Richmond Art Museum board, teachers and residents urge RCS to preserve student access amid secure-entry plans

Speakers for the Richmond Art Museum and Richmond High School urged the Richmond Community Schools board on Aug. 13 to preserve student access to the Richmond Art Museum (RAM) as the district considers a secure-entry redesign for Richmond High School.

The museum’s executive director, Sean Dingworth, said the board’s recent facility proposals “will directly impact the ability for Grama to execute our mission and strategic plan of serving students,” citing a proposal that would close the student entry between the high school and the museum. He told the board RAM and Richmond Community Schools (RCS) have “a 127-year relationship” and asked the district to include the museum in planning rather than treat RAM as a tenant.

The museum’s education director, Lance Crowe, told the board the doorway in question “is the main point of access for students and teachers into the art museum and is most used across all visits,” and said placing a secure entry at that location “would decrease the ease of access students now enjoy to the museum and will dissuade teachers from making plans to utilize RAM…