LEWISTON – The Creative Photographic Art Center of Maine fired its director Friday less than six months after he was hired.

James Daigle took charge of CPAC operations in May. He was center founder J. Michel Patry’s hand-picked successor.

Center directors said the termination won’t affect the center’s courses, which are attended by about 120 University of Maine students.

CPAC directors fired Daigle along with Heidi Lewis, who handled administrative matters, following a meeting Friday afternoon. On Monday, Art Center chairwoman Holly Sanders wouldn’t say why the board took the actions. “I’m not at liberty to discuss personnel,” she said.

Lewis said she was told she was terminated due to a reorganization. She had worked at the center since January handing admissions and administrative functions.

Sanders said the firings occurred after board members discussed a letter from the University of Maine at Augusta raising concerns about the nonprofit center’s curricula and its direction.

Differences develop

Daigle said he was fired because he wanted to lead the center toward digital photography, putting him at odds with some purists there who preferred the use of film and darkrooms.

“I’m a little bothered” by the firing, Daigle said Monday. He said he intends to discuss his options with a lawyer.

Lewis said she already has. “There’s not a darn thing they can do,” she said. “All I can do is look for a job.”

Daigle, a professional photographer, learned photojournalism with the United Press International news wire service, then went on to make a name for himself in fashion and advertising work with the camera. He said he’s produced images of presidents and globally famous models.

He moved from New York City to Portland following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, he said. Last spring, at Patry’s urging, Daigle closed his Portland studio to head up the photo center, housed in the Bates Mill.

At that time, Patry, who left the center because of health reasons, said of Daigle’s potential, “You haven’t seen nothing yet.”

Patry couldn’t be reached for comment Monday afternoon.

Daigle said accepting the job was a mistake. There was too much resistance to his plans, he said, and “virtually no support from the board” to bring them to fruition.

“I’m embarrassed that I ever stopped here,” Daigle said.

The education they deserve

“I’m also sorry for the kids,” he added. He said they’re being denied the education they deserve, one that should employ high-tech cameras and computers, and have a future. The use of film, and the chemical processing and darkroom work film requires, has become passé, Daigle suggested, and soon will have little more than a niche following.

His efforts to digitalize the curriculum, however, ran into opposition from the University of Maine at Augusta, he said. UMA contracts with the Art Center for use of its facilities.

Daigle said the college puts more emphasis on old-style photography skills because it wants its students to have more art-related courses. UMA students work toward a bachelor of arts degree, not specifically a photography degree, Daigle said.

But Daigle disagrees with that philosophy. “These kids only have so much money to pay for their degree,” he said. They should be able to elect courses they want and need, and not be required to adhere to “a fine arts curriculum,” he added

UMA Dean Tom Abbott, a former Arts Center board member, confirmed Monday that the university had sent a letter to the Arts Center’s board outlining a series of concerns, including curriculum issues and the direction the center was taking.

“We raised some concerns” about its course of studies, Abbott said, and “with the overall program.”

Another issue, Abbott said, is how the center was preparing to deal with recertification, which the university faces in 2005.

Thinking about a transition

Abbott acknowledged that currently the university is “committed to film,” but said he and the university staff affiliated with the program are aware of the need to transition to digital course work and have begun discussions about that transition.

“(Daigle) did have a vision that everything in photography is going to digital … but it can’t happen overnight,” Abbott said.

Abbott noted that the digital issue was not the primary focus of the university’s concern. “There were so many more things … that were concerns to us. … It was a minor piece of it.”

Abbott lamented any turmoil stirred up by the change in the center’s directorship.

UMA has more students enrolled in the Arts Center’s program this semester than it ever has had, he said.

Sanders, the board’s chairman, said about 120 university students are taking courses at the center, along with a single independent student. Jere DeWaters, a professional photographer and UMA employee, is overseeing the university’s program at the center.

Classes were under way Monday morning, Sanders said. Students were also being briefed on the change in administration by UMA Dean Peg Daniels.

Sanders said Steve Carlson, the Arts Center’s lab manager, will take over as operations manager temporarily. The center will seek another director to replace Daigle, she said.

She also said the board has no plans to move the facilities from the Bates Mill, where it has been since its founding in the mid-1990s. She declined to discuss the center’s ongoing financial programs.

The Arts Center owes the city $148,000 for a business development loan issued in 1994. No payments have been made on the loan since it was issued. The center also is habitually late in making its rent payments. As of Monday it owed the city, which owns that part of the Bates Mill, $28,395 in rent and late charges. Its monthly rent of $2,790 hasn’t been paid since March, said city Finance Director Dick Metivier.

The center also owes $130,000 to the Lewiston-Auburn Economic Growth Council, money borrowed to help develop the business when it started. Some payments were made shortly after the loan was issued, Growth Council officials have said, but no payments have been made in recent years.

The Arts Center sought a $789,000 business development loan from the U.S. Department of Agriculture last year. It wanted to use the loan to buy a Lisbon Street office building in order to relocate from the mill.

The application was withdrawn after the USDA added conditions requiring repayment of the earlier loans first.

dfletcher@sunjournal.com