Spokane7
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January 23, 2011 in City
Closure risk heightens MAC’s significance
The Museum of Arts and Culture glows with light shortly after dusk on a summer’s day in 2003.
(Full-size photo)(All photos)
“Civic cultural institution” – the very phrase conjures an air of granite-like permanence and robust health.
Yet one Spokane cultural landmark is in danger of slipping into the equivalent of a long-term coma, with no guarantee the state won’t pull the plug.
Gov. Chris Gregoire’s proposed 2011-’13 budget calls for closing Spokane’s Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture and reducing the staff from about 34.8 full-time-equivalent positions to 2.8.
The museum would become, in essence, a hulking Browne’s Addition warehouse.
“The exhibit hall would just be locked,” said Ron Rector, interim executive director.
Under this budget proposal – which is still only a proposal, pending legislative action this spring – the staff would be reduced to one maintenance person to manage the $30 million complex, plus one or two other people to take care of the 60,000 artworks, tribal objects, historical artifacts and photographs in the MAC’s collection, according to Rector. Not to mention the million-plus documents in the archives.
The budget includes no funding for security or for outdoor maintenance of the five-acre campus, he said.
“What does that do for Browne’s Addition?” said Rector. “It’s just an accident waiting to happen.”
The governor’s budget, announced in December, is only the latest blow. Two years ago, staffing was cut 40 percent and the museum reduced its hours drastically, so that it was open only Wednesdays through Saturdays. Rector said the MAC is already operating at “the absolute minimum.”
It has been a frightening free-fall for what has been Spokane’s premier art and history institution for nearly a century.
Generations of schoolchildren have toured it. It has displayed Rembrandts, Monets and Greek antiquities. It acquired the region’s most important repository of tribal cultural objects.
And only 10 years ago, the museum moved into a new, gleaming multimillion-dollar facility – built mostly with state funds.
And now, nobody is certain whether it will be open at all this time next year.
The museum staff is surprisingly optimistic about the future. In fact, they are planning exhibits all the way through 2016 – the institution’s centennial – including two especially big ones.
The first is a touring exhibit titled “Leonardo da Vinci: Man-Inventor-Genius,” scheduled from June 3 through Labor Day, which will feature large-scale, handcrafted replicas of da Vinci’s inventions, including a “flying machine” and “naval cannon.”
This will be coupled with a related exhibit, “Leonardo da Vinci: Man-Artist-Genius,” which will feature replicas of his paintings, including “Mona Lisa” and “Last Supper.”
The staff predicts it will draw between 40,000 and 50,000 visitors, rivaling the Tyrannosaurus rex exhibit in 2007.
The da Vinci exhibit is not in doubt – the governor’s budget calls for closing the museum right after it ends.
The MAC staff also is pursuing plans for a major traveling exhibit of Impressionist paintings next October, including works by Renoir, Pissarro and Manet. And there are at least three more exhibits in planning stages, on Inland Northwest history, the Plateau Indian cultures and botanist David Douglas.
They’re forging ahead because … well, because it’s their job. But they are also doing so because they are confident that the Legislature will, in the end, allow them to stay open.
“I think the state has a moral obligation to preserve the history of the state,” Rector said.
“The whole point of creating a repository is so that people could have access to it,” said Laura Thayer, the museum’s program manager.
This issue gets especially sensitive when it comes to the tens of thousands of Indian objects in the collection.
“From a cultural point of view, those things are part of their family,” said Rector. “And we’re telling them they can’t have access to their cultural artifacts?”
Yet the state’s budget crisis is so vast, nobody expects the museum to remain immune. The staff takes considerable comfort in the fact that it already survived a 21 percent funding cut – and made the best of it.
“We took that as an opportunity to reinvent ourselves,” Thayer said. “We wanted the museum to be a cultural hub. We had to reorganize and stop doing things that weren’t important to the community and do things that were. I think we’re succeeding – people are telling us how much fun our exhibits are.”
One success story has been BeGin, a once-a-month museum “happy hour” event which has been drawing around 300 people each time, mostly a younger crowd. Attendees buy cocktails, listen to music and cruise the museum exhibits.
The latest BeGin event, on Jan. 14, featured a new presence: volunteers from Save the MAC, a new organization supporting the museum.
“People are angry and concerned and what they really want to know is, ‘How can we help?’ ” said Chris Schnug, a Save the MAC volunteer and also president of the museum’s board. “The answer is, ‘Be heard.’ ”
By the end of the evening, the group had signed up almost 100 people for a grass-roots letter-writing campaign to legislators. (Their website is SavetheMAC.org.)
Museums all over the country have struggled during the recession, because both corporate and private philanthropy have fallen. The American Association of Museums cites a survey that reports more than a quarter of all museums are under “severe” or “very severe” financial stress. More than half say they now “lack adequate staffing to deliver programs and services.”
However, most museums are not state-funded and not directly affected by the wave of state budget crises sweeping the country.
The MAC is in an especially difficult position, since more than half its budget – $1.6 million – comes from the state. The remaining $1.2 million comes from local sources, including admissions, memberships, donations and an endowment.
In rough terms, the state money pays for the staff and the local money pays for exhibits. If the state funding vanishes, the museum closes and most of the local money will also disappear. It’s hard to sell memberships to a padlocked institution.
The MAC is not alone – the governor’s budget also calls for closing the Washington State History Museum in Tacoma.
So Rector, who testified at a legislative hearing Thursday, is lobbying hard in Olympia, using a number of arguments:
First, that after factoring in severance payoffs, security costs and lost revenues, closing the MAC will not save nearly as much money as the state predicts. Second, that Spokane, unlike Tacoma, has no other big museums within hundreds of miles. The third argument is the “moral obligation” one.
The latter is particularly touchy at a time when libraries, health care programs, schools and poverty programs are also facing cuts. Is a museum more important?
“We have an exquisite dilemma,” said Ben Mitchell, the MAC’s senior curator of art. “It leaves us vulnerable, rightfully so, for people to say we need to care for the poor and for health programs.”
Yet Mitchell argues that a healthy community is made of three crucial components, like the three points of a triangle.
“No. 1, you take care of people, those who have less,” he said. “No. 2, a healthy community has clean air and clean water. The third point of the triangle is this: A healthy community preserves and celebrates its culture and celebrates all of the acts of the human imagination.”
Meanwhile, Rector knows exactly what his mission must be if the museum survives: to wean the MAC from state funding over the next few years.
“I would love to be independent from the state,” he said. “… The key is to build the endowment so it’s large enough to support the operation. ”
An especially tough task, if the building goes dark.
Jim Kershner’s this day in history 
Scoutster on January 23 at 5:32 a.m.
The MAC operates about as lean as it can right now and still be a credible and viable operation. These folks are amazingly dedicated and skilled at what they do.
It is up to us to defend this repository of culture. Imagine how much poorer our great great grandchildren would be without us investing in this today.
Keeping the MAC going is a no-brainer.
eagleproducer on January 23 at 8:41 a.m.
pfffttt… If the most wealthy family in Spokane can’t keep their tax write-off subsidized by the taxpayers they’ll close the doors. That’s what is happening here despite the obviously biased reporting from their newspaper.
But we are told how generous the wealthy and conservatives are… they always step up in these times of need to preserve cultural organization.
Step up and write a check, Betsy.
Don_Barbieri on January 23 at 9:05 a.m.
“I think the state has a moral obligation to preserve the history of the state,” Rector said
Actually the health care and education of our State’s children are really more important and fundamental to the State’s future success. As this paper knows, I backed 1098 to raise literally billions of dollars for health care and education from those of us who can afford to pay more…the 2% of the best paid, most fortunate. The voters turned it down, worried, likely, that the tax would be extended to other income groups. The state legislature can put a measure in front of the voters that guarantees others would not be taxed & ask the voters to reconsider 1098. The state needs the revenues to do the basic things first & then hopefully continue funding great efforts like the MAC.
johnclarke on January 23 at 9:44 a.m.
“The Spokesman-Review announced its opposition to I-1098 in an editorial written on September 26th, 2010. The paper’s editorial board wrote, “Washington state needs a more favorable business climate to create jobs and a stable tax base. Tax reform should be comprehensive, revenue-neutral and constitutional. I-1098, despite the good intentions behind it, is a backward approach. If I-1098 passes, it is Washington state that will get dunked, and it won’t be anything to smile about”
Well then, I guess the MAC is just one of those things we’ll have to live without.
ZagChuck on January 23 at 10:27 a.m.
@ Don B
“The voters turned it down, worried, likely, that the tax would be extended to other income groups. The state legislature can put a measure in front of the voters that guarantees others would not be taxed & ask the voters to reconsider 1098.”
“Worried likely.” Nice spin, wrong audience.
“ask the voter to reconsider…” The same way Lisa Brown asked us? First by suing us to raise our taxes, and when that failed by a unanimous supreme court ruling, she simply gathered your Democrat party friends and voted to toss out I960.
I know I wasn’t asked to reconsider either of those, and your Democrat party has made it abundantly clear, the voice of the people shall be ignored.
Here’s just one of a least a thousand reasons why we were “likely worried” about huge tax increases by an out of control, over-taxing, and overspending Democrat controlled government.
In November, 1053 passed with an overwhelming 63% vote, limiting our state for the 4th time in the manner in which it can raise our taxes. Why the 4th time? Because three times already, the democrat controlled house and senate in Olympia have decided to ignore the voice of the people, and circumvent the initiatives that limit their spending habits.
Now here we are, just 77 days into a new session, and the Democrat controlled house and senate are already working on ways to circumvent 1053.
Yet apparently we should’ve just trusted the government to and the legislature to limit itself….. What a laughably preposterous thought.
Once again, you are on the wrong side of the voters.
Government has expanded too much, and we can no longer afford it. Time to make cuts, not grow programs. Perhaps one day you’ll understand government is NOT the answer, I still have hope for you.
Until then, it’s time to start making deep cuts. Currently the Dems are trying to cut as many noticeable things as possible, so they can later ask voters for more money via a referendum. Once again, the democrat leaders will fail to do the job their jobs and provide us with a balanced budget.
I’m only thankful 1098 failed, or else it we would all be getting notices of our new income tax for people making more than $25,000.
You can deny it, but history and facts are simply NOT on your side.
dana091 on January 23 at 12:47 p.m.
I remember going there as a kid with my class on field trips. Instead of the Governor cutting the budget for the museums, why doesn’t she and rest of the politicians and their staff take a pay cut. Maybe then the budget will be balanced and health care, schools, etc would not have to close or cut back. Let the Governor and the rest live on what the average taxpayer lives on. And do this for more then a week and not be able to go home to their mansions each night.
polistra on January 23 at 1:06 p.m.
MAC is a luxury, primarily to make rich folks feel good. Let rich folks pay for it. General tax funds should be used for services that benefit everyone … or at least every class if not every individual.
bumblebeetuna on January 23 at 2:00 p.m.
Lulz. Museum is greater than a race track. Local funds rather than state funds should be operating this baby. The children of Spokane are the real losers if the MAC closes. If we want a museum we need to fight for it. The alternative is to become the cultural wasteland that the rest of the country already thinks we are. But hey, if we get some nascar races or whatever all our problems will be solved.
bumblebeetuna on January 23 at 2:02 p.m.
Polistra, what are services that benefit everyone? Everyone can go to a museum, no?
zelda on January 23 at 3:58 p.m.
I’d hate to see the MAC close but this is shaping up to be a case of socio-economic resentment and class warfare. It’s the dog in the manger scenario.
I predict the real assessment of wallet-strain will come Feb. 8 with the CV School District’s improvement and construction bond measure. If public education capital improvement aren’t supported, I don’t think there’s much emotional attachment to a museum.
It’s all-around sad what things have come to.
spokanecougar on January 23 at 5:52 p.m.
I dont get the same people on here saying to keep the MAC open are the same one complaining about not wanting to pay higher taxes. Poop in one hand and wish in the other and see what happens.
Betty on January 23 at 6:17 p.m.
It is outrageous to me that all the years I have lived here, I didn’t know the extent of the funding for the MAC by the state. That is something that we can control now and I wonder why the contents can’t be stored in the State Archives in Cheney as when that was built in the last few years it was supposed to have a large amount of storage. With the Regional Archives so close I think the only thing folks are worried about keeping open for sure is the Campbell house and it should pay for itself and as to what will happen to Brown’s Addition, I imagine that it won’t change much and might even enjoy the lessened traffic in that area of narrow streets.
zelda on January 23 at 8:15 p.m.
Since this country seems to have slid back to an economic system akin to the mid- to late-19th century, maybe we also ought to reinstitute arts patronage. Do away with all public funding.
That’s how the great museums and art collections came into being. So where are today’s Fricks and Gettys and Vanderbuilts and Fords? They can use their own wealth to sponsor the artistic talent, construct the buildings, acquire the collections and maintain the art works. (Except a lot of them aren’t all that into art and would rather have a sports team or tinker with education experiments.)
God forbid that any corporate foundations use shareholders’ money for this purpose. Libertarian CEOs and board members mostly see this as misuse of the company’s money unless they founded the company.
So we’re back to the patronage system and that makes the public captive to the tastes and whims of the super-wealthy. There is no shortage of billionaires who want to indulge themselves and leave their mark on society, but the project has to be their brainchild and carry their personal “brand.” That works fine for big cities and regions that have high concentrations of the super-wealthy, but not so much for small cities like Spokane.
ZagChuck on January 24 at 5:30 a.m.
Between February 2009, Obama’s first full month in office, and June 2010, the number of private-sector jobs dropped from 110.3 million to 107.7 million, a decrease of nearly 2.7 million. In the same period, the number of federal government workers rose from 2,792,000 to 3,171,000, an increase of 379,000. (BLS)
When more mouths gather to suckle at the teat of govt, eventually there is no milk to give.
Don_Barbieri on January 24 at 9:47 a.m.
A good discussion prompted by this story on a wonderful institution that has been heavily supported by a generous family for decades. The struggle for the right balance of taxes & parity of taxation will continue and the consolidation of institutions, agencies, not for profits etc will be evident as supporters look for what safety net funding gets the right priority. The dialogue on all of this is good and needed. We should welcome our elected leaders to set up the forums for discussion remembering the quality of life in our State and Inland Northwest is what all of us want.
MrNatural on January 24 at 11:09 a.m.
I enjoy the MAC and the various exhibits that are featured during the year. I think it is a wonderful experience for all especially our school children. It is a true shame that society has been rendered so that this institution is at risk for closure. That being said I must concur that the MAC even with the inspiration to the arts and culture it provides weighs separately from basic needs such as food, shelter, public safety and infrastructure.
One can say that without arts and culture what good is society as a whole. Thinking about same I consider why humans, even under great strain still express themselves through artistic ways. For instance during the Great Depression the arts still flourished and people flocked to the theatre for reasons of escape, hope, inspiration or whatever to keep moving along during hard times. Hard to put a finger on it but the arts and culture are in ways seemingly essential to our spirit, to our souls.
Still again we have this problem of triage with our limited funding and we cannot neglect real basic human necessities…but maybe we are not as limited in other resources. Maybe more people could volunteer. Maybe the Tribes can contribute. Maybe we as a community can come together and solve this problem and preserve what is good about us.