Is the Sparta Teapot Museum a small town’s big opportunity or just political pork?

By Judi Goldenberg

I drove to Sparta, North Carolina to see what was brewing at the teapot museum. Critics call the proposed tourist attraction prime pork barrel politics while supporters say it’s the perfect economic pick-me-up for an area that lost four of its largest private employers within two years. I wanted to see for myself so I could decide for myself whether the museum is a big opportunity for a small town or just another oinker.

Sparta is in the mountains northeast of Asheville near the Virginia state border. Downtown Sparta has a 1910 courthouse and a hardware store dating back to the Depression. It looks like the quintessential American small town.

Like other small towns, Sparta has seen plants, mills and factories close to consolidate or relocate overseas.

Spartans are looking for ways to revive the local economy.

I wish I could say the museum is the answer. Scheduled to open in 2008, the museum will house Californians Sonny and Gloria Kamm’s collection of between 4,000 and 10,000 teapots. The number varies depending on whether you include teapots on tour or recent acquisitions. A number that does not vary is 60,000-plus. That’s the number of visitors a consultant estimates the museum will draw each year. Foundations count on that number as they underwrite the project. Legislators cite that number as they allocate public funds.

It’s the public funds that earned the museum some unflattering publicity. Citizens Against Government Waste gave the project the Tempest in a Teapot Award for $500,000 Congress set aside in one of many earmarks. In fact, the congressional budget has almost as many earmarks as the museum has teapots.

The state set aside an additional $400,000, but that was cut from the budget amid accusations it had more to do with campaign donations than tea or sympathy for Sparta.

The museum site — still just a parking lot, empty commercial space and a sign — is around the corner and down the hill from a temporary exhibit where I read about plans for a 30,000 square-foot building. It looked out of place for Sparta. I wondered why museum backers chose the small town.

Perhaps it’s because Sparta is near the Blue Ridge Parkway, source of many of the 60,000-plus visitors. The Blue Ridge Parkway, meanwhile, has lost funding. The government has to save money somewhere.

That’s my problem with the museum. For the portion of funding coming from earmarks and special grants, it did not have to undergo the same scrutiny or prioritizing as other parts of the budget. Earmarks have their own process. If the interest and influence of the legislator supporting the earmark is strong enough, the project will be approved.

Back in Asheville, I went to the Grove Arcade, where several teapots from the museum are on display. I have to say there were some interesting teapots, including a FrogOreo teapot from Oregon and a cabin teapot from Montana. A video (“Steeped in Surprises”) shows the Kamms, their teapots, museum enthusiasts and mountain scenery.

Based on this not-really-exhaustive research, I concluded no one is trying to cheat the public with the museum. Boosters seem like sincere people steamed up about teapots. They’ve convinced themselves, but they have yet to convince me, that the museum will change Sparta’s economy to the degree they hope or in a way that is best for Sparta.

The Spartans I spoke with don’t want to depend on the government or any one enterprise to guarantee their future. They’ve brought in a new advanced materials construction plant.

They’re developing second and retirement homes. It seems to me they look forward to the teapot museum too, in the hope rather than the belief it will succeed.

I can’t speak for the other 59,999-plus tourists, but I did not spend much money in Sparta.

I bought one inexpensive piece of pottery. I had lunch in another town. My visit left me impressed with the friendliness and resilience of Sparta’s residents but dubious about their museum. I fear it may turn out to be a Trojan horse.

Across the country, once self-sufficient small towns are losing population or evolving into cookie-cutter bedroom communities for expanding cities. It should be possible to help these towns without resorting to boondoggles. We help them most if we apply rigorous standards. We do not help them by building a tourist attraction while allowing the grand old Parkway that leads tourists to it to deteriorate for want of a legislator to grant it an earmark.

(this article was written by Judi Goldenburg, for citizen-times.com. Judi Goldenberg has worked in the field of marketing and as a teacher. She retired in 1998 and now writes book reviews and short stories. She lives in Asheville. Her columns appear on alternate Fridays and she can be reached at judicolumn@gmail.com)