start their own businesses," he says.
Scores of artists have opened their own studios and galleries in Portland and elsewhere throughout Maine in recent years, and MECA should help equip students to make that leap, Baker says. "Our education, in great part, is to make that possible for them."
Baker says he also wants to see MECA's average class size top out at about 150 students. Roughly 100 students make up this year's freshman class, but a significant rise is expected next year -- an increase the college can now accommodate due to its consolidation into the renovated and expanded Porteous Building in the Arts District, he says. That restructuring also includes the college's decision to shed its historic Baxter Library at 619 Congress St.
Portland developer Northland Enterprises is in final negotiations to purchase the more than century-old building, and is seeking tax concessions from the city that would shelter 65% of the property's taxable value over the next nine years and give the firm $165,000 toward completing $2.5 million in renovations. Local advertising agency The VIA Group plans to move its Danforth Street offices to the Baxter building -- making it the first and only tenant -- and has agreed to a 10-year lease with an option to buy after seven years, according to Rex Bell, a Northland principal.
The firm hopes to close on the sale by early November, but the tax concession is a key part of its financing package, he says. Bell wouldn't disclose a sale price, but the city has assessed the building and land at a combined $2.4 million. The City Council will vote on the tax concession request at its Nov. 2 meeting. John Coleman, founder and CEO of The VIA Group, threatened to move his company and its 70 employees to New York City if the deal is not approved, according to the Portland Press Herald.
Completing MECA's move out of Baxter is an essential part of the school's master plan, Baker says. Calling himself a "mission-driven president," Baker says he's accomplished the goals he set out for the school when he started three years ago, after leaving his position as executive director of the nonprofit Anderson Ranch Arts Center in Colorado to come to Maine. Those goals included developing faculty and student senates, instituting shared governance on the school's board and developing a more aggressive admissions process, he says. "I feel a sense of completion at this point. I think the institution's entering its next stage."
MECA now needs a leader who can implement its strategic plan, vigorously present a public face for the college and appreciate the role of entrepreneurial artists in the downtown economy, Baker says. "I'm leaving with a lot of affection for the place and a lot of respect for what it's done," he says.
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