Friends of Art Bookshop Barnes and Noble Indiana University

The Friends of Art Bookshop sits off a hall on the get-go floor of Indiana Academy's Fine Arts Building. It has displays of art-related gifts along with roughly half a dozen rows of shelves carrying what one of its promotional leaflets calls "the well-nigh all-encompassing selection of art books in the Midwest."

It's a shop that's been in beingness for 45 years. Profits from its sales are channeled to arts students.

The Friends of Art Bookshop is also the subject area of a deceivingly simple question: Is it allowed at Indiana University?

Leaders of the Friends of Art organization came abroad from a recent meeting believing the store violates an existing contract between IU and Barnes and Noble. That contract has Barnes and Noble College Booksellers LLC paying IU for the right to be the university'southward just textbook supplier.

But an IU spokesman said Tuesday that the contract does not prohibit the art bookstore'south existence. And a Barnes and Noble representative said the visitor has no cognition of the Friends of Art issue.

Friends of Art left an April 5 meeting with the president of the IU Foundation and the dean of the College of Arts and Sciences assertive the bookstore violates the Barnes and Noble contract, according to an electronic mail Friends of Art President Laurel Cornell addressed to the organization's board members. That meant the shop would accept to close, she said in the electronic mail, which originally went out at 9 p.yard. Friday.

"The Executive Committee met with our two professional person staff members, Colleen McKenna and Marci Hughes, on Apr 8, and decided that the best time to close the Bookshop is mid-summer, with a target date of August 1," Cornell wrote in the email. "With the loss of the Bookshop, Friends of Art loses a meaning portion of its income and loses the power to support two full-time professional staff members, so Colleen and Marci will lose their jobs as of that date."

Members of the executive committee of the Friends of Art board of directors did not comment on the issue Tuesday. They have scheduled an advisory board meeting on the result for Thursday evening.

They will be able to discuss IU'due south take on the defoliation. The university has checked with its legal counsel and plant that the Friends of Art Bookshop does not violate the Barnes and Noble contract, IU spokesman Mark Land said.

"Whatever misunderstanding there was on the fifth of April, nosotros regret that," he said. "We desire to make information technology clear that Friends of Art are not in disharmonize with Barnes and Noble."

IU Provost Lauren Robel wants to review the state of affairs, co-ordinate to Land. She plans to talk to Friends of Art and others involved to attempt to resolve whatsoever problems, he said.

"The provost wasn't even aware that some of this was going on until last night or today," State said Tuesday. "We're not sure if at that place'southward a bad guy yet, but it definitely isn't Barnes and Noble."

A Barnes and Noble representative said the visitor knows nothing about the Friends of Art Bookshop upshot.

"We are equally surprised to acquire near information technology as you are," said Mary Ellen Keating, Barnes and Noble's senior vice president for corporate communications and public affairs. "I can't comment, considering nosotros're unaware."

Cornell's email did affirm that the Friends of Fine art arrangement could continue to exist without the bookstore. Just it said the organization would need to "imagine" its future.

Friends of Art provides more than than $30,000 annually in scholarships and grants to support IU's School of Fine Arts and the IU Art Museum, according to its website. It was founded in the 1960s.

IU first announced the contract with Barnes and Noble College Booksellers — a sister company to New York City-based Barnes and Noble Inc. — in 2007. It included an offer by the bookseller to pay IU a $5.5 million signing bonus and give the university $ten.5 million in actress benefits. Those contract perks were on elevation of $70 one thousand thousand in revenue a chore force estimated Barnes & Noble operations would generate for the academy over x years.

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Source: https://www.heraldtimesonline.com/story/news/local/2013/04/17/ius-friends-of-art-bookshop-to-stay-ope/47644897/