11-21-2018, 06:48 PM
(11-16-2018, 10:55 AM)Spokes Wrote:Quote:Two years. That's how long TheMuseum CEO David Marskell says his organization has unless big changes occur in the local arts and culture sector.
"Status quo, we will bleed out in two years and we will be gone," Marskell said during a stakeholder meeting with the local arts community held at TheMuseum on Wednesday evening. "That's not meant to alarm, that is our reality and we don't want that to happen."
Quote:The organization has three options — maintain the status quo and disappear, scale back operations or expand into the adjoining bank property and create a community space that attracts artists from across the region.
The first two options aren't acceptable, the CEO said, and it was the third option he wanted to explore during the public meeting this week, held in the main floor atrium of TheMuseum. It was attended by nearly 150 people from the local arts community and a few local politicians.
A proposed museum expansion into the adjoining BMO bank building was first announced in May. The bank will donate $1 million to TheMuseum and enter a sole purchaser agreement to give the organization enough time to raise the additional $2 million needed to buy the building.
According to a fundraising feasibility report completed for TheMuseum, it could cost as much as $15 million to build a new space in the area occupied by the bank. The hope is to secure as much as 73 per cent of that cost — $10.95 million — from the federal and provincial government.
All told, the total project could cost in excess of $25 million to buy the bank, rebuild it, furnish it and establish a $5-million endowment fund.
Scary to think that TheMuseum could shut down.
I think a bit part of it is the public and leaders deciding what the overall vision is for both the arts community and the city as a whole and then acting accordingly.
Scary time to be looking to the Province for millions of dollars as well. I hope they succeed.