Shakeup at the Flickinger Center, ED Resigns Amid Turmoil

The Flickinger Center for the performing arts was an ambitious project under the founding vision of Margaret Flickinger. 

Under her influence the nonprofit Alamogordo Civic Auditorium, Inc. was created in 1983 to provide a facility for the performing arts in Alamogordo and Otero County. In 1988 Alamogordo resident Margaret Flickinger bought the Sierra Theater,  a 1950s-style movie theater, and donated it to the organization. The theater and the organization were renamed Flickinger Center for the Performing Arts. The inaugural performance at the theater was in December 1988 by the New Mexico Symphony Orchestra. The inaugural season started in October 1992.

In 2003 the organization transferred ownership of the building to the County of Otero, and received a lease on the property with an option to purchase. Ownership was transferred so that state funding could be used to renovate the building. The organization pays no rent, but provides services to Otero County including some random performances that are free to school students. 

Mrs. Flickinger's legacy was setting the vision to develop the facility into a performing arts and cultural center that would unify a community via art.

In 1988, when Margaret Flickinger acquired the old Sierra Theater she partnered together with Teresa Newman Ham to develop the Flickinger Center for Performing Arts into a center of community pride. During the initial campaign in 1991, Teresa Ham worked tirelessly to raise funds for the Center, and she was also instrumental in acquiring the adjacent building now known as Patron's Hall. She also served with numerous nonprofits snd as a board member of C.O.P.E. and was the producer for their annual fundraiser for many years at the Flickinger Center. 

Mrs. Ham's legacy is she worked tirelessly until her death in 2021, on the Flickinger Center making it a center of diversity and culture recognized around the region. It was truly a unique unifying facility that made everyone feel welcome.

Step forward to March of 2025 and Mrs Flickinger nor Mrs. Ham would not recognize the challenges facing the facility today.

Board members have confirmed that this month the Flickinger lost its exceptionally talented and experienced programming director Michael Gutierrez, its bookkeeper Monica Coble is also leaving allegedly due to a disagreement with Executive Director Lori Black. A board member has also confirmed that Mrs Black tendered her resignation and it has been accepted by the board effective March 31st.

Unlike Mrs. Flickinger, Mrs. Ham and previous executive directors; Mrs Black leaves the Flickinger Center with a legacy of being a divisive ED. During her tenure the Center was used for political purposes and placed its status as a 501c3 into question with it tiptoeing into politics

Under her tenure and with the board allowing the transition to division, some in the community called the Flickinger "MAGA Central." As such many local residents stopped attending shows and withdrew donations due to a series of extreme right wing events it hosted including election conspiracy rallies. Under Mrs. Blacks tenure, a lawsuit was filed against the APS school system with claims that the former school superintendent had defamed her character. The Flickinger Center funded that lawsuit which was eventually dismissed by lack of prosecution . The lawsuit cost the Flickinger Center arts patrons and donors, thousands of dollars needlessly and was a further distraction from its mission to unify the community around the arts.

Many local community members began boycotting attendance of events hosted by Flickinger. Thousands of dollars in donor contributions have been withheld from moderates and progressives in the community that otherwise support the arts and supported the Flickinger in the days of Mrs Flickinger and Mrs. Ham when it unified the community around the arts.

Under Mrs. Blacks leadership transparency is missing. If one visits the Flickinger Center website the links to who serves on the board, detailed staff bios and links to the IRS Form 990 financial disclosures which once were featured are no longer available. 

Under the leadership of Mrs Black, Patrons Hall  was closed to the public except for paid special events. Under her tenure there was even attempt to sell off Patrons Hall in what turned into a disastrous transaction that failed.

Under the past leadership, Patrons Hall was center of community activities during the week when operating as a coffee shop, it hosted chamber music events, weekly free arts workshops and was a center of community activity.  She discontinued the participation in the monthly Ghost and History Tour which showcases legends and historical facts of the MainStreet district. The tour was even showcased in New Mexico Magazine but Black withdrew the center from participation due to political differences with the tour organizers, again placing politics over the mission of the performing arts center.

Her legacy will go into the local history books as one that turned the Flickinger Centers model of unifying the community around arts on its head. 

With the loss of Mrs Black as the Executive Director from the Flickinger Center the board may now seek a unifying leader with experience and a respect for the arts, a leader that can mend fences with the diverse arts communities within Otero County and foster programming with an open door policy and transparency that represents the various forms of art and culture that make up the fabric of New Mexico's rich culture and heritage. 

A few names come to mind...

 Chris Jones who has transformed Otero Arts via community outreach and partnerships into a true example of a diverse cultural arts organization serving various platforms from display art, movies, performance art and more.

Loren Jackson, who has been a longtime voice in the arts community with envolvement in the Alamogordo Music Theater would make an excellent addition as the ED of Flickinger with a well established history in Alamogordo with the performance arts. 

Nolan Ojeda, as Executive Director of Alamogordo MainStreet he has shown an ability to unify and garner support for transformation with a nod to history and the arts. As one intimately familiar with the politics of downtown leadership he too would make an excellent candidate to lead the Flickinger Center back to a Center of Excellence in community outreach arts and culture. 

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