Agency won't sign on as corporate sponsor

Though they won't be partners as a corporate sponsor or donate a requested $300, members of the Bayshore Arts nonprofit organization said they have no hard feelings toward the Bayshore/Gateway Triangle Community Redevelopment Agency.

Bayshore Arts is a group responsible for promoting art throughout the redeveloping Bayshore Drive community in East Naples. The group has a startup gallery on Bayshore Drive that showcases the work of several local artists.

Collier County commissioners make up the CRA Board, which makes decisions regarding the redevelopment and enhancement of Bayshore Drive. The group also decides how and when taxes collected from Bayshore residents will be spent in the area.

Bayshore Arts leaders requested the CRA Board renew their corporate membership with the nonprofit, which has been expired for more than a year. They also requested a $300 donation to help organize themselves, and to write bylaws and grant requests.

But the idea of directly supporting the art group has caused some discomfort among board members, who felt a role as corporate sponsor and donor would create a conflict of interest.

The CRA Board ultimately will be responsible for approving the group's bylaws and grant requests.

"I think that maybe corporate membership in the organizations you're responsible for administering, approving grants, and that sort of thing is not a good idea," board member Fred Coyle said at a meeting earlier this month.

"I think it gets you too close to that organization, and you've got to keep an arm's-length relationship with those."

Board members denied the group's request with a 4-0 vote at a meeting this month. Board member Donna Fiala abstained from voting, because she serves on the Bayshore Arts board of directors.

"I was disappointed, but they made some really good points," Fiala said. "I would have liked to see it go the other way, but I understood what they were saying."

Rochelle Doepke, spokeswoman for Bayshore Arts, said she wasn't disheartened by the denial.

"If they choose not to become members right now, that's their decision, and it's totally understandable," she said. "We'll just have to look for our funding in other ways."

Some of those ways include a planned expansion of the group's responsibilities. During the next year, Bayshore Arts plans to host several art festivals, art classes, ethnic festivals and performance art displays.

The group kicked off the summer by offering a ceramics program for young people ages 9-17 at Botanical Gardens, which often partners with Bayshore Arts.

"I'm really hoping we will have (the board's) support, both moral and financial, when we present our need for grants," Doepke said. "We're here to enhance life and the quality of life in the Bayshore community through our wonderful plans coming up."

Coyle and other CRA Board members expressed their interest in helping Bayshore Arts in the future, and asked David Jackson, director of the CRA, how they could assist.

"I have many venues and different ways you can spend this (money), and more, to assist in the cultural arts district we're planning in that area in the next couple of years," Jackson told board members. "If the board so chooses to disapprove the corporate membership and donation, there will be other ways we'll be able to assist.

"The assistance won't cease."