Cautiously optimistic
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After a year’s worth of setbacks, MSU officials are moving forward with construction of the multimillion-dollar Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum, despite not having all the funds raised for the project.
Construction was approved to proceed by the MSU Board of Trustees on Dec. 11, more than 31 months since MSU officials first announced the university would be home to the museum. The project is slated to break ground March 16.
But since the museum’s inception, problems, rather than an actual facility, have built up.
On more than one occasion, fundraising woes pushed back the timeline for the museum’s construction.
In March 2009, MSU President Lou Anna K. Simon said external estimates put the museum’s cost at $160 million, about four times more than original estimates of $40 million to $45 million. One year after Simon’s statement, university officials have said the museum is back within its original budget.
To cut costs, the museum’s architect, London-based Zaha Hadid Architects, had to return to the drawing board last spring to address concerns over the building’s design.
“It’s been a huge challenge because MSU has been known for decades for science, technology and agriculture,” said Mark Terman, director of principle gifts for University Development. “It’s only been in recent decades we’ve focused more on the arts.”
Now, with a groundbreaking date set, university officials said they are confident the museum soon will be a reality.
Keeping the cash flowing
With about $33 million in private donations raised as of Wednesday, MSU still must raise $7 million before it reaches its goal.
The project recently benefited from a second donation from the museum’s namesake couple, billionaire alumnus Eli Broad and his wife, Edythe. The pair donated an additional $2 million last week on top of their initial contribution of $26 million.
Of their total gift, $21 million is earmarked for construction and $7 million for exhibits, art acquisitions and museum operations.
“Obviously, in these economic times, raising money for arts projects is challenging, and this has been as well,” Simon said.
Having consulted the museum’s construction management firm, Barton Malow, Hadid and the MSU Physical Plant, Simon said she is confident the project will finish on schedule.
“I’ve been reassured … that the project will be on time and on budget,” she said.
Terman said the university is optimistic it will raise the full $40 million because opportunities exist to attract donors in more areas.
“There are still more donor prospects to work with, although we need some others to step up in realizing this is a real university priority,” he said.
Linda Stanford, associate provost for academic services, said the Board of Trustees would not have approved the project were the university not confident it could raise all the funds needed to finish construction. She said a groundbreaking ceremony will serve as a final push to complete the needed fundraising.
“We still have to keep moving and keep fundraising,” Stanford said. “And I believe once people actually see the shovel digging the hole in the ground, they’ll say, ‘This is going to happen.’”
MSU Trustee Melanie Foster said although funding setbacks have caused deadlines to be pushed back, she believes the university will raise enough funds to complete the museum’s construction.
“I’m confident that the remainder of the funding, even in these difficult times, will fall into order within the next year,” she said.
Minor changes
The most up-to-date renderings of the museum were given to the university by Hadid in October, said Lisa Mulcrone, senior communications manager with University Relations.
Stanford said the museum’s design changed minimally, mostly in an effort to maximize use of the space within.
Although Hadid’s original plans called for 41,000 square feet, the final designs include 46,000 square feet.
More than 69 percent of the overall square footage will be used as gallery space, Stanford said.
Offices for museum administrators and storage space were taken out of the museum to maximize gallery space as well as curb construction costs.
“The goal today and in contemporary museums is to have all the spaces really be thought about in a way where there’s more interaction with the spectator,” Stanford said.
The building’s exterior still will feature pleated walls and a pleated roof, part of Hadid’s original design. Stanford said Hadid made minor changes to the exterior, taking into account factors such as snow and winter weather.
Foster said the design changes allow the university to put donated money to its most effective use.
“The university is approaching this project with cautious optimism,” she said. “We wanted to make sure that we had a plan that could be built within budget.”
What’s ahead
Stanford said although it took time to set a groundbreaking date for the museum, the original timeline for the building’s completion still stands. She said once ground breaking happens in March, construction will take about 23 months.
Even when construction is completed, she said, the building will need to be made ready for art exhibits and visitors. She said officials still are discussing a grand opening date.
“Everything has to be calibrated,” she said.
On the fundraising side, Terman said MSU is taking a “comprehensive approach” to raise money for the museum, which will be funded using only private donations. He said the university will target alumni for donations, particularly those who have an interest for art.
“Our charge is full speed ahead for raising the rest of the dollars,” he said.
Commentary
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Eliot Singer
(01/26/10 9:28am)Report
I would love to see a thriving arts and culture scene at MSU and in East Lansing. I hope MSU has a realistic financial sense about this project and is not indulging in the fantasies we have come to expect from East Lansing city government. All the City of the Arts stuff is, of course, just hype—East Lansing has a very mediocre arts scene for a college town. On campus, we have some nice stuff, but in hard times naturally the university is cutting back on the arts, witness no new money for special exhibits at Kresge.
I’m not sure what the expectations for the new museum really are. I’m sure the city hopes that by moving the museum from the center of campus to the edge it will promote business in downtown. Another fantasy. MSU is never going to have an arts collection that will attract visitors from out of town. There are maybe a dozen cities in this country where art museums have good enough collections to attract tourists or even regular visits from locals (plus a few out-of-the-way museums, an hour’s drive from major cities, all of which are dying). And even in the cities, most tourists go to museums among other things, not as the main purpose of the visit. Does anyone seriously expect the sports crowd to go to the museum on its way to tailgate?
Big city museums only survive with massive, continuing, subsidies from patrons and governments, plus what have become increasingly large admissions fees that make going to museums hard for many locals and not just something where you drop by. Their lifeblood is major exhibitions. Kresge staff has done a great job over the years with special exhibitions, given our limited resources, but MSU will never be able to sponsor something that will bring in tens of thousands of visitors with long lines and advanced tickets.
I’m sure a lot of us will enjoy seeing more of the MSU collection on exhibit with more space, but I doubt that will increase the frequency of visits by locals—since my wife and I usually drop by Kresge while walking along the river, the new location will mean fewer visits for us, since it will be a special destination. Even to get locals to the new museum after a first viewing, there will need to be constant special exhibitions, which require external (at least MSU) funding. A nice coffee shop or restaurant in the new museum, which is in an unattractive location compared to most of campus, won’t help much. And let’s not forget parking—it costs us nothing, except voluntary gifts, to go to Kresge.
Arts are a financially losing proposition. There few artists who earn a living selling their work, and East Lansing has no chance of creating a colony of successful artists. I wish the federal government would spend much more money on arts instead of wars and I wish our local musicians made a better living than bond salesmen—they don’t cheat anyone. But I’m afraid the new art museum is going to require more money to sustain, even if they can raise the funds to complete the building, and more staff and faculty, which would be nice, but doesn’t pay for itself.
I don’t buy into the “Trustees would have said no if it wasn’t fiscally sound” argument. However, the professionals who crunch the numbers at MSU have generally been good at their job. But I can’t see how the numbers are going to add up, and I fear on this one MSU got caught up in the East Lansing fantasy machine, and we know when East Lansing government tells us they have carefully analyzed plans for viability, they are whistling Dixie.
Lyle
(01/26/10 9:50am)Report
Not the time or place for this extravagant spending.
Andy
(01/26/10 10:25am)Report
Who let the chart printed in the front page with this article get published? Totally unreadable, plus the fact that apparently October 2008 comes before August 2008.
Rob
(01/26/10 10:33am)Report
What happens to the Kresge Art Museum?
student
(01/26/10 11:36am)Report
Eliot and anyone interested,
The are no issues with raising funds for the Broad Art Museum. 98% of the times that a project is financed only with private funds, like in this case, the entire funds have not been raised. That is why there are naming opportunities and different things to promote donations during and after construction.
Specifically for this Museum, $7 millions is nothing. There are fund raising efforts all the time and people don’t even know it. Two years is plenty of time to raise $7 millions.
Also, the reason why the costs went up and down was because there were various structural specifications that were difficult and more expensive for the people in charge of building the Museum. Now the architect changed some things to fit the weather and reduce those costs.
In regard to Kresge, I believe they have some plans for it but it will stay as a Museum with other collections. Actually, the donors and supporters of Kresge have been part of the fundraising and they even made a donation for the Broad Museum.
On other issues regarding the Broad Museum, I believe that it will be a huge success. People don’t know the amount of alumni and friends that donate their rich collections to MSU. The Broad’s themselves have incredible collections. Also, as part of their gift, the Broad’s included an endowment gift to be used for several purposes, including the acquisition of art. MSU and the cities of EL and Lansing are host to many great artists but people, mostly outsiders, don’t know about them or their places.
The previously mentioned cities are stepping up to the challenge and there are many things going on in EL and Lansing that most people don’t know about. I would like to add that MSU is part of the problem, in terms of lack of attractions. Specifically, the way MSU was established with the University in one side and the city around it limits the tax collections from the local governments. As a student, I believe that there are too many services offered by the student organizations on-campus. These are the same organizations that are funded by student taxes, like ASMSU, RHA and UAB. They function by charging the entire student body a student tax that works as a subsidy for several events that are not attended by all the students. So, in the end, a couple of students are paying for one student that goes to one of the activities. Still, they offer many cheap activities that no one attends.
I just hope someone can merge all those organizations into one and reduce the un-used and over-funded services they provide. By doing this, there is no competition from MSU and a market for services and products. This would help the local governments, generate jobs and improve the local economy.
Finally, believe it or not, this Broad Art Museum is part of that mentality of helping East Lansing and, in some way, Lansing become much better cities for people to set up businesses by providing the artistic and creative inspiration. At least, the building itself will help transform the city of East Lansing with more diverse and different architecture.
Burton Sanikleson
(01/26/10 12:26pm)Report
Eliot, lighten up! Why do you live in East Lansing if you dislike it so much and have no hope for improvement?
arc
(01/26/10 2:30pm)Report
Why is everyone using this phrase “cautiously optimistic” all of the sudden?
Can’t we get a less bland title?
Dan
(01/26/10 3:27pm)Report
Ugly building. In 20 years it will be slated for demolition as another piece of abstract junk.
Townsend
(01/26/10 4:38pm)Report
Let’s sum up Eliot’s comments:
- East Lansing is a poor arts town
- MSU will never attract anybody to the art museum because bigger cities have bigger museums
- art is a losing proposition, anyway, so why waste our money and time…
Elliot’s nothing but a weak-minded troll, albeit, an extremely long winded one. Your verbosity can’t hide this fact.
student, there’s no use wasting your time trying to intelligently communicate with losers like Elliot or that moron, Dan, who posted just above me; we just have to realize, there’s a certain class of MSU students are so bitter because they were rejected by U-M that they will say and do anything to trash MSU, despite the fact that projects like this, which are funded privately and will bring positive international attention to the school… If it’s not about getting drunk and throwing up at a tailgate, bar or Frat House, it doesn’t mean anything to students like them… The REAL waste is that our good tax dollars are being spent to (try and) educate people like these… as I’ve said before, sometimes I wish MSU would forget (its honorable) Land Grant mission and, instead, raise admissions standards to the point we will no longer have to be annoyed by fools like these…
At least then MSU would have a student body intelligent enough to appreciate the great things that an alum like Eli Broad is trying to do for them…
Lyle
(01/26/10 5:02pm)Report
Just one more thought. I was under the impression that about 8 or 10 years ago, the University Board had decided that new construction would be designed to blend with the classic campus buildings, reminiscent of the more Gothic style. They thought the modern architecture was detracting from the attractiveness of the campus as a whole. At the time, and now, I agreed whole-heartedly with that sentiment.
The artists rendition pictured flies right in the face of that policy.
SteveL
(01/26/10 10:43pm)Report
I wish this project was scrapped and the money used for other facilities that are much more needed. How about the music building that was proposed? How about a new aquatic center which MSU badly needs? It’s current facilities are an embarrassment. How about an indoor track and field venue? These would be much more usable and fill a need then this completely out of place piece of ….whatever.
Townsend
(01/27/10 9:59am)Report
SteveL,
how many times do people have to write that the Museum is being built with PRIVATE MONEY before the message permeates your thick skull?
SteveL
(01/27/10 10:47pm)Report
Private money- yes, but I’m sure the administration could convince the Broads to apply the millions to other venues rather than this art museum. I’m sure the Braods didn’t approach MSU officilas and said “Here is $25 million to build an art museum:. There had to be input from MSU as to what the money would go for. I think private money can build other venues too, so don’t be so thick headed to think that the Broads would be more than happy to have their name on something more worthwhile also. In fact from what I see of the archtect’s preliminary drawings I would be embarrassed to have my name on something so ugly and out of place.