FRESNO ART MUSEUM EXPLORES PARTNERSHIP WITH FRESNO STATE
The Fresno Bee reports that the struggling Fresno Art Museum and California State University, Fresno, are exploring the prospect of shifting the museum collection and its operations to the university, officials said Tuesday.
Representatives on both sides said that is just one option under discussion as Fresno State begins researching what role it might play in the museum’s future. Monday, the museum’s board of trustees voted unanimously to open up that exploration.
“The board would be foolish not to look at any offer or proposal that Fresno State might have” that benefits the community and protects the art, said Tom Speck, president of the museum’s board. While the museum has suffered financial blows, Speck also said the board is confident that “we are going to pull through this.”
A university committee will take up to six weeks to study legal, financial, and fund-raising aspects to any options under study. According to Speck, other possibilities include collaborations on fund-raising and expanded educational programs.
But one big idea on the table would permit Fresno State to acquire the art collection and assume operations at the museum’s current location on First Street in east-central Fresno.
Several museum and academic experts were intrigued by the concept.
Dewey Blanton, a spokesman for the American Association of Museums, said such a takeover would be unusual. He knew of only one similar situation: In 2009, the failing Gulf Coast Museum of Art donated its collection to St. Petersburg College in Florida.
Catherine Sullivan, curator of the Janet Turner Print Museum at California State University, Chico, is following the friendly-takeover talk in Fresno. “It’s sort of uncharted territory in the sense of a successful and long-term model for this,” said Sullivan, who also is a member of the Association of College and University Museums and Galleries. “But if it works, it’s great.”
