Open Forum

After completing the recent sale of an asset, our Foundation is contemplating the creation of an "art acquisition and care fund" for the museum we support. The idea would be to seed a fund with an initial six-figure gift -- and begin using it as a new fundraising program to provide future funds for the museum to 1) purchase new art for their permanent collection; and/or 2) care for items currently in the museum's collection. (No such acquisition nor care fund currently exists for our museum, btw.)

Some board members love this idea... others aren't sure. The sticking point appears to be that such a fund would need a lot of contributions and a long time to gestate in order to generate annual revenues that could have a meaningful impact. (Because we likely would only ever draw down about 5-ish percent annually.) Of course, the counter argument to that is if you don't start somewhere you'll never get anywhere.

My questions: Does your museum have an art acquisition fund that you actively fundraise for? If you do have a fund... how popular of an offering is it among your supporters? On the other hand, if it's something you've considered but chosen not to pursue, why not?

Interestingly, a peer at another museum recently suggested that they aren't interested in such a fund, because they expect to receive a huge amount of donated art in the next decade or two, as baby boomers age and look for homes for their collections. In other words, they don't want to allocate funds for art acquisitions, because they expect to be flooded by new art in the coming years. (If you have a perspective on THAT, by the way, I'd also be interested in hearing your thoughts.)

Thanks in advance for any perspectives or insights you can provide!

------------------------------
Andrew Rodgers
Executive Director
Albuquerque Museum
Albuquerque NM
------------------------------

Dear Andrew,

I can't speak to establishing a new 'acquisition and care' fund; all of the institutions where I have worked - both here and abroad - have had such funds for decades.  Which I suppose in itself is an answer to that particular question.

However, the major reason I am responding is to caution against relying upon gifts or donations from older collectors looking to house their objects, unless you already have legal agreements in place for such bequests.  One of my duties at a previous position I held in London involved giving tours to potential donors, although I wasn't responsible for the final negotiations.  The vast majority of potential donors left our institution very excited and full of promises about future donations.

Over time I learned to view these promises with some reserve, however.  Many times we were informed that the potential heirs to an estate had voiced some disagreement with the donation plans: some wanted to keep the objects within the family, some wanted their objects to go to a smaller institution where they would be more visible (I worked for the largest museum in the nation), whilst others wished to sell them for the highest price possible.  These are all completely understandable reasons, of course.  And more often than not, the objects offered to us were inappropriate for our collections; they could be family objects with a lot of sentimental value but little historical significance, less-valuable duplicates of something that we already held, or in such drastic need of conservation that it would be cost-prohibitive to acquire them.  But mostly I have found that absent a standing legal agreement or statement of intent, many changed their minds in favour of legacies to their family members or heirs.

As I said, this former institution was a major and very well-known one, so these issues may have been amplified there.  However, I have seen the same thing repeated at other locations, albeit on a smaller scale.  Which is not to say that donations and bequests don't happen, of course.  Just that I would be very hesitant about relying on future gifts that have not yet been formalised.

Hope this helps!

Sarah

------------------------------
Sarah J Biggs
Collections Curator
Saint Louis Art Museum
Saint Louis, Missouri
United States
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 10-11-2021 10:42 PM
From: Andrew Rodgers
Subject: Art Acquisition Fund

After completing the recent sale of an asset, our Foundation is contemplating the creation of an "art acquisition and care fund" for the museum we support. The idea would be to seed a fund with an initial six-figure gift -- and begin using it as a new fundraising program to provide future funds for the museum to 1) purchase new art for their permanent collection; and/or 2) care for items currently in the museum's collection. (No such acquisition nor care fund currently exists for our museum, btw.)

Some board members love this idea... others aren't sure. The sticking point appears to be that such a fund would need a lot of contributions and a long time to gestate in order to generate annual revenues that could have a meaningful impact. (Because we likely would only ever draw down about 5-ish percent annually.) Of course, the counter argument to that is if you don't start somewhere you'll never get anywhere.

My questions: Does your museum have an art acquisition fund that you actively fundraise for? If you do have a fund... how popular of an offering is it among your supporters? On the other hand, if it's something you've considered but chosen not to pursue, why not?

Interestingly, a peer at another museum recently suggested that they aren't interested in such a fund, because they expect to receive a huge amount of donated art in the next decade or two, as baby boomers age and look for homes for their collections. In other words, they don't want to allocate funds for art acquisitions, because they expect to be flooded by new art in the coming years. (If you have a perspective on THAT, by the way, I'd also be interested in hearing your thoughts.)

Thanks in advance for any perspectives or insights you can provide!

------------------------------
Andrew Rodgers
Executive Director
Albuquerque Museum
Albuquerque NM
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 10/12/2021 8:08:00 AM
From: Sarah Biggs
Subject: RE: Art Acquisition Fund

Dear Andrew,

I can't speak to establishing a new 'acquisition and care' fund; all of the institutions where I have worked - both here and abroad - have had such funds for decades.  Which I suppose in itself is an answer to that particular question.

However, the major reason I am responding is to caution against relying upon gifts or donations from older collectors looking to house their objects, unless you already have legal agreements in place for such bequests.  One of my duties at a previous position I held in London involved giving tours to potential donors, although I wasn't responsible for the final negotiations.  The vast majority of potential donors left our institution very excited and full of promises about future donations.

Over time I learned to view these promises with some reserve, however.  Many times we were informed that the potential heirs to an estate had voiced some disagreement with the donation plans: some wanted to keep the objects within the family, some wanted their objects to go to a smaller institution where they would be more visible (I worked for the largest museum in the nation), whilst others wished to sell them for the highest price possible.  These are all completely understandable reasons, of course.  And more often than not, the objects offered to us were inappropriate for our collections; they could be family objects with a lot of sentimental value but little historical significance, less-valuable duplicates of something that we already held, or in such drastic need of conservation that it would be cost-prohibitive to acquire them.  But mostly I have found that absent a standing legal agreement or statement of intent, many changed their minds in favour of legacies to their family members or heirs.

As I said, this former institution was a major and very well-known one, so these issues may have been amplified there.  However, I have seen the same thing repeated at other locations, albeit on a smaller scale.  Which is not to say that donations and bequests don't happen, of course.  Just that I would be very hesitant about relying on future gifts that have not yet been formalised.

Hope this helps!

Sarah

------------------------------
Sarah J Biggs
Collections Curator
Saint Louis Art Museum
Saint Louis, Missouri
United States
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 10-11-2021 10:42 PM
From: Andrew Rodgers
Subject: Art Acquisition Fund

After completing the recent sale of an asset, our Foundation is contemplating the creation of an "art acquisition and care fund" for the museum we support. The idea would be to seed a fund with an initial six-figure gift -- and begin using it as a new fundraising program to provide future funds for the museum to 1) purchase new art for their permanent collection; and/or 2) care for items currently in the museum's collection. (No such acquisition nor care fund currently exists for our museum, btw.)

Some board members love this idea... others aren't sure. The sticking point appears to be that such a fund would need a lot of contributions and a long time to gestate in order to generate annual revenues that could have a meaningful impact. (Because we likely would only ever draw down about 5-ish percent annually.) Of course, the counter argument to that is if you don't start somewhere you'll never get anywhere.

My questions: Does your museum have an art acquisition fund that you actively fundraise for? If you do have a fund... how popular of an offering is it among your supporters? On the other hand, if it's something you've considered but chosen not to pursue, why not?

Interestingly, a peer at another museum recently suggested that they aren't interested in such a fund, because they expect to receive a huge amount of donated art in the next decade or two, as baby boomers age and look for homes for their collections. In other words, they don't want to allocate funds for art acquisitions, because they expect to be flooded by new art in the coming years. (If you have a perspective on THAT, by the way, I'd also be interested in hearing your thoughts.)

Thanks in advance for any perspectives or insights you can provide!

------------------------------
Andrew Rodgers
Executive Director
Albuquerque Museum
Albuquerque NM
------------------------------