Rochelle Riley: Continue to bankroll the Wright Museum

[Wesley Mouch]

"....and Your Admission Will Be Free" [[taking a page from the DIA's efforts to involve the audience more)."
The DIA is "charging" the suburbs $23,000,000.00 per year for 10 years for "free" admission for the few that visit Dumpling, and they're going to funnel $100,000,00.00 of that to subsidize Detroit Pension Fund.
If you want free admission to the Wright you'll be safer relying on sharing your family history because the suburbs won't be conned the next time.

You mean the suburbs are subsidizing Detroit? Say its not so. Detroitnerd will be so disappointed.

[Dumpling]

In reply to Coracle, if anyone has been "conned" in regard to the Wright,
it would be the Detroit taxpayer. With a subsidy of one million per year, and
a population of just over half a million perhaps, this works out to two dollars
per taxpayer each year, so after five years, each taxpayer will have paid
the Wright enough for one free admission ticket. IMHO so long as the city
as a whole is subsidizing the Wright, there should be two or four days per
month that admission is free for Detroiters - and free for suburbanites too!, but there would be several exhibits throughout the museum showing how
one can donate and how such donations would be used. A running wish
list, if you will. I myself haven't been to the Wright yet [[or the Arab American
museum or a host of many wonderful cultural and historical sites in the area) so this may already be in place there.
A better way to raise funds from Detroit taxpayers might be to have a little box on one's Detroit tax form, similar to what is on one's state tax form, to check if you would like some of your refund to go to the Wright museum.

[[I won't go check your old posts to see if you were in favor of an Emergency
Manager That Would Steal Detroit's Jewels - so that some suburbanites would
feel conned - back then or not).

[mwilbert]

Has anyone ever heard of capitalism? Free markets work themselves out when sticky handed politicians keep their noses out of it.

Things always work themselves out one way or the other. The question is whether they work themselves out in a way that people find acceptable.

But leaving that aside, what role do you think free markets have in the funding of museums, which whether governmentally-sponsored or not are almost always primarily funded by philanthropy and tax-exemptions?

[poobert]

In reply to Coracle, if anyone has been "conned" in regard to the Wright,
it would be the Detroit taxpayer. With a subsidy of one million per year, and
a population of just over half a million perhaps, this works out to two dollars
per taxpayer each year, so after five years, each taxpayer will have paid
the Wright enough for one free admission ticket. IMHO so long as the city
as a whole is subsidizing the Wright, there should be two or four days per
month that admission is free for Detroiters - and free for suburbanites too!, but there would be several exhibits throughout the museum showing how
one can donate and how such donations would be used. A running wish
list, if you will. I myself haven't been to the Wright yet [[or the Arab American
museum or a host of many wonderful cultural and historical sites in the area) so this may already be in place there.
A better way to raise funds from Detroit taxpayers might be to have a little box on one's Detroit tax form, similar to what is on one's state tax form, to check if you would like some of your refund to go to the Wright museum.

[[I won't go check your old posts to see if you were in favor of an Emergency
Manager That Would Steal Detroit's Jewels - so that some suburbanites would
feel conned - back then or not).

Great post. Awesome idea. I'd check yes. There should be free admission for those who do - and free admission for Detroiters as it stands, from your point about taxes. You should be the CEO there.

[Dumpling]

Thank you for the compliment, Poobert - am sure that the current staff at
the Wright museum probably have plenty more expertise in historical significances and curating old objects and raising money from core donors
etc. than I do. Where I'm coming from is, well, my Mom bought me a
DIA membership for my birthday a few years back, say about year 2005,
and since then, so for years now, perhaps every week I get a missive from Graham Beal, the Director of the DIA, on the philosophy and problems and potential for the art museum. I've been hearing from him since before those
"Go Wonder Around" billboards went up...besides that, in the last few years,
we have been treated to really catchy Binder Park Zoo billboards if we head
west on I-94 and really catchy Henry Ford Museum billboards on I-94
coming back to Detroit.
So I get more stuff about cultural institution promotion, and not so many
field trips... for example I've never been to Binder Park Zoo, and I was only
at the Ford Museum to see an IMAX movie. I go past the Ford Rouge Tour Buses on my way to work and haven't been on one yet.

[ABetterDetroit]

Seems obvious to me, why hasn't this been another asset of the city under threat of liquidation? Anyone really believe that the DIA benefactors would have suddenly come up with 3/4 of a billion dollars if the threat of liquidation didn't arise? They would still be whistling in the wind facing the other way without that powerful threat. CHW is a beautiful building in a prime location with excellent facilities, historical artifacts are worth money as well why would they not be sold under a bankruptcy?
Important museum? Absolutely. A great addition to culture in Detroit? No doubt in my mind. What needs to happen is endowment. Seems to me that CHWs board doesn't quite understand what is actually happening right in front of them. When there are two panhandlers 50 feet apart and you give the first one a buck [[DIA) the second one pulls out his best stuff because you are already a proven commodity, in this case it's cultural institutions in the D. Ford, Kresege and the state would almost have to throw some matching funds at the CHW. Private benefactors exist, and saying they're not out there is pure BS, the wealthiest self made woman in the US happens to be African American, Jewish people have always had a great compassion for the fight of the African American people, and people that care about history, culture, and Detroit will always toss in a few bucks if they know that they are getting value for their donation [[myself included). The time is now and endowment is the only way to save CHW if it can't make it on its own which seems to be the case. An endowment to fill in a couple million annually is not even in the ball park for the kind of cash that is being piled up to save the DIA. Will everyone like the idea? Hell no, not everyone likes the idea of saving the DIA either but that doesn't mean that saving them isn't important to Detroit's cultural future.
Detroit has to concentrate all of its revenue on the safety and well being of its citizens above all else for the foreseeable future and bank rolling museums doesn't fall in that mission.

[downtownguy]

It is a good museum. I wonder what their grant-seeking operations are like. Most successful museums have at least one full-time grant writer. AMNH, for example, has about ten staffers who do NOTHING but search for grants, and about half of the researchers on staff get a good chunk of their budgets from their own grants

Not true. Staffing for philanthropy is dictated much by the size of the museum. Of course, the American Museum of Natural History with a budget of about $200 million will have more fundraisers than the CHWMAAH with a budget of less than $5 million.

Most museums don't have dedicated researchers, either.

Whether a museum has a dedicated grant writer at all also depends on size and budget. Every shop is different. Smaller museums might have one all-purpose development professional responsible for all aspects of fundraising - major gifts, annual gifts, corporate gifts, grants and membership. If it's a very small museum, these duties are often handled by the Executive Director.

It should also be noted that philanthropy is different than memberships. People who buy memberships are very transaction oriented -- they are "buying" something tangible and often will do so because of the perks they get in return [[free or discounted admissions, invitation to events, gift shop discounts). Memberships are marketed.

Certainly, there is overlap between memberships and philanthropy, but true philanthropy is not marketed. Humans are complex organisms and their motivations are complex. Growing philanthropy inside an organization relies on building strong relationships with members of the community. This is not something that happens overnight or in a vacuum. Every other worthwhile cause in the community is vying for the same philanthropic pot.

[downtownguy]

http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/a...=2014302020065

Here we go again. Riley shits out basically the same column, with no hard facts or numbers, just adjectives like "wonderful." There is also no creative solutions, just demands that the City of Detroit continue to bankroll the Museum.

7,000 members, by the way, is absolutely dismal. They need to gut their entire staff. To put it in perspective, the modest DHM has 50 - 100k members.

Here are the hard facts and numbers.

CHWMAAH - Charles H Wright Museum of African American History
DHM - [[Actually DHS) Detroit Historical Society
Source: IRS Form 990, unless otherwise noted.

Membership
CAWMAAH [[per the Freep article): 7,000; Membership dues: $170,894
DHM [[source: museum staff): 2,300; Membership dues: $97,399

Revenue Fiscal Year ending June 30, 2012
CAWMAAH: $4,651,371
DHM: $5,441,402

Government Grants
CAWMAAH: $2,549,997
DHM: $2,460,740

All other contributions
CAWMAAH: $682,346
DHM: $1,965,367


Don't get me wrong. I completely support both institutions. But, if your point was to compare the CAWMAAH to a similar museum, then get your facts straight.