While Wendy Waszut-Barrett is traveling for research and art acquisitions from October 14-29 she is reposting fifteen installments from “Tales from a Scenic Artist and Scholar Acquiring The Fort Scott Scottish Rite Scenery for the Minnesota Masonic Heritage Center.” Here is my first post from February 15, 2017, as we leave at 3AM!
Part 1: Early Contacts with the Valley of Fort Scott
My initial contact with the Fort Scott Scottish Rite began long before any involvement with the Minnesota Masonic Heritage Center (MMHC). I received a call from the Sovereign Grand Inspector General (SGIG) of Kansas during the fall of 2011, asking about the market value of historic scenery. He was hoping that I could provide a complete evaluation of their scenery collection as they were preparing to sell the building and wanted an estimate on what the drops were worth. Due to a lack of funding, the evaluation and appraisal never took place.
By the fall of 2011, I had founded and was actively running a scenery restoration company, Bella Scena, LLC, and had restored over 500 historical backdrops nationwide. From a Masonic standpoint, I was an active Scottish Rite Research Society Member (SRRS), guest speaker at the 2003 SRRS meeting during the Biennial Supreme Council Session in Washington, D.C., and a published author in “Heredom,” “Scottish Rite Journal,” “Theatre Design and Technology” and other publications. Additionally, I had been awarded a Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota, with my doctoral thesis being “Scenic Shifts Upon the Scottish Rite Stage: Designing for Masonic Theatre, 1859-1929.” I was also a freelance scenic artist and set designer.
After 2011, Fort Scott popped up again on my radar during January of 2014 when I assessed water damage at the Yankton Scottish Rite in South Dakota. The Masons told me about an auction being planned to liquidate all of the Fort Scott Scottish Rite assets that coming summer. We spoke of my attending the auction with some of the men as the Yankton Scottish Rite was interested in purchasing the collection and retrofitting it for their space. Unfortunately, the date of the auction coincided with a family wedding on the east coast and Fort Scott once again faded from my radar.
During the spring of 2015, Rick Boychuk, author of “Nobody Looks Up, the History of Counterweight Rigging Systems, 1500-1925,” contacted me after examining the Fort Scott Scottish Rite theatre rigging system.
We discussed the installation as a whole and its historic significance in both the evolution of counterweight rigging systems and the design of Masonic scenery. Boychuk mentioned that the Valley of Fort Scott was contemplating another auction – one to sell their remaining asset – the scenery collection.
At this same time, I had been directed by the CEO of Minnesota Masonic Charities to locate a Scottish Rite scenery collection for purchase and display at the Minnesota Masonic Heritage Center. It was still in the planning and early construction stage. I was looking out of the state, as the Valleys in both St. Paul and Minneapolis would not have folded in time for the opening of MMHC– making those collections unavailable for the space. MMHC was being set up to accommodate both Valleys when they merged and each sold their buildings, as explained by the CEO of Minnesota Masonic Charities.
The Fort Scott collection was one of only two Scottish Rite scenery collections available at that time nationwide that could be restored in time for the opening of the building on January 24, 2016. The other Scottish Rite scenery collection was located in New Orleans, Louisiana.
During the spring of 2015, I contacted a fellow Scottish Rite Research Society member and the SGIG of Louisiana to help me attain images of the New Orleans Scottish Rite scenery collection. The New Orleans collection was posted online as “free,” and advertised through the League of Historic American Theatres (LHAT) page. I had received this information as my company was an allied service provider to LHAT. My contact with the New Orleans Valley Secretary stalled and I never received any information concerning their actual scenery inventory. That is why I turned to the Louisiana SGIG for help. Unfortunately, the entire scenery collection had been already sold for small sum of $1000 without the knowledge of the SGIG. It was sold to a group in Austin during June of 2015.
My search for a Scottish Rite scenery collection to display at Minnesota Masonic Heritage Center resumed in full force with the threat that were only one year away from opening and a space had been designed to accommodate an historical scenery collection. I focused solely on researching the artistic provenance of the Fort Scott scenery collection, using my previous contact information from the initial call made by the Kansas SGIG in 2011. Luckily, the local representative remembered me and we scheduled an onsite visit to evaluate the collections for possible removal, transportation and restoration. By June 2015, I had also accepted the job as Curatorial Director for Minnesota Masonic Heritage Center.
The General Director of Minnesota Masonic Heritage Center and a local Scottish Rite mason accompanied the CEO and myself to both Fort Scott and Guthrie, Oklahoma. Guthrie was a side trip to do “a little research” for interior decoration pertaining to possible architectural ornamentation for the new building. Previous travels had brought us to Detroit, Michigan for MMHC architectural ornamentation research and to Washington D.C. In D.C. we examined other Masonic museums and fraternal displays. In DC, I also I pitched the Minnesota Masonic Heritage Center museum project to nationally-recognized Masonic scholars as the CEO was interested in hiring someone who could contribute name recognition and credibility to the entire endeavor.
To be continued…
