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D'Art Letter(s) of Recommendation

he 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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