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N.C. In the News!
METRO AREAS TRANSFORM AS MUSEUMS GROW
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11/01/2002
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(The following story, which appeared Oct. 27, 2002, in the Tampa Tribune, highlights the similiarites and differences in two Triangle regions--Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill and Tampa, St. Petersburg, Clearwater)
By JOANNE MILANI
jmilani@tampatrib.com
TAMPA - They are both tri- city metropolitan areas with Southern roots, large universities and population explosions fueled by new residents from across the nation.
But Tampa-St. Petersburg- Clearwater and Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill have more in common than that. Both are scrounging up millions for bigger art museums.
In Raleigh, the North Carolina Museum of Art is contemplating raising roughly $89 million to expand its existing 181,000 square feet of space.
The Nasher Museum of Art on the Duke University campus in Durham is drumming up money for a $20 million Rafael Vinoly-designed museum and a $10 million endowment.
And at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the Ackland Art Museum is planning an $18 million to $20 million expansion.
"Our museums in North Carolina are relatively young,'' says Gerold Bolas, the Ackland's director. ``We opened in 1958, so we are an adolescent museum, as are many museums in the
South. We grew in 1990, and we're ready to grow again."
Clearly, youth is a matter of perspective. The Tampa Museum of Art is only 23 years old, making it a child by comparison. And the Bay area's newest art museums are newborns.
The Gulf Coast Museum of Art, which originated in 1936 as the Clearwater Art Museum, opened in 1999 in a $6 million Largo facility. The $10 million Leepa-Rattner Museum of Art in Palm Harbor debuted this year.
On the minus side, Tampa lost an important asset, the Museum of African-American Art, when the 6-year-old museum and its collection were sold in 1997 to Black Entertainment Television in Washington, D.C.
What's at stake in Florida and North Carolina is a vast reshaping of the cultural landscape.
"You see a number of museums in phases of transformation'' in Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill, Bolan says. ``It means an upping of the quality of life that attracts intellectual capital to the area."
Nasher official Bruce Evans agrees. "People are lining up to donate works to us who wouldn't do so otherwise."
Another comparison of the two communities reveals an additional twist, apart from their museums' respective ages. Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill, with a population of 1,134,000, will be adding more than $100 million to the value of its art museums.
By contrast, the Bay area, with more than double the population (2,420,500 in Hillsborough, Pinellas, Pasco and Hernando counties), is aiming for less than half that amount.
Harvey Schmidt is in a position to have a clear view of the dynamics in both communities. He was president of the Greater Tampa Chamber of Commerce between 1990 and 1993. He now heads the Greater Raleigh Chamber of Commerce.
In Tampa, "business leadership has been consistently supportive of the arts," Schmidt says. "But only in the last generation has Raleigh become a business place."
Before then, Raleigh was like Tallahassee, a state capital dominated by universities, Schmidt says. That created a special set of circumstances.
"The North Carolina Museum of Art is one of the few state-supported museums historically," Schmidt says.
Meanwhile, the university museums can go to alumni nationwide for money.
"The strong presence of the universities creates a different environment for fundraising. They can draw from audiences that exceed the local one," Schmidt says.
No matter where they get the money, the museums in Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill are a powerful economic force because of their appeal to an educated population.
"Most of our industries are here because of the brainpower the universities attract," Schmidt says.
The art museums, opera, ballet and symphony "speak strongly to the sophistication of the market," he says. "It contributes to reasons why folks don't want to leave after graduation from the universities. They find a way to live here."
Researcher Diane Grey contributed to this report. Reporter Joanne Milani can be reached at (813) 259-7569.
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About the North Carolina Arts Council
The North Carolina Arts Council works to make North Carolina The Creative State where a robust arts industry produces a creative economy, vibrant communities, children prepared for the 21st century and lives filled with discovery and learning. The Arts Council accomplishes this in partnership with artists and arts organizations, other organizations that use the arts to make their communities stronger and North Carolinians—young and old—who enjoy and participate in the arts. For more information visit www.ncarts.org.
The N.C. Arts Council is a division of the N.C. Department of Cultural Resources, the state agency with the mission to enrich lives and communities and the vision to harness the state's cultural resources to build North Carolina's social, cultural and economic future. Information on Cultural Resources is available at www.ncculture.com
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