As the Museo Alameda prepared to mount the highest-profile exhibit in its brief history this summer, behind the scenes museum officials were struggling to keep the doors open.
Utility bills were unpaid. Attendance was far short of initial projections. More than $200,000 in donations pledged to the museum hadn't been received. Officials weren't sure if they could meet payroll.
The $12 million hot pink museum in Market Square opened two years ago amid a flurry of confetti and high hopes that it would anchor a new Latino cultural corridor.
It had multimillion-dollar support from corporate heavy-hitters such as the SBC (now AT&T) Foundation, Ford Motor Co. and the Ford Motor Co. Fund. The Pedro V. Cortez family, which owns Mi Tierra restaurant at Market Square, stepped up with a $1 million donation.
Since then, however, hopes for the museum have given way to concern for the fledgling institution's future.
A 2008 audit submitted to the city's Office of Cultural Affairs in May showed the Alameda National Center for Latino Arts and Culture — which operates the museum, the Alameda Theater, a design school and an office building — suffered a $1.47 million loss on revenues of $1.97 million last year.
The organization's cash reserves were down to $7,302.
The center also has had trouble paying its debt of about $1 million.
The Alameda has gone through three executive directors in its short history. To rein in costs, the staff was trimmed from 30 to a skeleton crew of eight shortly before Guillermo Nicolas was named president in September.
The museum, which was free to visit last year, reinstated admission fees last month to increase revenue. It also depends on city funds and donation pledges, which are “slowly trickling in,” Alameda board Chairwoman Margarita Flores said.
“The message that we have is critical to get out there, but if we don't have the financial backing to do it in a responsible way, I'm not going to sit here and tell you we're going to stay open and continue to get in debt,” said Flores, senior director of community relations at Anheuser-Busch Inc.
Economic downturn
After repeated delays because of fundraising difficulties, the Museo Alameda opened in April 2007 as the first affiliate of the Smithsonian Institution.
That affiliation gave the museum access to Smithsonian exhibitions such as “¡Azúcar! The Life and Music of Celia Cruz,” which opened in 2007, and objects from Smithsonian collections.
Thousands of visitors poured through the Museo Alameda's doors the first weekend. In the following months, annual attendance fell short of the projected 400,000.
In its first year, the museum drew 140,000 visitors. Numbers have fallen steadily. In 2008, the museum counted 45,000 visitors, and the total so far this year is 26,000.
In addition, money problems continued to dog the museum as the economy headed into a downturn.
“My fondest wish and desire is that the Alameda, which is a very important national institution and has done incredible work, is able to be sustained and prosper,” said founding chairman Henry Muñoz III, who stepped down in May. “I think it's unfortunate that it opened right before the economy cratered, and I think it's unfortunate that it hasn't had — apart from Henry Muñoz — a consistent, sustainable development effort.”
Until he left this year, Muñoz was, in fact, the most visible and consistent leader of the museum he brought into being.
Director Laura Esparza left a little more than a month after the grand opening. Ruth Medellin resigned soon after. Eliseo Rios, who became interim director of the museum after Esparza's departure, left in July after a year on the job.
Nicolas, former director of the Florida-based Home Shopping Español, took over an organization in financial distress — one paying out $1.2 million for staff salaries and contract personnel, leaving only $770,000 to cover programs, marketing and building overhead expenses, according to the 2008 audit.
Expensive proposition
How did it get there? While Muñoz blames the economy and a lack of consistent fundraising, Flores and Nicolas said the museum sometimes lived beyond its means.
“The museum is an expensive proposition,” Flores said. “Could we have (had) better oversight ... or could it have been done in a tighter business model to not have run up these expenses? Sure.”
Rather than pointing fingers, they prefer to look forward.
“It's an institution that has provided good shows, good economic development for Market Square,” Nicolas said. “It has brought in tourists; it has educated a lot of our own people in the community. All the good things are there. It's just a matter of righting the ship.”
Flores and Nicolas have taken aggressive steps to shore up the museum, including reducing the staff and paring down the budget from $3.4 million to what Nicolas calls a “do-able” $1.9 million.
They also have implemented practical measures: requiring board members to donate $1,500 annually and re-routing visitors so they exit through the gift shop.
“If we didn't have that debt, we wouldn't be running a deficit,” Nicolas said. “Because if we live within our means and we only spend what we take in, we'd be fine.”
The problem is finding corporate funders and individuals willing to help bail out the organization.
“It has been very hard to find people that want to give money to pay off debt,” Nicolas said. “That's a tough thing to do. That's my greatest challenge right now — trying to figure out how to pay that because I want to rebuild our credit and our credibility.”
Can't let it fall
George Cortez, part owner of Mi Tierra Corp., said he only recently learned about the museum's financial problems. He voiced his support for Flores and Nicolas.
“This museo is the legacy to our parents,” said Cortez, who was part of the early effort to create a Latino museum in San Antonio. “This is an affirmation to the younger generations that are coming forward. This is an American story of who we are. So, can we let this bandera (flag) fall? Absolutely not.”
The museum receives arts funding from the Office of Cultural Affairs. In addition, the city, which owns the three buildings the Alameda manages, gave the museum $315,000 in 2007 to underwrite free admission.
If the Alameda is seeking additional city funding for the museum, it won't be able to count on Mayor Julián Castro as an ally. His wife, Erica, is a member of the board — though her involvement has been limited — and Castro said he would recuse himself if the issue came up for a council vote.
“It's a significant institution that merits serious consideration in its request, but I'd rather avoid even the appearance of a conflict of interest,” Castro said.
Deputy City Manager Pat DiGiovanni said the city isn't in position to help the museum pay its debts but is exploring other ways to help.
“We have an interest in seeing them stay there and remain viable there because they are in our building,” DiGiovanni said. “We don't want to see that building go dark.”
The county also has an interest in the organization. Last year, Bexar County commissioners earmarked $6 million from venue tax funds for restoration of the Alameda Theater.
“We have to be careful that our money goes to what the voters approved, which was for capital improvements to the theater,” County Judge Nelson Wolff said. “So we're trying to see how they're going to come along and how they're going to work their issues out. So we're monitoring it right now.”
Last month, “Jesse Treviño: Mi Vida,” the first major retrospective devoted to the San Antonio artist responsible for the landmark “Spirit of Healing” mural at Christus Santa Rosa Children's Hospital downtown, opened at the museum. The Alameda went forward with the show only after the initial $200,000 budget was whittled down to $75,000 and funding had been secured, Flores said.
“We're not in it to go into the former model where ‘Let's make the expense and see who takes care of it,'” she said.
Exhibit attendance has been “brisk,” Nicolas said. “The people are really excited about the show, and I think it has breathed some new life into the museum, which is very important.”
Just before the retrospective opened, the museum reinstated admission fees. When the show closes at the end of February, only one floor of the museum will be programmed at a time to leave a floor available for rental.
“I think that we saw from the Jesse Treviño two-day opening the interest our community has in continuing to see these kinds of exhibits,” Flores said. “So we hope that along with the effort that we're doing, that the economy eases up and we'll be able to get through this very difficult economic time.”
