After defending its actions last week, the Music Hall in Portsmouth is now apologizing for its decision to cancel a fundraiser for the Lovering Center, a Seacoast-based sexual health service provider, scheduled for earlier this month.
“The Music Hall team recognizes that they should have more productively engaged Lovering in the decision-making process. And for that, we apologize and are committed to making things right,” said Jude Blake, chair of the Music Hall board of trustees, in a statement to NHPR.
The board chair says the theater also reached out to the Lovering Center to apologize directly, offered to host a future event, is planning on hosting listening sessions with key community groups, and is reevaluating its security and rental protocols.
But the Lovering Center — and many others in the theater’s network of volunteers, sponsors and fellow nonprofits — said the damage cannot be easily undone.
Sandi Denoncour, executive director of the Lovering Center, said her organization did receive an apology from the Music Hall but has not yet decided how it will proceed.
“We have not accepted their offer to host a future event for the Lovering. Quite honestly, our trust in them is destroyed,” she said.
Jennifer Minicucci, executive director of Arts in Reach, a Seacoast-based arts education nonprofit, said her group moved their fundraiser originally planned to be held at the Music Hall later this month after learning about the Lovering Center cancellation.
“It felt like a matter of integrity,” she said.
She said her group serves diverse communities of children, many of who are low-income, BIPOC and LGBTQ. She said she worried that what happened to the Lovering Center could set a precedent.
“That’s something that could happen to us because of the population that we’re serving,” she said.
She said she hopes the Music Hall can repair the situation.
Barbara MacLeod, who leads CrossCurrent Communications, pulled her public relations firm from leading press for the New Hampshire Film Festival, which is held at the theater, in solidarity with Lovering.
“Given our misalignment in values with the Music Hall, we cannot, in good conscience, continue our involvement,” she wrote in an email to NHPR. “This decision reflects our commitment to integrity and accountability in our work and the importance of collaborating with partners who share our core principles.”
(Editor’s note: The Music Hall is an NHPR underwriter. But like all underwriters, they have no input into how we cover the news.)
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