What's Going On at the Torpedo Factory?

ALEXANDRIA, VA -- What's going on at the Torpedo Factory?

Some people involved with the popular arts center, housed in the City-owned former torpedo factory for more than 40 years, are roiling over proposed changes recommended in a controversial report from an outside consulting firm that say a new board is needed in order for the facility to reach its full potential.

"It wouldn't be a radical change to anything we're doing currently," Torpedo Factory CEO Eric Wallner recently told WJLA-TV. "It would just allow us to operate in a more streamlined way."

The report examining the Torpedo Factory's structure and future surveyed the Torpedo Factor Art Center Board members, and found a wide range of opinions, from “leave everything just like it is” to “we need massive change.”

The Torpedo Factory Art Center board approved the recommendations last month, but several board members and other artists are worried about what the changes could mean for the future.

Torpedo Factory Artists Association president Don Viehman recently told The Washington Post: “We don’t want to be a few token people on a board. The artists want to be there to protect the environment we created.”

Torpedo Factory Art Center Board Member Eric Nelson recently described his experience on the board, as reported by the Colonial Beach Journal newspaper:

“The artists are resentful and suspicious of the motives of those of us who sit on this over-arching board,” Nelson said. “So there has been a tremendous amount of conflict. I've used my skills and diplomacy which I've learned over the years as being an international businessperson to help sort of calm people down. The interactions between the board and the Artists Association, sometimes was success and sometimes it was less success. But conflict resolution is one of the biggest things I've learned serving on that board.”

The Torpedo Factory Art Center Board (TFACB) is an independent 501c3 non-profit organization composed of members who are appointed by the Alexandria City Council.

In a summary, the report noted:

"The recommendations in this report are not intended to displace current tenants of the facility or to lose the heart of what has made TFAC an important leader in artist space and adaptive reuse. There is much to preserve. However, there is a need for change that looks to long-term sustainability and more importantly a model that deeply engages the community with relevant programming and space utilization.

TFAC is surrounded by a changing waterfront and it needs to more intentionally be an active partner in determining its role in that development. In its current operating model, it is not able to proactively shape that role, but only react to changes occurring around it. There are opportunities as well for enhancing the revenue mix, attracting philanthropic investment for programs and capital improvements to the facility. This will require building a programmatic model, as well as the infrastructure and internal capacity, that will draw philanthropic investment."