The Ashley Bryan Center

What it reported doing in 2024

Fiscal year 2024 continued to be productive for the ashley bryan center. The exhibition focusing on beautiful blackbird continued at the Maine children's museum and theater. We learned from the eric carle museum of picture book art that work by ashley is the second most requested after eric carle, and his art was included in two exhibitions there. There were no other exhibitions that we know of that included ashley's work. The center honored its commitment to emptying the contents of ashley's house. The toys and other items have been taken by his niece vanessa robinson for dispersal, and the remaining art was relocated to the now secure space adjacent to the storyteller pavilion. In july, samuel james delivered the ashley bryan honorary lecture at the jesup memorial library in bar harbor, Maine. The subject was "storytelling, authenticity and race in america." in december, the boston pops augmented their holiday program - the good news voyage - with the centerpiece of that year's program comprising a new work, performed by the tanglewood festival chorus, by local composer david coleman, based on ashley bryan's book carol of the brown king, featuring the poems of langston hughes and projection of bryan's wonderful illustrations. The center donated four linocuts from his spiritual books to the national gallery in Washington, d.c. And nick clark donated two from his personal collection tothe museum of fine arts boston. This constituted an important step in placing ashley's work in major museums. There were continued ongoing requests to reproduce ashley's work in magazines ranging from general interest periodicals to more specialized publications. As well, numerous schools and churches around the country requested the use of images of ashley's works in public programs. The center cooperated fully to accommodate these various requests as well as other inquiries driven by awareness of the center through the website. The storyteller pavilion continued to engage visitors, with docents enhancing the experience, the pavilion welcomed over 1,300 visitors over the course of the summer. The pavilion reduced its hours from 42 hours 10 -4 seven days a week after labor day to 20 hours 11-3 five days a week, and after columbus day, it was open by appointment. The expanded pavilion opened on july 1, 2024. We had 4 events at the pavilion in summer of 2024- all four open to the public. Following the over-arching theme of "music- and hosted by thom heyer, islesford summer resident and a board member with a deep connection to ashley bryan, the abc held 3 presentations by aaron green( a classical guitarist and spanish guitar maker), nate shaw ( a composer, musician, and teacher), and christina spurling and eric thomas (a pianist and clarinetist, respectively). Following the presentations, a question and answer period invited audience participation. Further, we hosted a 4th event, moderated by rick benjamin, where karen dolan read from her manuscript on raising a transgender child. A question and answer period invited audience participation. All the events were extremely well attended with seating to capacity.

Financial Efficiency

• Mission deployment rate: 67.8%; rating input score 68
• Program expense ratio: 54.1%; rating input score 54
• Fundraising efficiency: Limited

Transparency & Controls

• Consistency checks: 90.9%; rating input score 91; 13th percentile among comparable filings
• Pay-setting controls: Limited
• Foreign activity oversight: Limited
• Grant itemization coverage: Limited
• Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
• Related-party transparency: Limited

Accountability

• Independent voting board: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
• Governance controls: 4 of 7 controls in place; rating input score 57
  • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
  • Whistleblower policy: Pass
  • Document-retention policy: Pass
  • CEO compensation review process: NotApplicable
  • Other executive compensation review process: NotApplicable
  • Form 990 shared with the board: Fail
  • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
  • Audit committee oversight: Missing
  • Independent financial-statement audit: Fail

Sustainability

• Operating margin: 1.7%; rating input score 43; 43rd percentile among comparable filings
• Total-asset coverage ratio: 4.45; rating input score 77; 77th percentile among comparable filings
• Liabilities to assets ratio: 0; rating input score 80; 80th percentile among comparable filings
• Officer compensation ratio: 0%; rating input score 69; 69th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

• Program expense growth: 1.1% per year; rating input score 100; 35th percentile among comparable filings
• Revenue growth: -10.2% per year; rating input score 0; 6th percentile among comparable filings
• Asset growth: -1.1% per year; rating input score 0; 21st percentile among comparable filings