Portland documentary school, MECA continue partnership talks
Discussions about creating a partnership between the Maine College of Art and the Salt Institute for Documentary Studies, which announced in June it would close this fall, have progressed.
The Portland Press Herald reported that representatives from Salt institute, the school’s alumni board, an alumni group called Save Salt, MECA and the Maine-based Quimby Family Foundation agreed to a set of future “due diligence actions” at a Monday meeting where the stakeholders discussed models for a possible partnership.
Officials from MECA and the Salt institute wouldn’t say what the actions were or give a timeline for establishing a potential partnership. The Press Herald reported that a follow-up conversation between the groups would happen in two to three weeks.
About a month after the Portland documentary school announced it was closing due to flat enrollment and a loss of critical funding sources, Kimberly Curry, the leader of Salt's board of directors, said the group was discussing a partnership with MECA.
The documentary school’s founder, Pam Wood, recently sent an open letter addressed to the people of Maine to newspapers in the state, accusing the Salt’s board of mismanagement and a lack of aggressive fundraising.
Wood, who now lives in Oaxaca, Mexico, said the current board “destroyed its legitimacy by voting to close down Salt without first consulting or even notifying the four decades of students, teachers and Maine people associated with the institute.”
The Press Herald reported that Salt officials wouldn’t comment on the letter.
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