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D'Art Letter(s) of Recommendation

The two documents reproduced in the wide-scrolling image below are letters of recommendation sent to D-Art from Curtis W. Meadows, Jr., President of the Meadows Foundation Incorporated. The earlier version, dated December 21, 1981 is addressed to Ms. Mary Wachowiak-Ward / Executive Director / D'Art, and I found it in an unlabeled manila folder among the D-Art archives August 10, 2001, the day before D-Art (now DVAC)'s 20th (sic) Anniversary celebration.

The letter on the right is essentially similar, except that it is dated 79 days later, on March 10, 1982, is addressed to Ms. Judy Smith-Hearst, President / D'Art; and it is plastic spiral bound into a report that was distributed to D-Art members and potential funders. I can only assume the duplication almost down to the letter is to distort original history.

Why it was necessary for a busy executive, who happens to be the husband of D-Art's second Executive Director, Patricia Meadows, to write two, essentially similar letters, each addressed to a different person?

On two separate occasions in the early history of D-Art, I called her on it when Patricia Meadows announced at public gatherings, that she was the founder of D-Art. Each time, I immediately and publicly reminded her that the organization's founder was Mary Ward.

I used to think her misstatements were hubris run amok — not unlike Al Gore saying he had invented the Internet. But I am beginning to understand that Mrs. Meadows' claim to be the founder of the organization that is most often identified with her was actually part of a conspiracy.

Tempest in a Teapot? Or a concerted effort to rewrite D-Art history? The letter on the left below clearly shows that none other than the president of D-Art's chief funder acknowledged in late 1981 that Marty Wachowiak-Ward was that organization's Executive Director.

What do you think?

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