Ocean State museums fight for survival

With extensive renovations completed, the recently reopened Warwick Museum of Art now faces an even bigger challenge that’s shared by museums nationwide – raising enough money to ensure it can stay open.
“The only reason this museum has been open this many years is due to the volunteer base we have and a very active board of directors,” said Michelle Place-Gleason, president of the board of directors of the museum, founded in 1976. Volunteers and directors, who are not paid for their service, she said, put in hours maintaining or improving the museum.
The first comprehensive government report on public financing of museums confirms Place-Gleason’s assessment of how meager funding can be. Released in December, the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) study found “no consistent pattern of public support across the museum sector.” Compared with other states, Rhode Island consistently ranked near the bottom when it comes to museum funding from government sources, according to the report.
As a proportion of total institutional revenue, government support of U.S. museums ranged between 7 percent and 33 percent, the study said. “However, when government-administered museums are removed from the analysis, the highest proportion of public support drops to 24 percent,” according to the study. It was based on more than 1,000 survey respondents and more than 100 interviews with individuals across the country.
Located on Post Road near City Hall, the Warwick museum currently has an annual operating budget of just $30,000. “We’re pretty frugal,” Place-Gleason admitted recently. The local museum charges no admission fees and relies on fundraising activities and donations.
The Warwick museum closed for renovations just after Christmas and reopened April 25.
At the Rhode Island Historical Society (RIHS), which operates two museums in Providence and Woonsocket among other properties, the story is similar. Donations make up approximately 30 percent of its annual operating budget, now at $1.7 million, according to Bernard P. Fishman, executive director. Grants from private foundations and government entities, sales and admission fees, and endowment proceeds make up most of the rest. Founded in 1822, the historical society is the fourth-oldest such group in the nation.
At both the historical society and the Warwick museum, reductions in state and local funding have taken a toll in recent months. The Warwick museum lost “anywhere between one-half and one-third” of its budget, Place-Gleason said, when city and state funding were reduced this year. As a result, the executive director’s hours were cut from 30 to 20 hours per week, she said.
Place-Gleason is hopeful the city will restore at least some of the $7,000 it cut from the museum. “We’ll take anything,” she said.
At the historical society, which operates the John Brown House in Providence and the Museum of Work & Culture in Woonsocket, government funding now makes up approximately 7 percent of its operating budget, Fishman said.
Recent cuts in funding from the state and Woonsocket for the historical society led to the closing of the Woonsocket museum one day each week, reduced hours for six staff members, pay cuts for two staffers (including himself, he said), and leaving vacant open positions such as assistant curator, according to Fishman.
The IMLS study found that the United States is home to a remarkable diversity of museums, ranging from art museums to children’s museums, historic houses like the Brown house, nature centers, zoos and aquariums. Slightly more than 70 percent, the study said, are private nonprofits, with the rest publicly owned and managed by various forms of government. Less than 1 percent of all museums in the nation are for-profit.
The study zeroed in on programs of federal support, such as the IMLS, the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities and the National Science Foundation, as well as congressional earmarks.
From fiscal years 2000 through 2006, Rhode Island museums received: $718,433 from the IMLS (ranking 44th out of the 50 states in dollar amount); nothing from the NSF; $26,264 from the NEA; $630,605 from the NEH (consisting mostly of $590,972 in 2000).
The four federal funding sources provided a total of 34 grants to museums in the state from 2000 through 2006, a figure that puts Rhode Island in 44th place nationwide, ahead of West Virginia (19), Arkansas (23), North Dakota (28), Mississippi and Nevada (both 31), Hawaii and Idaho (both 32). States receiving the most grants were New York (670), California (463), Massachusetts (310) and Pennsylvania (300).
On a per capita basis for fiscal year 2006 funding, Rhode Island ranked 48th at $3.10, followed by Arkansas at $2.90 and Oregon, $1.40. Private foundation grants awarded on a competitive basis are essential to keep museums operating in Rhode Island and elsewhere, directors say, and odds are good that the current economy will make competition for these awards more intense than ever. Grants from The Champlin Foundations paid for the museum’s $86,000 renovation and part of the ongoing $2 million restoration of the John Brown House, slated for completion in 2010.
The renovation of the Brown house on Benefit Street, at an estimated cost of $2 million, is the most extensive since around 1900, Fishman said, paid for mostly with grants from foundations such as The Champlin Foundations. The work began about five years ago and should be done in about 18 months, he said. Renovations are taking place throughout the house, but mostly on the exterior.
In at least the public parts of the house, plans call for the installation of a heating, ventilation and air-conditioning system “in a way that does no harm to the house,” Fishman said. The air-conditioning is intended as much to preserve the Brown house collection as provide comfort for visitors.
A key element would be installation of a geo-thermal well at an estimated cost of $60,000, which Fishman said would probably save as much as 20 percent in electricity costs. “If we can find a grant program that will pay for it,” he said of the well, “we’ll install that.”
In Warwick, the Champlin grant paid for a natural gas heating system designed to save energy, hardwood floors and new walls. And behind the removed walls, huge arched windows were uncovered and replaced with custom-made energy-efficient windows, making the former armory building “so bright and airy,” Place-Gleason said, “there’s no need for lights even on rainy days.”
She would love to find a way to restore the director’s 10 lost hours. “But it’s pretty hard to find grants for salaries,” Place-Gleason said, even though the director is the only employee on the payroll. The museum will continue working to raise money, she said, counting on activities such as the six-week summer arts camp for children and at least two fundraising events throughout the year. “Then, it’s a matter of looking for more grants and bringing in revenue,” she said. •