This is a terrible situation, for sure.
I have long ago advocated and run profitable museums that bonus each year numerous times and make all of their own money. When you make all of your own money from profits and sales you never again need:
1. Panhandling
2. Grants
3. Endowment
4. Donations, annuities, stocks as gifts
5. Allotments from civil entities such as municipal, county, or state.
Although these five items are excellent to have, obtain, receive and get (they certainly can be pursued) removing them from the core budget of buildings, payroll, utilities, insurance, and bonus checks is paramount. In 2008 our Speaker of the House in NC reflected with me about the then economic holocaust and dozens of state-owned museums closing and laying off hundreds. They had to decide to fund schools, prisons, or the arts and could do two out of three.
I related to him that we provide a turkey, ham, champagne, bonus, and chocolates for Thanksgiving every year and in addition to being a for-profit function are constantly coming up with innovative ways to make money. After all, our colleagues enjoy their bonus checks!
I realize that many in our field find our advocacy outrageous and
that society should pay for the arts via public funds from the general ledger of towns, counties, and states - not to mention federal funds (I for one do not should on people). But then they continue to find themselves in these situations of open horror, bankruptcy, jobless torture for deserving and kind team members now cast out on the streets, and being cut-off from new leaders who have no love for the arts and museums budgets.
Why some find it sickening to be responsible and profitable, to give raises and bonus checks, without begging town hall - I will never know. When you turn a profit and provide surplus monies to the trustees - you just watch how happy they get. In the case of publicly owned museums - when they are a source of income for a town - you just watch how much they are loved.
These things could lay the groundwork for a better relationship with your city leaders. Especially when you show them a three-year plan to become profitable. I am wishing you luck, love, and care.
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Thank you, from Marti
Martin CJ Mongiello, MBA, MA, MCFE.
CEO and CMO at The United States Presidential Service Center Foundation Trusts and US Presidential Culinary Museum. White House Military Office badge number 14592, 301 Cleveland Avenue, Grover, NC 28073
001 (704) 937-2940
www.PresidentialServiceCenter.orgwww.PresidentialCulinaryMuseum.orgGM of The Inn of the Patriots country inn
www.TheInnofthePatriots.com"Enjoy a night at the museum!"
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Original Message:
Sent: 05-08-2020 06:29 PM
From: Aubrey Hobart
Subject: Urgent Assistance Requested
Museum Colleagues,
I work for a medium-sized municipal art museum in a small community in the Southwest. Our City Manager has long been hostile to our institution, seeing it as an unnecessary drain on the City's resources, and is now using the pandemic situation as an excuse to take drastic action.
First our budget was frozen for the remainder of this fiscal year and preemptively slashed by 20% for next year which left us just enough to cover salaries for our 16 staff members, utilities, and perhaps insurance - nothing else. Then we were told we would need to reimagine our service model, eliminating all events, programs, exhibits, and activities, and cutting one-third to one-half of our staff positions. We have a facility of 50,000 square feet and 10,000 objects in our collection but should be able to operate with any amount of staff and/or budget, we were told. Our Director did her best, coming up with a new plan and budget that eliminated several positions but she's also been frantically writing grants to try to make up the difference and save any jobs she can. Today, after refusing to meet with us and without even looking at the new plan, the City Manager began enquiring about the "value" of our collections. A reliable source then overheard a conversation at City Hall that he wants the museum closed for good and the collection sold or stored indefinitely.
This is a man who has refused to allow any City employee to work from home during the pandemic and reassigned all but two of our staff to essential frontline positions to keep them "busy". Though we, like any museum, have plenty of work we can do while we're closed, our professional staff is now working at the water department, police station, and landfill, being crowded together in small offices and working directly with the public with no protective equipment.
I'm sorry for the long message, but I'm getting somewhat desperate to save our 80 year old institution - one of the last four Federal Art Centers in existence. It's a source of real pride for a community that has little else going for it. Our collection is irreplaceable and contains many big-name artists as well as the full archives of several regionally important artists.
So, does anyone know of any resources that I can draw on in this absurd situation? How can I convince him that this course of action is unacceptable? Unfortunately, our legal counsel works for the City.
Please, if you know of anything that might help, share it here!
Thank you.