Real Clear Arts

Judith H. Dobrzynski on Culture

Government Support

The Most Common Expansion Mistake Hits The Perez

Time and again, over the years, there is one common mistake made by many museums that expand — which often gets them into trouble and which is avoidable, mostly. Now it has hit the Pérez Art Museum Miami — and we are not surprised.

PerezMuseum-FirstThursdaysAccording to the Miami Herald (among other places), 

The Pérez Art Museum Miami wants a $2.5 million boost in government support [from the hotel tax], with taxpayers set to cover a third of the museum’s budget next year. 

Housed in a new $130 million waterfront headquarters built largely with government money, PAMM’s celebrated debut late last year also tripled the non-profit’s annual operating expenses, to $14 million from $5 million. Private dollars have not kept pace with the higher costs, leaving a gap that PAMM wants Miami-Dade to help close with a 60 percent increase in the museum’s operating subsidy from hotel taxes, according to interviews and budget documents.

The mistake: trustees probably underestimated the rise in operating costs and overestimated the amount of money they would raise to cover operating expenses.

PAMM is already subsidized by Miami-Dade County, to the tune of $2.5 million a year. It wants more — even though, “… other non-profits supported by Miami-Dade face a 10 percent cut, and as [Mayor Carlos] Gimenez is warning of police layoffs and service reductions. Gimenez was poised to offer $4 million, not $5 million.

His budget was to include nearly “700 job cuts to bridge a $64 million deficit,” the Herald reported. This budget is his “worst-case scenario.” 

I cannot claim to understand Miami politics, and many elements may be at work here. I’m confining myself to the museum’s situation.

PAMM has an endowment of only $14 million — way below what is needed and way below the museum’s long-term goal of $70 million. Plus, said the Herald:

Budget documents show the museum expects to generate about $8 million next year from private sources, including $4 million from concessions, ticket sales and events, and about $4 million in donations and endowment revenue. That leaves a gap of more than $5 million that would be closed by government dollars.

Museum officials say attendance and membership sales are on track or even ahead of projections after PAMM’s Dec. 4 debut during the annual Art Basel week. Almost all of the museum’s corporate sponsors renewed for 2015, PAMM said.

Having invested $100 million to build the new Perez and relocate from the old Miami Art Museum, the government is not going to walk way, Michael Spring, Gimenez’s cultural chief, said, according to the Herald. The museum is doing well, attendance-wise. 

But it’s pretty quick to come back for another unexpected handout, isn’t it?

UPDATE, 7/16: PR representatives of the Perez have sent a clarification to me and, they say, to the Miami Herald — saying that “The $4 mil in county funding being discussed for FY2015 will fulfill the commitment planned for back in 2004 and 2005. This is the same commitment that the county had made to PAMM for FY2014. Unfortunately, because of a gap in the county’s funding, the county only gave the museum $2.5 million for the last fiscal year.”

However, the Herald does not seem to have changed any of its stories.

Photo Credit: A free “First Thursday” at the Perez, Henry Perez/Manny of Miami, via the Perez Museum

Judge Rules In Favor Of the DIA

Steven-Rhodes1Thank goodness: This afternoon, Judge Steven Rhodes that the Detroit creditors who pressed to remove art from the walls at the Detroit Institute of Arts to better inspect them during appraisals can’t do it. According to the Free Press,

Rhodes also denied the creditors’ motion seeking access to up to a million additional pages of historic documents about the art housed at the city-owned museum. However, Rhodes said he would allow creditors to work with DIA officials to allow access to artwork in storage at the museum.

The rulings are a setback for major bond insurers Syncora and Financial Guaranty Insurance Co. — who could collectively lose more than $1 billion in Detroit’s bankruptcy. Creditors’ attorneys are pushing for a sale of art and had asked Rhodes to compel Detroit emergency manager Kevyn Orr to consider outside bids for DIA art worth up to $2 billion from four clients aligned with creditors.

Rhodes agreed that removing the paintings would put them at risk of damage.

Photo Credit: Courtesy of the Free Press 

 

At Last: NEH To Get A New Chief

Yesterday, President Obama announced his new chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities: Dr. William “Bro” Adams, the current president of Colby College in Maine, a position he has held since 2000. Adams announced his impending retirement from Colby — in June — at the start of 2013.

bro_hires_2005Previously, Adams had been president of Bucknell University, 1995 to 2000, and before that he was vice president and secretary of Wesleyan University, 1993 to 1995. He has also been program coordinator of the “Great Works in Western Culture” program at Stanford University, from 1986 to 1988.

In making the announcement, the President cited Adams’s “demonstrated leadership and decades of experience as an administrator at major universities and liberal arts institutions” and his “clear dedication and lifelong commitment to the humanities.”

Adams has a B.A. from the Colorado College and a Ph.D. from the University of California, Santa Cruz, though the announcement did not cite what subjects he focused on. It did say he has taught at Stanford, Santa Clara University and the University of North Carolina (political philosophy at the latter two).  He also served in the Vietnam War as a First Lieutenant in the U.S. Army.  He was a Fulbright Scholar in 1977, a time during which he “conducted research at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes and the Ecole Normale Superieure in Paris.” He’s also a member of the Board of Directors of the Maine Film Center and the Maine Public Broadcasting Corporation.

I don’t see any books by him in any database/website so there seems to be little trail of his intellectual interests.

When Adams announced his retirement, Adams said he’d like to complete a book about French philosophy and art, referencing his time in Paris. He also said that he and his wife were “going to remain residents of Maine and certainly stay involved in some ways in the Waterville community.” Guess not now!

Based on this information, he seems to be an administrator rather than an intellectual powerhouse, but we shall see.

Photo credit: Courtesy of Colby College

 

More Troubles For DIA-Detroit

Another reason why the Detroit bankruptcy-Detroit Institute of Arts deal must become reality as soon as possible. On Friday, an opponent of the deal — a bond insurer named Syncora — said it was filing a subpoena “seeking all documents related to the museum’s art collection and records detailing its financial performance in a move that amplifies the tension over the DIA’s future.”

Detroit-Institute-ArtsBad news — even it if doesn’t stick. It could mean endless work for the DIA.

According to an article in the Detroit Free Press headlined Bankruptcy creditor hits DIA with massive subpoena for artwork records, Syncora is seeking:

■ Documents detailing the DIA’s donation to the city in 1919.

■ All records detailing the DIA’s collection and ownership documents on every piece.

■ All financial documents on the DIA’s annual performance, its tax records and attendance figures.

â–  Records listing all past and present members of the DIA.

â–  Internal studies on visitor trends, audience surveys and special exhibit performance.

■ All documents related to the Christie’s evaluation.

â–  Any appraisals or insurance records on DIA artwork.

â–  Any communications the city has had with the museum about selling art.

■ Documents related to the DIA nonprofit’s 1997 operating agreement with the city, which gave the nonprofit control of the building and its artwork.

■ Documents related to the DIA’s collections management policy.

â–  Records connected with the proposed transfer of the DIA and its property to the nonprofit as part of the grand bargain and bankruptcy restructuring.

 

 

Juxtapositions: Portugal, Miro, Detroit, Russian Oligarchs

The Detroit bankruptcy and the fate of the Detroit Institute of Arts is making waves in Europe, just as Kevyn Orr — the city’s emergency manager — made remarks that show, finally, he understands what might have happened. And still might, if he and Gov. Rick Snyder waver. Creditors have not yet given up hope for a sale of the art.

detroit-institute-ofThe European connection was detailed in an article posted on The New York Times website on March 26 – Portugal’s Move to Sell Miró Works Raises Debate of Preservation vs. Privatization – which referenced Portugal’s move to hold an auction, at Christie’s, of works by Joan Miró. The original sale was cancelled, although Christie’s has now said that the sale will go ahead in June. But as the NYT article noted, in a quote, the very prospect raised broader concerns:

 “The obsession with eliminating everything that is public is leading the government to go further down the privatization road, and perhaps they consider paintings to be part of the same strategy,” said Gabriela Canavilhas, a Socialist lawmaker and Portugal’s former culture minister. “But even in Detroit, which was declared bankrupt, their final decision was not to sell any art.”

And, as a gallery owner said,

“When you sell something like the electricity company or the postal service, you sell the ownership, but the services still remain here and available to citizens,” Mr. [Carlos] Cabral Nunes said. “When you auction art, you make sure nobody in Portugal will ever benefit from it, so this is an irreparable destruction of our patrimony.”

Orr, on the other hand, showed a greater understanding in his recent comments in a speech at the University of Michigan. Mentioning the possibility of a “yard sale” of the DIA’s art, he said:

If you don’t think that can happen, there are many sovereign wealthy, Russian oligarchs, Brazilian millionaires who are calling and inquiring” about art…

Read more here, in the Detroit Free Press.

The situation even now keeps changing, however, and the Freep printed a later story saying Orr was speaking metaphorically — all the better, in some ways, because it does show he gets it. The new article — here — said:

…April, there will be hearings in which creditors will have a chance to argue that the city should consider selling art to pay off its debt. While Orr remains the only actor who can sell the art in a municipal bankruptcy, creditors can apply pressure and Rhodes can refuse to approve Orr’s restructuring plan if the judge believes the city is unfairly shielding assets….

Bottom line: Until a final deal is reached between Orr and creditors that passes muster with Rhodes, the DIA remains in limbo, ready to go to court if necessary to protect its collection from Russian oligarchs, Brazilian millionaires, American collectors and dealers and anyone else looking to get in on some once-in-a-lifetime action.

That is the said truth, but Orr’s words are still a positive.