Empty Bellevue museum plans to shift focus to crafts, design

By Warren Cornwall and Sheila Farr
Seattle Times staff reporters

	STEVE RINGMAN / THE SEATTLE TIMES Rick Collette, president of the Bellevue Art Museum's board, yesterday talks about modifications for the building's interior.
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A reopened Bellevue Art Museum would look much the same from the outside.

But that's one of the only things that will stay the same if museum leaders resuscitate an institution that collapsed last September.

The revival plan unveiled yesterday marks a significant artistic and financial departure from the museum's earlier incarnation as an unconventional exhibitor of contemporary art. The plan also hinges on some big unknowns, including whether the museum can raise $2.8 million by the planned opening Oct. 28. The plan includes:

• A new artistic focus on crafts and design, with a slate of opening shows. Artwork with a functional heritage — such as ceramics or textiles — is taking center stage, with an emphasis on Northwest craftspeople and artists.

• Partnerships with Pilchuck Glass School and the Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture. BAM would display works from the instructors and students at Pilchuck. The school, based near Stanwood and co-founded by Dale Chihuly, has an international reputation for innovative glasswork. BAM would also draw on the Burke's extensive collection of ethnic craft objects from around the world.

Opening exhibits Bellevue Art Museum is slated to open Oct. 28 with the following exhibits: • "The Artful Teapot: 20th Century Expressions from the Kamm Collection," a traveling exhibition of 250 teapots and tea sets by top 20th-century artists and craftspeople, including Roy Lichtenstein, David Hockney, Betty Woodman and Adrian Saxe. Supplemented with pieces from the Burke Museum and private collections. • "Looking Forward, Glancing Back: Northwest Designer Craftsmen at Fifty," jewelry, furniture, fiber art, ceramics and basketry by NWDC artisans selected by guest curator Lloyd Herman, former director of the Smithsonian's Renwick Gallery. • "Silver in Service," commissioned objects from the collection of Seymour Rabinovitch. • Pilchuck Glass School Gallery, the first installation of a changing exhibition of works by current and former instructors and students.

• A business plan that relies primarily on philanthropy. The previous plan banked on revenue from a school and the gift shop, but the money failed to materialize. The museum's biggest annual fund-raiser, the Bellevue Arts and Crafts Fair, will take place as scheduled July 23-25.

• Architectural changes, including converting classrooms into gallery space, revamping lighting, and turning the ground floor — criticized by some as cold and cavernous — into a furniture-filled, loungelike public space.

To meet those goals, museum leaders are starting a fund-raising drive and preparing to hire key staff, including a director and fund-raising chief. The museum hopes to name a director by the end of May.

The museum is relying largely on donations to open the doors. It needs $1.4 million to hire staff, remodel the building's interior, pay off past obligations and prepare for the opening. It needs another $1.4 million to operate from November to June 2005, when its fiscal year ends.

It has collected only $180,000, with no detailed fund-raising plan in place.

"We have a long way to go," said museum-board president Rick Collette.

Plagued by problems

The plan paints a picture of a museum returning to a more conservative path. But questions remain about how the museum will overcome its recent history. It shut down last September in the midst of a financial crisis. After opening in its new, $23 million building in 2001, the museum was plagued by accounting problems, overly optimistic budgeting and exhibits that failed to draw audiences.

The collapse turned the museum into a case study on how not to manage a nonprofit, attracting national attention from the museum world.

Nonprofit expert and former attorney Ann Stillwater taught a course on nonprofits at Seattle University last quarter that examined the causes of the closure. "Essentially, it all came down to leadership," she said, questioning the level of experience BAM officials had for the transition to the new, high-profile space. "It sounded like one of the root causes was that there wasn't a process of assessing the board in an open way to find out if the members were right to take it to the next step."

BAM has much of the same board leadership in place and an interim director at the helm. It has based important mission and programming decisions on committees and community input. Stillwater says that for most nonprofits, community input is critical, but that art museums are a different beast.

"There is an interesting tension around ... this topic of artistic vision, and whether art should lead or follow the community. I believe that artistic vision can lead us to a new worldview. But absent endowments, it still needs community support. So it's a unique blending process that needs to go on."

Collette said BAM interim director Mark Haley, who did not attend yesterday's media briefing, has spoken with administrators at other craft museums and consulted with local experts on the viability of a craft museum in this region. Collette said the board is confident BAM's new mission is viable.

Exhibits lined up

The museum had previously been billed as a place testing boundaries of what it meant to be a museum, in both content and operations. A school was supposed to play a central role, allowing visitors to get their hands dirty.

Now, the school is being eliminated; teaching functions will be reduced to tours for schoolchildren and lectures, Collette said.

The four exhibits scheduled for the October opening include a show of the art of teapots, a retrospective of Northwest craftspeople and designers, a show of silver objects from a local collector, and work from the Pilchuck Glass School. The exhibits are being coordinated by Deborah Paine, who formerly worked with Microsoft's art collection.

The museum board has displayed a new interest in controlling the museum's direction.

A new director will arrive with deals in place to display art from the glass school and the Burke Museum. BAM officials also promise that each exhibit will go through a "vigorous" review process set up by the board.

Those restraints may turn off some candidates who want to bring a strong personal vision to bear in the director job, Collette said. But the museum already has as many as eight people interested in the job, he said.

"We just felt it was more important we as an institution know who we want to be," he said.

Changing the space

Part of a new identity would involve remodeling the space. The building has been criticized for an unwelcoming facade and lobby, irregular gallery spaces flooded with natural light, and much of the second floor given over to classrooms and offices. Collette said the building's architect, Steven Holl, had "generously asked to be involved" in the remodel.

Plans include modifying the lobby to make it a community-friendly place, with plenty of art around and the auditorium open for video presentations. Comfortable furniture would be installed. Admission would be charged as visitors proceeded to the upstairs galleries, with the reception desk moved closer to the elevator.

The floor plans on the second and third floors would change, expanding gallery space and eliminating classrooms.

Building manager Larry Asmann said the main galleries on the third floor require major changes in lighting. That means modifying the windows and revamping the artificial-lighting system to make it more effective for artworks. "Steven (Holl) let us know (lighting) was going to be a challenge when he turned the building over to us — and he was right," Asmann said.

Reliance on donations

The new plan reflects a return to a more conventional financial model.

Museum leaders originally predicted money earned from programs, such as classroom fees, would play a bigger role than donations. The museum is switching to a heavy reliance on donations, which is how most museums operate.

The museum is counting on raising much of the money in an annual effort targeting potential individual donors, said Frank Statkus, a museum-board member and a vice president at Boeing.

Creating an endowment to help cover day-to-day costs is also critical, Collette said. Previously, museum leaders had scaled back plans to create an endowment at the same time they raised money to pay for the new building.

The Seattle Times previously reported that the earlier endowment plan had been cut, against the advice of the board's finance committee. However, some of BAM's leaders said the endowment plan was reduced to $1 million with the committee's backing, rather than cut entirely. Still, the endowment was never fully established, and money earmarked for it was spent on operations.

"We need an endowment in the worst way," Collette said.

The museum is also banking on new board members to help attract money. Five were announced yesterday: June Bartell, of the Bartell Drugs family; Ronald Bayley, president and CEO of Mercer Island-based Bayley Construction; Kathy Bennett, a Bellevue artist; Bill Monkman, CEO of Precision Aerospace; and art collector Susan Thurston.

"We have all this stuff," Collette said, referring to the plan. "And now we need to put gas in the car."

Warren Cornwall: 206-464-2311 or wcornwall@seattletimes.com. Sheila Farr: sfarr@seattletimes.com.

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