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With no publicly provided explanation or cause, SAAC announced its permanent dissolution via a Facebook post on Aug. 5.\n\u201cI felt like I had stepped onto the Titanic right before it hit the iceberg,\u201d said Squeak Humphreys, SAAC\u2019s last executive director. \u201c\u2026 At the time I started in September (of 2025), we had six board members, and we only had around $30,000 in the bank. When I left in February of this year, there were three board members and $5,000.\u201d\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\tSqueak Humphreys\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\nAccording to previous executive directors and board members, \u201cmyriad\u201d reasons turned SAAC\u2019s dreams into a nightmare.\nAn ill-fated cookbook fundraiser \u201ccosting well over $100,000\u201d and the lawsuit that followed, an expensive move to a downtown Starkville storefront and four directors in four years \u2013 with one \u201clasting only a month\u201d \u2013 led the few remaining board members to believe closing \u201cwas the only remaining option.\u201d\nPhillip Carter, board president when SAAC dissolved, said the end \u201cplayed out over roughly five years.\u201d\nDespite that, SAAC\u2019s signature event, Cotton District Arts Festival, will go on under different leadership.\nSAAC\u2019s undoing\nSAAC was founded in 1996 as a way to promote the arts in the community. For much of the organization\u2019s existence, it was headquartered in a one-room office space in the Greater Starkville Development Partnership building.\nHowever, in 2021, it traded the $600 monthly rent for a storefront on Main Street that cost six times that. After that was no longer financially sustainable, the group moved its headquarters in fall 2024 to a shared space with Proof Bakery.\nBy November, two months after taking the director\u2019s job, Humphreys was ordered to work from home, leaving SAAC without a public-facing space for the final months of its waning existence.\n\u201cTo be completely honest with you, there were so many signs,\u201d Humphreys said. \u201cWorking from home, \u2026 I was losing programs left and right. I had received no education about our finances. They just dropped it on me.\u201d\nLeadership at SAAC was its own revolving door. Humphreys replaced Charla Laney, who had stayed in the job only a month. Juliette Reid was interim director for nine months before that, as she replaced Mary Switzer, who led the organization from December 2021 to September 2024. Prior to Switzer was John Bateman, SAAC\u2019s first salaried executive director who was at the helm from 2016 to 2021.\nReid helped spearhead the move to Main Street, claiming the organization needed more space to expand its programming. A grant helped fund the relocation costs for a year, but SAAC struggled to keep up the rent payments after the grant expired.\n\u201cWe were in this little 10-by-15-by-15 office, and we needed bigger space to do anything more,\u201d she said. \u201cIf we would have stayed there, we maybe could have lasted longer. But the thing about it is, you can\u2019t really expand your programs when you\u2019re working out of a windowless office. That\u2019s not how you continue. That\u2019s not how you increase your service to the community.\u201d\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\tJuliette Reid\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\nBut even without staffing troubles, public support was already declining. The organization\u2019s IRS filings show gifts, grants and donations totaling $153,658 in 2020. By 2024, those had fallen to $37,872.\nReid credited the dropoff in support to the public\u2019s response to drag performers at CDAF in 2022, among other reasons.\nBy 2025, Humphreys said SAAC used a Windgate Foundation grant meant for the Art Partners Program to instead pay her salary. In doing so, SAAC let go of the teachers for that program, Bonnie Renfroe and Joseph MacGown, who had actually written the grant.\nCarter told The Dispatch the organization\u2019s dissolution process included \u201crepaying a major grantor in full,\u201d but he did not confirm which grant.\nAside from a \u201csevere lack of funding,\u201d Humphreys said SAAC\u2019s final months were \u201chaunted by cookbooks and lawsuits.\u201d\nCookbooks and lawsuits\nWhile trying to cope with the whiplashing cost of their new space, Reid and Switzer were also tasked with selling thousands of \u201cArts & Eats\u201d cookbooks \u2013 a fundraiser cookbook with a collection of recipes, stories and artworks all contributed by local residents and supporters.\nIn 2021, in what Carter called a decision \u201crooted in good intentions,\u201d SAAC had ordered 10,000 copies at a cost of nearly $130,000.\nAt $35 a book, SAAC hoped to generate about $220,000 in net proceeds. The group only ever got about 2,600 copies to sell. By 2025, SAAC was advertising the books on Facebook for $15, \u201cbuy one, get one,\u201d while Humphreys said about 1,000 copies still sit in boxes in a storage unit.\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\tThe \u201cArts & Eats\u201d cookbook was intended to be a major fundraiser for SAAC. Instead, a 2021 decision to order 10,000 copies for \u201cwell over $100,000,\u201d followed by poor sales and a breach-of-contract lawsuit ended being part of the reason remaining board members \u201cvoted to dissolve in May, once the full financial picture became clear following the Cotton District Arts Festival,\u201d said final board president Phillip Carter. Book cover courtesy of SAAC\u2019s website\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\n\u201cWhen the books actually came out, the support wasn\u2019t really there,\u201d Reid said. \u201cI worked my butt off to try and sell those books. Nobody really wanted to buy the book.\u201d\nReid said she felt in the beginning that there weren\u2019t any \u201cred flags\u201d regarding the quantity SAAC ordered.\n\u201cEveryone was like, \u2018Yeah, for sure. It sounds amazing,\u2019\u201d she said. \u201cNobody was blindsided by the fact that it was occurring. We took pre-orders. We told the public. We got support (for the order).\u201d\nBateman, who decided along with the board to place the order, said it was based on the success of a similar cookbook in Oxford.\n\u201cWe used the same publisher and the same model that the Yoknapatawpha Arts Council had done with the \u2018Square Table Cookbook.\u2019 \u2026 They sold thousands of copies,\u201d he said. \u201cThe publisher offered a lot of free help to sell it because they had advised us on the book. \u2026 I don\u2019t think it went the way any of us hoped it would.\u201d\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\tJohn Bateman\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\nBateman said SAAC agreed to a payment plan with Nashville-based Southwest Publishing Group, but Carter said the group only made enough payments to receive the 2,600 copies. The publishing group destroyed the rest of the inventory, Carter said, and sued SAAC for breach of contract in October 2025.\nThat suit was settled in February, but case records from Davidson County Circuit Court do not specify the terms.\n\u201cWe could not have known that that would be a terrible decision,\u201d Reid said. \u201cWe maybe could have ordered less books, probably, but it\u2019s one of those things where hindsight is 20/20.\u201d\nDid the city offer any help?\nIn February, Carter and Humphreys met with Mike Tagert and Paige Hunt, director and tourism director, respectively, for the GSDP, as well as Mayor Lynn Spruill.\nSpruill said they wanted an update about the arts council due to the \u201cconstant turnover\u201d in executive directors, since the city, Oktibbeha County and GSDP all provided funding for the organization annually. That\u2019s when she learned SAAC leaders did not foresee a path forward.\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\tLynn Spruill\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\n\u201cI didn\u2019t see any point in the city continuing to fund something that was not in a functioning capacity,\u201d Spruill said. \u201cWe halted our next payment to them, because for all intents and purposes, there wasn\u2019t anything to fund because they weren\u2019t doing anything.\u201d\nAfter that meeting, Carter said he took on the \u201chard and unenviable work of wrapping up a beloved organization\u201d when Humphreys resigned two weeks later.\nQuan Walker, executive director of the Columbus Arts Council, said she was surprised by SAAC\u2019s dissolution and hoped the two communities would collaborate. She also empathized with how difficult it can be to find critical funding.\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\tQuan Walker\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\n\u201cYou always have to keep the wheels turning, and I think one of the most important things is being open-minded and willing to explore different opportunities,\u201d she said.\nSo, who is taking responsibility for CDAF?\nDespite SAAC\u2019s dissolution, Libbi Havelin, head of the 2026 CDAF Committee, confirmed plans for next year\u2019s festival are moving forward, with the date set for April 17, 2027.\nShe said that it won\u2019t \u201cbe easy,\u201d but the committee is prepared for the hustle that comes with putting on a festival of this size.\n\u201cWe have our standing committee that will continue to work diligently to host our festival,\u201d Havelin said. \u201cWe are very excited to move forward with planning this amazing event.\u201d\nSAAC\u2019s 2022 IRS filings show the festival cost the nonprofit $41,083 to organize. On that same form it reported that the festival brought in $38,814 \u2013 leaving the festival $2,269 in the red.\nCarter confirmed SAAC shuttered with \u201cno remaining (CDAF) funds to transfer,\u201d and that \u201cthe new organizing entity will build the festival\u2019s funding independently going forward.\u201d\nThis shouldn\u2019t be a problem, Havelin said.\n\u201cIt is an expensive event, but one that actually pays for itself,\u201d she said. \u201cNow that we are deciding how we want to proceed, we are exploring options of being our own entity or going under the umbrella of another organization.\u201d\nWhat now?\nCarter said \u201cmost of SAAC\u2019s programs, scholarships and grants concluded along with the dissolution,\u201d though he said Starkville Public Library \u2013 where he works as the director \u2013 would continue to host the Arts Education program.\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\tPhillip Carter\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\n\u201cSAAC gave this community 30 years and that legacy doesn\u2019t disappear because the organization did,\u201d Carter said. \u201cIf anything, I hope this makes room for whatever comes next \u2026 Starkville has never lacked artists or people who care about them. \u2026 That\u2019s the part I hope people take away from this.\u201d\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n \n \n Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 42 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.\n \n \n\n\t\t\t\n \n \n Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 42 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community." ], "output": "readability", "pwd": "/data/archive/1787954594.562082", "schema": "ArchiveResult", "start_ts": "2026-08-29T01:43:04.085700+00:00", "status": "succeeded" } ], "screenshot": [], "singlefile": [], "title": [ { "cmd": [ "curl", "--silent", "--location", "--compressed", "--max-time", "120", "--user-agent", "Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_15_7) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/118.0.0.0 Safari/537.36 ArchiveBox/0.7.4 (+https://github.com/ArchiveBox/ArchiveBox/) curl/curl 8.14.1 (x86_64-pc-linux-gnu)", "https://cdispatch.com/news/rent-a-revolving-door-and-a-cookbook-the-story-of-starkville-arts-councils-closure/" ], "cmd_version": "curl 8.14.1 (x86_64-pc-linux-gnu)", "end_ts": "2026-08-29T01:43:04.078765+00:00", "index_texts": null, "output": "Rent, a revolving door and a cookbook: The story of Starkville Arts Council\u2019s closure - The Dispatch", "pwd": "/data/archive/1787954594.562082", "schema": "ArchiveResult", "start_ts": "2026-08-29T01:43:04.050058+00:00", "status": "succeeded" } ], "wget": [ { "cmd": [ "wget", "--no-verbose", "--adjust-extension", "--convert-links", "--force-directories", "--backup-converted", "--span-hosts", "--no-parent", "-e", "robots=off", "--timeout=120", "--restrict-file-names=windows", "--warc-file=/data/archive/1787954594.562082/warc/1787967769", "--page-requisites", "--user-agent=Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_15_7) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/118.0.0.0 Safari/537.36 ArchiveBox/0.7.4 (+https://github.com/ArchiveBox/ArchiveBox/) wget/GNU Wget 1.21.3", "--compression=auto", "https://cdispatch.com/news/rent-a-revolving-door-and-a-cookbook-the-story-of-starkville-arts-councils-closure/" ], "cmd_version": "GNU Wget 1.21.3", "end_ts": "2026-08-29T01:43:04.038117+00:00", "index_texts": null, "output": "cdispatch.com/news/rent-a-revolving-door-and-a-cookbook-the-story-of-starkville-arts-councils-closure/index.html", "pwd": "/data/archive/1787954594.562082", "schema": "ArchiveResult", "start_ts": "2026-08-29T01:42:49.641702+00:00", "status": "succeeded" } ] }, "icons": null, "is_archived": true, "is_static": false, "latest": { "archive_org": null, "dom": null, "favicon": "favicon.ico", "git": null, "media": null, "pdf": null, "screenshot": null, "singlefile": null, "title": "Rent, a revolving door and a cookbook: The story of Starkville Arts Council\u2019s closure - The Dispatch", "warc": null, "wget": "cdispatch.com/news/rent-a-revolving-door-and-a-cookbook-the-story-of-starkville-arts-councils-closure/index.html" }, "link_dir": "/data/archive/1787954594.562082", "newest_archive_date": "2026-08-29T01:43:05.779160+00:00", "num_failures": 0, "num_outputs": 6, "oldest_archive_date": "2026-08-29T01:42:48.950382+00:00", "path": "/news/rent-a-revolving-door-and-a-cookbook-the-story-of-starkville-arts-councils-closure/", "schema": "Link", "scheme": "https", "snapshot_id": "a7526948-8696-4a6e-bd0a-c31281dda187", "sources": [ "/data/sources/1787954594-import.txt" ], "tags": ",cdispatch_local,pool", "tags_str": "cdispatch_local,pool", "timestamp": "1787954594.562082", "title": "Rent, a revolving door and a cookbook: The story of Starkville Arts Council\u2019s closure - The Dispatch", "updated": "2026-08-29T01:42:48.950043+00:00", "updated_date": "2026-08-29 01:42", "url": "https://cdispatch.com/news/rent-a-revolving-door-and-a-cookbook-the-story-of-starkville-arts-councils-closure/" }