Spokane7
68°
May 26, 2011 in City
Nearly $3 million in state funds preserve MAC
The Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture will not have to close.
The museum received just under $3 million for the coming biennium as part of the state budget that was working its way through the Washington state Legislature on Wednesday.
That’s about a 5 percent cut from the museum’s current funding level. But, as museum program manager Laura Thayer said, “It’s not death.”
Earlier state spending proposals would have slashed the MAC’s funding so severely that the museum would have been forced to shut its doors and lay off almost the entire staff.
This 5 percent cut will still require the museum to reduce operations and services. Thayer said it’s too early to say where those reductions will be made. The MAC has already cut its staffing by 40 percent over the last two years.
Yet this new budget means that the MAC will at least survive. The Washington State History Museum in Tacoma, which was also threatened in earlier budget proposals, will also survive.
Ron Rector, the MAC’s executive director, said the money does not come from the state’s general fund, but from the Heritage Center fund, which had been earmarked for building a new Heritage Center museum in Olympia. Rector said this is not a money source that can be tapped again. Rector said the MAC must wean itself from state funding in the future.
“I think they (the legislators) said, ‘Here you are, guys, you have two years to figure it out,’ ” Rector said.
Rector said this cut is actually a 12 percent reduction when figured on a biennium-to-biennium basis, since the MAC already absorbed a midstream cut. Still, Rector called the outcome a “huge plus for our community.”
This news out of Olympia came just as the MAC was installing its biggest exhibit ever, “Leonardo da Vinci: Man-Inventor-Genius,” which will run June 3 through Sept. 5, and is expected to draw tens of thousands of visitors. The MAC is also gearing up for its annual outdoor art festival, ArtFest, June 3 through 5 in Coeur d’Alene Park in Browne’s Addition.
Jim Kershner’s this day in history 
bumblebar on May 26 at 6:21 a.m.
Hooray!
Ed Byrnes on May 26 at 7:58 a.m.
This is good news, I am awaiting postings against it, I wonder why one would think exposure to DaVinci the renaissance man, not the movie, is not a good thing for the public, especially children and youth. I am certain some vacuous reply will be forthcoming.
eagleproducer on May 26 at 8:13 a.m.
Why is this good news? How can anyone applaud handing three million dollars to the tax shelter of the richest family in Spokane?
More Cowles Clan welfare. What’s new?
DickAdams on May 26 at 8:19 a.m.
Correction, eagleproducer. Should read corporate welfare to the Cowles Dynasty.
eagleproducer on May 26 at 9:12 a.m.
dick: You say tomaaaahtoes, I say tomaaaayyytoes….
hawken on May 26 at 9:19 a.m.
I wonder how far that $3 million would go to save some of the teachers in District 81?
Answer: Much further. Long term education benefits are much greater than an occasional to exposure to DaVinci by the very few. Keeping even one or two teachers is a far better investment than the MAC, regardless of who owns it.
DickAdams on May 26 at 9:34 a.m.
Your right on, eagleproducer. I wanted to get in my dig against the Cowleses.
Scoutster on May 26 at 9:42 a.m.
As a relative newbie to the area, I plead ignorance of the Cowles family involvement in the ongoing operation of the MAC. I know the admin building bears the name, dunno about other capital costs?
Do they support the operating budget? Do they hire staff? What is their connection these days.
Eagle? Others?
johnclarke on May 26 at 10:18 a.m.
Oh, would these be the same overpriced union teachers that are bringing the country to it’s knees?
Yeah Scout, I don’t think the MAC is breaking the Cowles’ budget and I can’t even tell you how much they give to it. I note that the name changed probably for image.
Regardless, I’m glad the MAC is surviving I suppose. Could the money been more useful elsewhere? Dunno, I’m not a lawmaker in charge of the budget. I just want my flippin streets fixed.
mtharves on May 26 at 10:34 a.m.
Like Scoutster, I am a newbie to the area but I am a volunteer MAC greeter and I see how well used it is by more than a “few ” people. The da Vinci will draw the 10 of thousands the article suggests. The MAC houses the largest collection of Native American history in the Inland Northwest and has a historical research library that is well used.
I know nothing about the Cowles but I know we need treasures like the MAC. It’s budget has already been cut deeply and lots of staff lost their jobs and the MAC is only open W-Sat. I know 3 million is a lot of money and could be used elsewhere but I think the MAC has given enough over the last two years.
Let’s find ways to get more money in the state budget not less.
johnclarke on May 26 at 10:43 a.m.
Well I suggested fund raisers at the MAC and got shouted down. I don’t know if they do them now, but I’d probably pay a few bucks to come sip wine and look sophisticated. I was lucky enough to have access to the finest museums in the country growing up, and it’s important stuff for the kids. We don’t have the Smithsonian, Washington DC, Philadelphia etc to send our kids to. I guess we have the MAC. W-Sat.
eagleproducer on May 26 at 11:18 a.m.
The MAC used to be called The Cheney Cowles Museum. It sits on property owned by their realty arm and is used as a tax shelter for their many enterprises.
The Native American collections only came into their possession because they put the former Native American Museum (MONAC) out of business. As well, they are rarely displayed and they charge huge bank to access them in their archives. I was conducting research for a film I was producing a few years back that had the history of African Americans in the Inland Empire as its subject and the largest archive of photographs documenting that experience had been recently donated to the MAC. They wanted to charge me huge bank to view the photographs and even more huge bank to obtain their publishing rights, even though the MAC didn’t pay a dime to obtain the archive. Now I’ve discovered they wanted me to pay for something I already partially owned.
mtharves on May 26 at 11:58 a.m.
EP,
Thanks for the info. I’ll keep my eyes and ears open better in the future.
addyh on May 26 at 1:00 p.m.
Scoutster, I believe some comments here are in error. The Cowles family donated the original land for the museum and a family foundation donated the land for the new building, but I don’t believe the family has an ongoing business interest in the MAC. Individual members of the family sometimes contribute or sit on boards or committees related to the museum, but it’s no different than other individuals in the community.
Addy Hatch, city editor
Mike1950 on May 26 at 1:34 p.m.
Wow, eagleproducer, you sure throw around a lot of claims against the Cowles. Is there any chance you have any proof of what you say in this regard. If not, your future posts will be read with a lot less credibility.
eagleproducer on May 26 at 1:47 p.m.
mike: Addy said she “believes” some comments are in error but basically confirmed everything I posted. Duh?
The contributions the Cowles make to the museum are tax write offs. Their membership on the board insures they take part in arranging for a steady stream of public teet milk flowing their way. As for the other claims, I’ve lived here most of my life and paid attention. Have you? In addition, let the Cowles Clan carry their own water or let them have Addy do it for them. You’ve offered nothing to counter what I wrote other than an ill-conceived, grammar error riddled post.
eagleproducer on May 26 at 1:50 p.m.
The Cowles Clan didn’t “donate” anything. They used their “donation” to avoid paying taxes on the income the land would have generated. To claim the Cowles Clan does anything out of sheer benevolence and community concern ignores 100+ years of local history and all the confirmed information to the contrary as contained in The Fancher Report.
addyh on May 26 at 2:14 p.m.
Eagleproducer, I did not confirm anything you said. The Cowles family has no ongoing business interest in the museum.
eagleproducer on May 26 at 6:52 p.m.
Okay, Addy… I suppose it will take another “reporter” to detail (or perhaps provide tax returns and financial statements from the Cowles Trust that “donated” the land for the “new” museum) the continued tax break your employers enjoy from the MAC. In both instances of “donation” of land the taxpayers partially footed the bill. Guaranteed.
hawken on May 26 at 8:36 p.m.
Eagle;
Again, you prove yourself to be the “champion” of attributing to others things they didn’t say, things they don’t believe and things they do not support.
What’s amazing to me is that you restlessly continue the same without conscience. No matter how many times you are exposed.
I have lost track of the number of times you’ve done one or more of the above with me.
Here’s a suggestion: Just tell us what you think and stop trying to pull a non-existent, fabricated, rabbit out of the hat, to fallaciously corroborate your view.
Your failed, magical tricks only underline your desperation.
DickAdams on May 26 at 10:17 p.m.
hawken, eagle is correct on this Cowles thing. Its not the first the Spokesman Review has not investigated stuff, when the Addy Hatch`s of the newspaper play on words. Addy, I`ll give you one example which I tried for years to bring out the truth and requested the SR issue a correction but never sent me a reply. IMHO, it was a cover-up. A few years ago Judge Cozza rendered a decision which the Cowleses benefited in the case and yet Cozza either lied, or failed to read a crucial document in the case. I have copies of numerous email I sent to the SR. How do you like those apples, Addy?
misjustice on May 26 at 10:31 p.m.
You go, Dick!
; )
I am glad that the MAC is not going to be shuttered.
And I am more than a little curious about the Cowles’ connection/involvement in the museum, including possible financial gains; past and present.