The Indianapolis Museum of Art has spent the last year developing a strategic plan, including a new capital campaign, in part to counteract financial shortfalls that have stricken the museum in the wake of the recession. Now they will have to embark on the capital campaign while searching for a new director.
Last week, the Dallas Museum of Art announced that the IMA’s Maxwell Anderson will become the Dallas museum’s new director, and among Anderson’s attractive qualities, especially during these difficult economic times, is his proven ability to raise funds for innovative projects. Under Anderson, the IMA developed a 100 acre sculpture park for the museum and purchased the Miller House, one of a number of landmark architectural buildings in Columbus, Indiana.
The plan for 2012, according to an article in the Indianapolis Business Journal, was to continue fundraising in order to, among other goals, create more endowed chairs at the museum. To that end, Anderson hired a chief development officer in January.
But Anderson’s tenure at the IMA did not come without its financial speed bumps, according to the IBJ, which cites as one of Anderson’s weaknesses, “handling big donors and dedicated volunteers, who tend to have their own ideas.” During Anderson’s tenure, two fundraisers stepped down and a top donor, Wayne Zink, resigned from the board of governors for unstated reasons. It will be interesting, then, to see how the new director adapts to the DMA’s culture, which is in part defined by its individual donors and dedicated volunteer patrons. From the IBJ:
The departures came as the IMA struggled with a reduced endowment and budget cuts. The IMA twice revised its budget in 2010 because of lowered fundraising targets. The budget for the year ended June 30 was $21.2 million.
The endowment recovered to about $347 million in July from $275 million in January 2009. But the museum is ratcheting back its reliance on that fund, which means annual gifts take on more importance.
Image: Robert Indiana’s “Love” at the Indianapolis Museum of Art (via)
