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Marshfield residents urge city to protect Laird theater endowment amid university changes
Summary
Community theater directors and residents told the Marshfield Common Council they are concerned the University of Wisconsin–Stevens Point at Marshfield may absorb or limit access to the Laird Endowment Fund for the Arts, and asked the city to press for transparency and public access to the fund's committee.
Andrew Spencer, a local theater director, told the Marshfield Common Council on June 10 that he is worried the Laird Endowment Fund for the Arts is being moved into broader university control and that Marshfield community theater may lose access to the fund.
“The Laird Endowment Fund is an enormous community asset, which is supposed to provide funding for the arts here in town in Marshfield,” Spencer said during the council’s public comment period. He said his recent production of Sister Act sold out and produced what he estimated as “at least over $36,000 in profit,” but that proceeds were not being returned to the endowment as he expected.
Sheila Spencer, who identified herself as a Marshfield resident and Andrew Spencer’s mother, said the endowment was established by Helen Conard Laird “to sustain theater and the arts here in Marshfield” and that the fund’s decision-making appears to be inaccessible to the public. She asked the city to consider taking control of the Helen Conard Laird building and to establish a local theater board to ensure transparent application and funding processes.
Both speakers said they could not find public contact information for the Laird committee and described a lack of public notices or application procedures. Andrew Spencer said he was told by campus staff to leave a Laird Committee meeting after he presented the theater’s financial results.
Speakers asked the council to use its political connections to contact the Laird family or the university and to explore options to keep the endowment — and opportunities to submit proposals for programming — available to residents and visiting directors.
The council did not take formal action on the public comments during the meeting. A council member later requested a future presentation from the university or the relevant campus body about the “layered fund” discussed in public comment so the council could better understand governance and access to the endowment.
For now, speakers urged greater transparency and local oversight so the Laird funds continue to support Marshfield programming as originally intended.
