Sunday’s arts story: Taubman Museum of Art still struggles to fill budget gap
The Taubman’s latest 990 tax filing and annual audit are included with the story, or you can download the 990 by clicking here and the audit by clicking here.
I’d love to hear more from folks about what you think the Taubman can do to achieve the goals it’s set. The museum has made progress, but it’s still an uphill climb. — MikeA
Three years after its grand opening, Roanoke’s Taubman Museum of Art still doesn’t earn enough in revenue to cover its operating expenses.
While the museum has narrowed the hole in its budget from a shortfall of $3.3 million in its first year to an estimate of about $400,000 in this fiscal year, it’s thanks to the generosity of 10 benefactors that it’s not in the red.
The donors floated loans prior to the Taubman’s opening that were used to pay off the museum’s construction debt and allow the museum to devote all its funds to operations. Yet despite layoffs, cutbacks and membership drives to increase revenue, those donors won’t be getting their money back.
The museum has been using incoming donations originally earmarked for paying back those donor loans to patch its annual revenue hole. The individuals and foundations who helped the Taubman pay off the building have agreed to the arrangement, Executive Director David Mickenberg said. Yet he knows it’s not a viable long-term solution.
The scheduled pledges last only through 2017. “These funds are finite and will need to be raised by the museum from new and expanded future support,” Mickenberg said.
January 8, 2012 - 12:27 AM
I have been expecting articles like this for the museum for some time. While I can appreciate the attempt to bring more awareness and variety to the wonderful art community here in the city, the building itself has always sort of reminded me of a ‘visitor’ for lack of a better word. Like a cousin or friend from a bigger city, never really able to fit in with the locals. And I wonder what will become of such a ‘unique’ (for lack of a better word….) building when it is no longer used for its original purpose.
The museum was never interested in serving the region – particularly
Lynchburg – vs. the local elite. Putting aside the “Gehry-ishness” of
the new building, it was an absurd overinvestment. We are lucky the
Jeff Center survives but it takes priority over the Taubman for $.
I’m torn on this issue….
First…when the Art Museum held various fundraisers, while attending one I noticed that the entertainment/gaming company wasn’t from Roanoke…or ever the surrounding area. I couldn’t believe that a nonprofit group, wanting local support, wouldn’t support local businesses!
What a slap in the face!
Then a comment made by the new director of the museum, shortly after he started…(I don’t remember the exact words, but it was something like this)….in reference to the museums money troubles and how/who they were going to approach for support….
‘it’s not fair for those who donated money to building a new museum to shrug their responsibilities….they should help continue the ongoing operations and upkeep’
To me that was a slap in the face to those who donated…..PERIOD!
It’s like the Salvation Army going to people the following year and guilting them into donating because it’s not fair that they helped us last year and didn’t the next.
I think the art museum has its place, but I personally feel that they don’t support the community, they are stuffy and overpriced for facility rentals to community groups. I don’t wish them to fail, but I find it hard to support them.
When will the blue blood snobs of this SMALL TOWN realize that this gross waste of space and money was a mistake from the first tenant they evicted to make way for its landing? (I will not use the word construction to describe the monstrosity that has marred the skyline of downtown Roanoke like a boil on the butt of an ass.) We are NOT in Sydney. We are NOT in New York City. We are Not in Asheville. This is Roanoke, Virginia. We continue to live here because it remains virtually untouched by the ludicrous ideas so readily embraced by the big city influence. Whatever pipe dream came to fruition when this thing was forced upon us needs to be quashed. It didn’t work. It wasn’t going to work. It NEVER will work. Tear it down and put things back as they were. We have a civic center. We have the Jefferson Center. We have multi-million dollar homes in which the people who wish to see them may hang and display all the paintings and sculptures – and otherwise worthless heaps of someone’s manifestation of their mental illness – that their hearts’ desire. Never have I seen a bigger representation of just what money can do. But while their noses were in the clouds looking down on the little people, they forgot that they needed them to make it happen as well as to make it work. Admit defeat. Admit that your check books can’t buy a solution to this one folks. Billy’s Ritz made more money in one weekend than you’ve generated the whole time you’ve been open. You should have jumped at the chance to rent the old Wal-Mart building on 220. But then that would be a more aesthetically pleasing place to visit. You should be punished for defacing our city and selling its citizens a bill of goods.
I do believe the building will eventually be considered a unique asset for Roanoke. However, I am skeptical of the current staff.
I telephoned this year to see if the Taubman might be interested in some artwork I was willing to donate. Nothing great – some sketches by set designers of the Metropolitan Opera in NYC – and the acquisitions people made me feel like they were doing me a favor by even considering the donation. Consequently, I called the Indiana University Art Museum in Bloomington (IU having the largest university opera house in the nation), and the staff there immediately made me feel like I was offering to donate the crown jewels. What a difference! Of course, the sketches were sent to the IUAM.
It doesn’t cost anything to be polite and welcoming. A shame the Taubman staff does not appreciate that.
So the trail of red ink is as wide as ever. From the article, I see the condescending attitude towards potential customers is the same as ever, too. I see the failure to connect and utilize cohesive marketing is still there. But hey! Another town hall meeting, where people will not be allowed to vent, unless it is the ‘right’ kind of complaints, will be held in february. At which time, the museum and their blindered defenders will return to ignoring Roanoke area sensibilities in their desire to be cosmopolitan.
The only relevant question is – when does the wrecking ball arrive? Now THAT would bring a crowd of people willing to pay to see it!
I have to ask what do comments like “ignoring Roanoke area sensibilities in their desire to be cosmopolitan” as well as Tim’s comments regarding looking down at “the little people” mean? I don’t ask this to be smug, but out of sincere interest. I have never found the art at the museum to be inaccessible. While the museum does feature a lot of contemporary and abstract pieces I can’t recall any of them that I would describe as challenging or offensive. I just don’t get what it is that some people want the Taubman to be. More figurative work? Landscapes? Illustrations? Pop art? Folk art? Race car designs? Graphic art? You don’t like the design, we get it, we get it, we get it. But that building is here to stay. Period. End of story. It will either stay here as an empty eye sore and massive economic failure that will ensure they our community will not see any meaningful cultural investment for decades to come or it will stay here as a hub for artistic engagement and interaction within this community.
Unlike most others, I think the building is a possible attraction for the area. It really is better than a parking lot – too bad it is in such a bizarre location. Sadly, it seems to me that for such a massive building, there is very little exhibition area. I’m led to believe there are tons of offices and classrooms on other floors, but these don’t do much to attract patrons. The huge sterile lobby is not very welcoming – too bad it’s in the flood plain and apparently can’t be used for any exhibition of any monetary value. Is the auditorium ever used? What’s in the huge area that was going to be an Imax theater? I just wish they would increase the gallery space and add tons of exhibits. I think that the disconnect seems to be that they don’t target their exhibits to their constituency. (Maybe a display of NASCAR art would attract viewers.) Was any survey ever done to determine what sort of exhibits would attract visitors? What works with other art museums? When you need a bunch of money, popularity will be more important than artistic sophistication. A standing gallery for rotations of local art would seem to be reasonable. They will obviously never be able to afford world-class art, so make it up in volume. Finally, is there ever any way the public at large will gain access to the prominent balcony, or is that just reserved for the landed gentry – just to play on the general impression that the museum caters only to those typically characterized as Roanoke’s elite.