Tag: Art Museums

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The Future Of The Charles Allis and Villa Terrace Museums Move One Step Closer To Gone As Milwaukee County Considers Private Offers For The Properties!

Back in June I wrote about the future of these two fine museums and warned that their futures were in danger. Milwaukee County of course continues to be financially distressed and of course the arts are an easy target. Of course part of the issue (like the Milwaukee Public Museum and the late great Bradley Center) is no one ever wants to spend money on infrastructure repair and maintenance until the numbers are astronomical and then they want to walk away from it. I believe that the Mitchell Park Domes are still in a similar limbo.

But here is my previous article: The Future Of The Charles Allis and Villa Terrace Museums Has Reached A Tipping Point: We May Lose Them Forever. And the remainder of this article will discuss new information about offers from private firms to take over the real estate, but not the museums. And the most recent article from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (aka JSOnline): Villa Terrace, Charles Allis museums could be privately owned. I apologize, this seems to be behind a firewall. I will pull out what I need.

Two small publicly owned museums on Milwaukee’s east side could be converted into private businesses — a boutique hotel and an events venue — under a pair of new proposals.

Those ideas are competing with other plans to maintain the financially challenged Villa Terrace Decorative Arts Museum and Charles Allis Art Museum — while granting ownership of those county-owned museums to private, nonprofit groups.

Milwaukee County has contributed roughly $225,000 to Charles Allis and Villa Terrace operations annually since 2015.

The article talks about a number of options for the current non-profit that currently runs the two museums while the county continues ownership. But then decries that the county is once again in financial straits and can’t afford their $225,000 annual support. Of course that bit could probably be made up in private fundraising and donations, but this last bit probably is a push:

County Executive David Crowley’s administration favors a plan from Friends of Villa Terrace Inc. that would create a starting point for negotiations.

It would keep Villa Terrace, 2200 N. Terrace Drive, as a museum, with the county perhaps transferring ownership to the private, nonprofit group.

The friends group wants the county to provide $3 million over five years to address deferred maintenance at the century-old property.

The group also wants $125,000 over three years “to transition operations.” It would raise $1.5 million in private funds to create a $500,000 operating endowment and help pay for improvements.

The group is willing to discuss the future of the Charles Allis Art Museum, the report said.

If you caught that last line, their current proposal doesn’t include maintaining the Charles Allis Art Museum, the museum in this pair that has the better permanent collection. And the numbers being requested probably don’t fit in the county’s long or short term budget considerations.

And the proposal from the group actually running the two museums?

Meanwhile, Charles Allis and Villa Terrace Museums Inc. submitted a plan to continue the private, nonprofit group’s operation of the museums with county financial support.

That group wants $10 million for building improvements. It also proposes a “gradual stepdown” of the county’s operation funding over seven years.

“Ultimately this proposal received the lowest score due to the unrealistic capital request, the length of continued operational support, lack of fundraising goals, and no clear end to the County’s investment,” the report said. (emphasis mine) It also said the group has since discussed with county officials reducing its funding requests and other matters.

Charles Allis and Villa Terrace Museums Inc., which has operated the museums for 20 years, “has built an infrastructure of operational excellence on a lean budget,” responded Executive Director Jaymee Harvey Willms.

Unfortunately the scions of Milwaukee business that built these homes and then donated them to the public as museums are long gone and the firms that provided their wealth have disappeared as well, so no white knight’s are likely to appear on the horizon from that quarter. And let’s keep in mind that Wisconsin is 46th out of the 50 states in public funding for the arts and rumors persist that we are moving further down the list.

So the headlines talk about the buildings being sold to private business and the museums being shuttered. From my point of view, the worst case scenario but from the county’s point of view probably the most appealing. The one is for Villa Terrace alone and envisions the Bartolotta Restaurant group purchasing it and turning it into an event and restaurant space. And the other would take on both the Charles Allis as a boutique hotel and Villa Terrace as a related event space.

The Bartolotta plan?

Bartolotta Restaurant Group LLC, working with Delafield-based HF Hospitality, would create a plan for redeveloping Villa Terrace as a “high-end hospitality venue” — with Bartolotta buying the property for a price to be determined.

“Beyond any restaurant operations, if any, which would be open to the general public, Villa Terrace would continue to have public access through periodic tours at designated dates and times,” the report said. The building’s art would be returned to the county. (emphasis mine)

And the hotel/event space offer?

Dynamic Events LLC, an events planner, would use Villa Terrace as an events venue and the Allis Museum as a boutique hotel/guesthouse, with the room count to be determined.

The firm would buy the properties for $1 each, with the county also providing a $4 million, 20-year loan at 4% interest. Additional funding to redevelop the sites would come from the developer’s equity, a bank loan and historic preservation tax credits.

Dynamic Events owner David Caruso told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that his plan would “preserve both iconic landmarks in a way that they can benefit from each other — a boutique hotel and a private/public event venue.”

$1 each? How magnanimous. And you can’t come up with $4 million on your own? If this is such a good idea you can finance this privately and pay the county what the properties are worth. If the county can’t see fit to support a public treasure they have no business supporting a private business.

So where are we?? It seems we are still in the early stages of discovery but to me the only answer is finding a way to maintain these two museums as museums. Whether that is continued through improved county support or a new and improved county/non-profit effort or whether we find find new resources for the non-profit currently running it I don’t know. But I can’t accept the loss of more cultural sites in our area.

And there was just a short mention that I included above and highlighted that really needs to be discussed. What happens to the permanent collections of art housed in these two museums if they are closed and sold? Given the county’s lack of will and foresight in preserving public infrastructure, I don’t currently trust them as being proper caretakers of our heritage. But that’s a conversation that I hope we don’t need to have.

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Post #501, Four Years, and I Find Out I Am A Theater Critic!

WOW! Jane Eyre, The Musical, At The Lake Country Playhouse was my 500th Post here on An Intuitive Perspective. WOW! Yeah, I know not all of them are scintillating and insightful commentary on the arts but the Monday Music feature instead…but I hope you are enjoying all of it! And I apparently lost count and missed our 4th Anniversary on March 20, 2024…you do lose track of time when you are having fun. And now, I am a theater critic as well!

So, how did I get here? I retired from my career as a computer programmer in 2018. And back in 2010 I was invited to contribute to someone else’s blog and I enjoyed the writing and comments and such. It was on another topic, not the arts.

And then I had an opportunity to work with the Milwaukee Repertory Theater as part of their Social Media Club. A little social group who were invited by the Rep to attend their performances and then comment on our experiences across social media. And to share and re-share the Rep’s various social media posts. I really took that to heart and wrote some pretty extensive and detailed reports on Facebook that I referred to as a ‘response’. That was a lot of fun and I started doing similar posts around other events.

And then I started to tire of my participation in that other blog but knew that I didn’t necessarily want to stop writing so I started An Intuitive Perspective. And the first thing I did was republish all of my older items from Facebook and then proceed with my new content. And once published, I share the link around a variety of social media including of course Facebook. That’s the bare facts…but how did I become a theater critic?

Well I was writing ‘responses’ to the shows that I was seeing at the Rep and as a long time subscriber at the American Player’s Theatre in Spring Green. And then a dear friend from the Social Media Club, Kimberly Laberge, Artistic Director at Kith & Kin Theatre Collective, invited me out to Hartland to experience the presentation of Cabaret that she was directing at the Lake Country Playhouse. It was an amazing play and an amazing cast and a cozy jewel box theater and I have been invited back again and again and I am in awe of the quality of the plays that they take on and the high level quality of each and every presentations.

And then somehow, I wish I remembered the history here, I also became involved with First Stage, which is a children’s theater in Milwaukee, that presents full blown musicals in the Todd Wehr Theater in the Marcus Performing Arts Center and smaller more serious fare in the Milwaukee Youth Arts Center. The PAC shows blend a cast of adults and young people in shows that will appeal to all ages…and I love them…and I love to watch the reactions of the youngsters in the audience as they experience real theater featuring their peers and their stories. And the other venue generally features the First Stage’s Young Company, high school age actors presenting more complex stories in an in the round black box theater…things like an adaptation of Ibsen’s Enemy of the People or Shakespeare’s Henry IV (part 1). I hope that we see many of these young actors playing at our local adult theaters eventually.

And I have been invited to see any number of other small theater groups put on amazing theater in small theater settings that I didn’t even know existed before now. And I am so grateful for the experience.

Now one thing that I regret. I had started an idea to present posts about smaller art museums around the state and mid-west under the title A Place For A Muse. I have only written two so far. I need to do better.

And what is this bit about being a theater critic? Well, as I said I have always labeled my articles and posts about theater as responses because I hadn’t studied theater or criticism directly. So I didn’t feel confident using the term review. But after attending the Lake Country Player’s presentation of A Rock Sails By, and talking with director James Baker Jr and lead actor in Rock (and Artistic Director of LCP ) Sandra Baker-Renick, I was convinced that what I write is in fact a review…and that is what they will be from now on! So I am a theater critic now, I guess!

So thank you to all who visit here and read my scribblings. And thank you to all of the theater people who have adopted me and allowed me to see your marvelous shows and write about them with abandon. It has been a very rewarding four years…and I hope we can continue!!!

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The Future Of The Charles Allis and Villa Terrace Museums Has Reached A Tipping Point: We May Lose Them Forever.

The financial viability of the county has been shaky for decades. And in an environment where the arts are ignored step children, these two museums have suffered from lack of funding and continued deferred maintenance that puts them at risk. And of course the county board seems to have little desire to keep or maintain them. This in a state that already is something like 46th our of 50 states in per capita arts funding.

I am not going to editorialize too much here but I am sincere when I say that the arts are a cornerstone of civic culture and life. Milwaukee wouldn’t be Milwaukee without the Milwaukee Art Museum, the Milwaukee Symphony, the Milwaukee Repertory Theater, the Milwaukee Ballet, and then all of the other smaller but vital arts groups and organizations that give us a community of art and culture. Some of the discussion by our electeds seems rather cavalier…I resent that. We find the money and wherewithal to build grand edifices for millionaires to house the Milwaukee Brewers and Milwaukee Bucks. I’d hate to do it but I’d give up either to keep our museums and arts groups.

Charles Allis Art Museum from the Urban Milwaukee article

So I am going to link to a number of articles and pull out a few quotes. Read the articles and then let your county supervisor know your feelings…before it’s too late.

From Urban Milwaukee: County Wants Your Ideas for Charles Allis and Villa Terrace’s Future

Milwaukee County has officially launched a public call for creative ideas for the long-term operations of the Charles Allis and Villa Terrace museums.

With difficult financial decisions ahead, and many years of budget cuts already behind them, Milwaukee County Supervisors have begun questioning whether the county can continue to provide funding for the operations and maintenance of the two museums.

The board passed an amendment to the 2024 county budget directing administration staff to evaluate options for the county to divest itself of the two cultural institutions. A report returned to the board in May contemplating several options for the museums moving forward, ranging from maintaining the status quo to selling.

The museums operate on a combined annual budget of approximately $822,000, with $225,108 coming from the county. Officials estimate that the two museums will need approximately $18 million in maintenance the next 18 years. Since 2007, the county has budgeted for a total of approximately $2.04 million in maintenance at the buildings.

The county has a long list of infrastructure needs, with an estimated $1 billion catalog of deferred maintenance. While the new 0.4% sales tax has staved off unprecedented cuts to county services, next year’s budget is already shaping up to be difficult.

Even if the status quo is maintained, it will likely mean the two museums scrape by with inadequate maintenance funding.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (aka JSOnline): What’s the future for the Charles Allis and Villa Terrace museums?

“These museums are facing a major threat, probably the most serious threat to their existence, because of our financial situation,” Supervisor Sheldon A. Wasserman told supervisors.

Erica Goblet, the county’s Economic Development Division project manager, spelled out options: sell one or both the museums, enter into a new agreement to continue support, transfer ownership to the nonprofit that runs the museums, or start a request for information report that would solicit ideas on how to move forward with community input involved.

“The least favorite option would be as a last resort if there are no alternatives for the future: the museums, the historic buildings could be divested,” Goblet told the committee.

Of the options, Goblet’s presentation recommended the request for information.

“Through an RFI we would hope to find a sustainable future for these museums and maintain public access across the county,” she said. “We’ve seen successful public-private partnerships that reduce operational and capital expenses for the county.” Supervisor Steve Taylor reiterated his desire to sell the two properties or find a way for them to become fiscally self-sustaining and no longer reliant on the county for its survival.

Villa Terrace Decorative Arts Museum from the Urban Milwaukee article

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (aka JSOnline): The futures of Milwaukee’s Charles Allis Art Museum, Villa Terrace called into question

The fates of two taxpayer-owned cultural institutions on Milwaukee’s east side — the Charles Allis Art Museum and Villa Terrace Decorative Arts Museum — are coming into question as their fiscal burden on Milwaukee County grows. The Charles Allis Museum, located at 1801 N. Prospect Ave., was built for and the home of Charles Allis, the first president of the Allis-Chalmers Manufacturing Company, and his wife, Sarah E.B. Allis. The museum’s collection, compiled by the couple during their expansive travels across the world, consists of 800 objects, including porcelains, ceramics, antiquities and paintings dating back centuries. The county took over ownership from the City of Milwaukee in 1979.

A few blocks north at 2220 N Terrace Ave. is Villa Terrace, which was the home of Lloyd and Agnes Smith, who were inspired to build an Italian Renaissance-style residence in 1923. Lloyd Smith was president of Milwaukee’s A.O. Smith Corp. Agnes Smith gifted the home to Milwaukee County in 1966. The site holds a more than 800-piece art collection, which includes the world’s largest collection of work by Austria-born metalsmith Cyril Colnik.

Both properties are designated as City of Milwaukee and Milwaukee County landmarks and are also on the National Register of Historic Places.

(Supervisor Shawn) Rolland said he’s hopeful a sustainable path forward will come out of the report for information process, where county and community involvement could brainstorm a way to save Charles Allis and Villa Terrace without straining county resources and funding.

“I think that community amenities should not die on the vine, because we are too afraid to say that Milwaukee County is too cash-strapped to pay for everything … There is a real conversation about the viability of these amenities and that many of the supervisors are looking for a viable idea to save them — that also saves Milwaukee County,” Rolland said. “So, I’m hopeful that goodhearted community people will rise up — maybe folks from philanthropy will rise up — and find a way to do that.”

Sarcasm alert: How much can the county net selling Am Fam Field? Or a long term lease on Bradford Beach? Do we really need Lake Park? Just Sayin’.