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ACROSS THE BOARD
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Saint Louis
Art Museum
Art Lovers and Others
By Pam Droog
The Saint Louis Art Museum inspires some impressive numbers: an
average attendance of 550,000 a year...227,710 visitors for the
recent exhibition, “Vincent van Gogh and the Painters of the Petit
Boulevard”...24,500 Friends and 416 Beaux Art Council members, both
historic highs...and a collection of more than 30,000 ancient to
contemporary works.
Above:
Brent R. Benjamin, director, Saint Louis Art Museum (left) and
Jerome J. Sincoff, president, board of commissioners, Saint Louis
Art Museum.
Working hard to keep these numbers high are two equally impressive
boards: a Board of Commissioners and a Board of Trustees.
“Our board covers a broad spectrum of the region, from corporate
St. Louis to people involved in all kinds of community activities,”
says Jerry Sincoff, president of the Saint Louis Art Museum Board
of Commissioners and retired chair at Hellmuth Obata & Kassabaum.
“That’s been the case for many years.”
It’s true; Commissioners include educators, artists, bankers, attorneys,
civic volunteers, spiritual leaders, architects, physicians, realtors,
builders, retailers and others.
They are not necessarily all art lovers, notes Brent Benjamin, Saint
Louis Art Museum director. But, they all share one trait: passion.
“All of our board members are passionate about the work of the museum,”
Benjamin says. “Within that context, some are passionate about art,
some about the standing of the institution in the region. There
are many different ways to be passionate.”
Sincoff adds, “If board members only were passionate about art,
we’d be missing some important skills and talents.”
The Art Museum has 10 Commissioners, five from the city and five
from the county. As terms expire or positions are vacated, the board
nominates candidates, subject to appointment by the mayor of St.
Louis or the St. Louis County Executive. The Commissioners have
the fiduciary responsibility for the institution.
“They are the governing body, responsible for the museum’s collection,
the endowment, the building, and the experience of the public in
the abstract sense,” Benjamin explains. “They also make sure the
professional staff takes the best advantage of museum resources
on behalf of the public. And of course,” he adds, “they hire the
director.”
Commissioners may serve two four-year terms, then serve the board
as permanent Honrary Trustees. They meet 10 times a year.
About 50 Trustees, recommended by the Nominating Committee and appointed
by the Commissioners, are advisors to the Commissioners. Both serve
on the museum’s several operating committees, ranging from development,
membership and education to finance and acquisitions.
“Board members take their voluntary responsibilities seriously and
that has really benefited the museum,” Sincoff says.
Benjamin agrees. “I’m so impressed by the board’s commitment of
time and resources and that’s what makes the museum what it is today.
Being a board member is really a great and worthy challenge.”
Part of that challenge is addressing all the issues of a large and
prominent institution, Benjamin says. “It takes a lot of resources
to run the museum the way St. Louisans have come to expect,” he
explains. Less than half of the museum’s $28 million annual budget
comes from the Zoo-Museum tax district, Benjamin explains. “Our
costs tend to go up each year,” he says, “especially if we’ve had
any major acquisitions.”
Then there’s the payroll, plus insurance, heating, cooling and maintaining
the museum’s wonderful Beaux Arts-style building, designed by famed
architect Cass Gilbert as the Palace of Fine Arts for the 1904 World’s
Fair.
“We look to both the Commissioners and the Trustees for financial
leadership, to be museum members at the highest level, to search
out corporate sponsorships and to participate in other funding,
capital campaigns and the annual gala,” Benjamin says.
“Those who are collectors are urged to donate a work or two from
their collection,” Benjamin says. “The public needs to see the board
is passionate, so they also can be passionate, about time, dollars,
works of art and connections here or elsewhere. Those are all vital
to the health of the museum’s relationships.”
Keeping the museum healthy in every way has been the goal of the
board’s major strategic plan, which was put into place in 2000.
“The plan will keep us quite busy for a while, and keep us in the
foreground of institutions here and throughout the U.S.,” Sincoff
says.
Also, the museum actively participates in Forest Park. “We’ve embarked
upon improving the top of Art Hill,” Sincoff adds. “We’ve been working
with the Forest Park Advisory Board, which has been very enthusiastic
about what’s going on.”
Popular new programs are drawing good crowds, Sincoff notes. A Ford
Motor Company grant allows the museum to offer Ford Free First Friday
Nights on the first Friday of each month through early next year.
“But the most important thing is that our basic collection is just
wonderful,” Sincoff says. “And all the time we’re getting more art
into the museum.”
Among those are three paintings which have hung in the museum since
1999 and recently became part of the permanent collection—the famous
“election series” by celebrated Missouri artist George Caleb Bingham,
valued at $45 million and donated by Bank of America.
“When we have a purchase at a certain level of value, the Commissioners
get involved,” Benjamin says. “But since these paintings were a
gift,” Sincoff adds, “our involvement was simply being absolutely
delighted.”
Pam Droog is a St. Louis-based free-lance writer. |
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