North Miami Fights to Keep Its Art Museum - posted by FFAB

Babacar M’Bow was appointed by the city manager to be the Museum of Contemporary Art’s director. Credit Angel Valentin for The New York Times   

North Miami Fights to Keep Its Art Museum

NYT - By PATRICIA COHEN MAY 18, 2014

NORTH MIAMI, Fla. — Anyone looking to meet the director of the tiny but highly regarded Museum of Contemporary Art here has two choices. Head into the museum, where its interim director, Alex Gartenfeld, has an office. Or go next door to City Hall, where the city manager’s appointee to the same position, Babacar M’Bow, is essentially working in exile.

The dueling directors are just part of the chaos emanating from a bitter showdown that has erupted between MoCA, as the museum is known, and the city that founded it.

The museum’s board, which has not approved Mr. M’Bow’s appointment, wants to leave this working-class city and merge with the Bass Museum of Art in Miami Beach, its wealthier and more glamorous neighbor. It says that North Miami has neglected the museum building and failed to support a needed expansion.

City officials, in turn, accuse the board of secretly plotting to make off with North Miami’s cultural patrimony. “The collection belongs to the city, and they are trying to steal it,” Mayor Lucie Tondreau said.

Alex Gartenfeld is the museum’s director, according to the institution’s board of trustees. Credit Museum of Contemporary Art, North Miami

The departure may not resonate on the scale of, say, the Dodgers leaving Brooklyn, but the threatened loss of the city’s only art museum to a flashier oceanside neighbor is producing a sizable dose of rancor here.

Museum officials say the city has changed the passwords on email accounts. City employees say the museum cut off access to its bank statements. Both sides have filed lawsuits.

Yet the legal wrangling may overshadow the more profound issues that confront this and other cities across the country that are engaged in complicated public-private partnerships.

Who owns a museum? The city that founded it? The community it serves? The donors who helped finance it or the board members entrusted to run it?

Read the full article here

Intriguing and sad really.  I hope MoCA gets it act together. The museum has always struggled with its identity, partly because of the location.   But because it has struggled it has also pushed the limits to get noticed.  Some of the most challenging shows in South Florida have been at MoCA and I hope that continues.  

To me the museum was serving a gap, not just in what it chose to show but North Miami is a community that was lacking a strong cultural institution.   

My criticism would be that the art shown did not strive to reflect the community, a failure of most museums these days.  I'm all for bringing in shows to expand an audiences world but also think artwork produced by members of the community or from the communities original home country should be shown.

And to read that the museum board (or some on it) want to move the museum's collection to another city entirely?!?  Every board member should be committed to the organization and the community it serves.  

I would be looking for new board members.  New members that could build on past successes and who understand the importance of the organization to the community it serves.  New members that had the skills to fund raise for improvements and repairs and not complain or rely upon cash strapped city governments for funds.   GL

 

Florida Arts Programs Get Highest Funding Ever From Lawmakers - posted by FFAB

From "The Hobbit" at Fort Lauderdale Children's Theatre

Credit Fort Lauderdale Children's Theatre

 

http://news.wjct.org - The Actors' Playhouse executive director Barbara Stein says most of the Coral Gables theater's paid performers are from South Florida.
 
“We hire some people out of New York, too, but our goal is to hire as many capable and qualified for each production Florida based actors that we can,” Stein says. 

The Playhouse sits on a historic site where an old movie house was converted into a performing arts center. It became the catalyst for Coral Gables’ downtown redevelopment. Now, it’s eligible for a $150,000 cultural affairs grant from the state. Stein says the money will help produce shows with cultural significance, like the musical "Ragtime."

Monty Python’s SPAMALOT at Actors’ Playhouse at the Miracle Theatre (2014)

Credit George Schiavone

 

“One of the cultures represented in the show is the early black-American culture,” Stein says. “The show’s being presented not only to the general public, but to school performances during Black History Month.”
 
The Florida Legislature approved over $43 million in the next state budget just for the arts. 

That’s almost a fourfold increase from the current budget, according to Michael Spring. He directs the Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs and chairs the Florida Cultural Alliance. 

“This amount would be the largest state arts budget ever enacted,” Spring said. “The last budget that we had that was even near this was back in 2006 when the Legislature passed a budget of about $33 million.” 

Hundreds of groups are eligible for grants from the state, and nearly a quarter of them are located in Miami-Dade County. Spring says the state grant money leads to all kinds of jobs ranging from stage carpenters to museum curators. 

“The arts employ more than 22,000 full-time workers right here in our community,” Spring says. “One of our arts organization’s directors came into my office, and she said, 'I just have to tell you that we were just having a meeting to announce layoffs of staff members in my organization, and then this news came through about the state Legislature and the arts, and it will forestall our having to lay off people.'”

The cast of Actors’ Playhouse’s Carbonell Award-winning production of Les Misérables (2009).

Credit Alberto Romeu

 

Avoiding those layoffs may depend on Gov. Rick Scott. He has line-item veto power and could choose to cut the arts budget, although he accepted all of the Legislature’s grant recommendations last year.
 
Spring says “if the Governor approves this budget, Florida will have one of the largest arts budgets in the nation." 

The Fort Lauderdale Children’s Theatre is eligible for a $76,000 grant to help with stage productions and bolster community outreach projects.
“Some of the programs we work on are working with families that are going through a terminal illness or health crisis and using the arts to communicate and celebrate the time that they do have together,” executive artistic director Janet Erlick said. “We do a lot of work with schools for literacy improvement and anti-bullying.”

"The Little Mermaid" at Fort Lauderdale Children's Theatre

Credit Fort Lauderdale Children's Theatre

 

She sees a great economic engine in the arts.
 
“The numbers -- if you look at groups that are wonderful at tracking that kind of thing, like Florida Cultural Alliance or Americans For the Arts – show a return on every dollar invested somewhere on a minimum end of like $5 and all the way up to $22 or more,” Erlick says.
 
“In terms of putting money into something and especially taxpayers money that has to be guarded and stewarded in a very careful way, I think there’s very little that will give that level of return on the investment of a dollar.”
 
Gov. Scott has until early June to analyze the budget and decide whether to veto any of it, including arts funding.

 

Article found here 

 

This was great news for the citizens of the State of Florida.  As a member of the Council on Arts and Culture I know first hand what projects and organizations are getting funds under this budget. 

Over the past 4 years I have had the privilege to  get to know the many fine not for profit cultural organizations in our State and I can assure everyone these are important organizations that significantly contribute to our fellow citizens' quality of life.    

The DCA’s grant process in the State of Florida is a model for the rest of the Country.  The projects and organizations that are awarded grant funds have been thoroughly reviewed and represent real needs and shovel ready jobs.  The projects awarded are properly budgeted, have timelines with benchmarks for success and have demonstrated how the completed project will positively impact the culture and economy of the State of Florida.  Most of the projects are to update and improve existing facilities or build new facilities that will be used every day by the communities they serve.   These funds will stay in the communities by going to plumbers to update bathrooms, electricians to repair outdated lighting systems and construction crews to repave parking lots and build new centers.  The grant monies are required to be matched by private funds by at least 2:1 to maximize their impact.  This private backing is a testament to the value these organizations bring to their communities.

Arts funding was at an all-time low just four years ago and we ranked 49^th in State arts funding per capita . With this budget request Florida will regain its stature and move back into the top 5 in States arts funding per capita.  

This years Legislators support has been instrumental in making sure Florida can once again proclaim Florida truly is the “State of the Arts.”  GL

Video - Path of Beauty - Alone in a Museum - posted by FFAB

Path of Beauty
Path of beauty - Director's Cut Version.
A women walks in the Musée du Louvre, alone.
The woman : Eve Claudel
Director : Florent Igla
Music : Sigur Rós - "Suð Í Eyrum" This a director's cut version of a movie I've made for clients Musée du Louvre and Nintendo.


Have you ever been lucky enough to find yourself alone in a museum? 
If your a museum nerd like me getting to spend time alone in a museum is always special.  

I spent a little time everyday one summer in the Centre Pomidou in Paris.  After a week I figured out when the museum was least crowded and would return everyday at that time.  I would go straight to the top floor knowing that everyone else would start at the bottom that way I had the galleries to myself for an hour or so.  

I have also spent time alone in the Frick Museum in 
New York.  Whenever I'm in New York I make sure to visit the museum.  I arrive right when the museum opens and make a b line to my favorite painting, a Rembrandt self portrait. The painting is hung in a large hall that's completely on the opposite side from the museum entrance which means no one else taking a tour makes it to the room for 40 minutes.  That gives me plenty of time by myself in the large room with all the great paintings.  

The Boca Raton Museum has a great outdoor space with several large sculptures that is almost always empty.  It's my daughters favorite spot at the museum because she can run around and gets to touch all the artwork, two things she can't do inside.  Like the others I mentioned what makes it special is being alone, quiet and unrushed with the artwork in a museum space.  GL

Ringling Museum of Art/SMOA Receives $300,000 Grant - posted by FFAB

View of Sarasota Museum of Art/SMOA scale model back exterior entrance

Ringling College's Sarasota Museum of Art/SMOA Receives $300,000 Grant From The William G. and Marie Selby Foundation– Leaving Just $509,435 Raise to Complete Campaign

Sarasota, FL (PRWEB) May 02, 2014

Ringling College of Art and Design president Dr. Larry R. Thompson and Wendy G. Surkis, president of the Sarasota Museum of Art/SMOA today announced a $300,000 grant from The Selby Foundation as a vote of confidence toward completing the $22 million fundraising goal for the museum project by May 31, 2014. 

The Selby grant follows the successful completion of both a 'Million Dollar Match' created by SMOA Board Member and Ringling College Trustee Elaine Keating, and an additional $1 Million Challenge from an anonymous donor, which was announced March 22, 2014. Since the $1 Million Challenge was revealed, $940,565 has been raised of the necessary $1.45 million remaining. The $1 Million Challenge will be met only if SMOA secures the final balance of $510,125 during the next 30 days. 

Dr. Sarah H. Pappas, President, The Selby Foundation expressed her Board's support of the SMOA project: "The Selby Board was pleased to support Ringling College of Art and Design's SMOA project that will help preserve an iconic building in Sarasota and establish a new art museum at the same time. We hope our $300,000 capping grant will motivate other donors to meet the challenge of the anonymous donor to raise a million dollars by May 31 to complete this important project."

For more information on contributing to the Sarasota Museum of Art/SMOA, contact: SMOA: Wendy G. Surkis at 941.309.SMOA (7662) | http://www.SarasotaMuseumOfArt.org.
Ringling College Office for Advancement: 941.309.4733 | smoa@ringling.edu

Read more here

Haitian Cultural Month Kick Off in South Florida - posted by FFAB

Haiti Focus 2014

As South Florida celebrates Haitian Cultural Month, the African American Research Library and Cultural Center in Fort Lauderdale is kicking off its series of events with a vibrant tribute to Haitian art through artists living in South Florida.

See the works of 10 Haitian artists whose scope of talent embody the sumptuousness and splendor of Haitian Art.

On display from May 1st - 31st. 

African American Research Library and Cultural Center info

Pérez Art Museum Miami: Adrian Esparza, "Wake and Wonder" - posted by FFAB

Pérez Art Museum Miami: Adrian Esparza, "Wake and Wonder"

From the Pérez Art Museum Miami’s exhibition, AMERICANA: Formalizing Craft, this is Adrian Esparza’s Wake and Wonder, a 12 x 30 foot installation rewoven from a Mexican serape blanket into colorful, geometric patterns on the museum’s walls.

I love the process of deconstruction and reconstruction.  GL

Christie's Auction House Turned to Skatepark to Promote Upcoming Auction - posted by FFAB

If I Live I'll See You Tuesday: Contemporary Art Auction

Great video of Chris Martin skating around Christie’s to promote their next auction.  Beautifully shot and perfectly edited to the music.  The video also gives you a backstage peak into the bowls of the auction house something most of us will never get to see.  Chris is a lucky man, I have always wanted to skate around a museum or large exhibition hall, what fun that would be.  Gets me thinking, what would be the best museum to skate?  The Guggenheim in New York, right?  Start at the top, oh the possibilities!  

The Guggenheim

From Christies; 

This season, Christie’s presents an entirely new auction representing a uniquely dark and unflinching view of some of the best contemporary art created over the past five decades. Entitled If I Live I’ll See You Tuesday, after a work by Richard Prince featuring the same phrase, it includes works by Jean-Michel Basquiat, John Currin, Wade Guyton and Christopher Wool, among many others. Mark Grotjahn's Untitled (In and Out of the Darkness Face 43.01), Jeff Koons's Two Ball Total Equilibrium Tank (Spalding Dr. J Silver Series), Richard Prince's Untitled (Cowboy) Andy Warhol's Little Electric Chair are just a few of the highlights from this unique and distinctive sale. From the masterfully macabre to the curiously captivating, it is an auction unlike any you have experienced before.

Auction Times
May 12, 6:00pm, Lots 1-36
 
Sale Location
Christie's Saleroom
20 Rockefeller Plaza, New York

Link to more info
 
 

Florida Legislature recommends full funding for ALL DCA grants' programs - posted by FFAB

The Florida Legislature passed the 2014-2015 state budget on Friday, 
May 2nd. It's been ordered enrolled Monday, May 5th.

In the 2014-2015 state budget, the Florida Legislature recommends full funding for ALL Five of the Division of Cultural Affairs (DCA) grants' programs. 
 
Cultural and Museum Grants $24,166,047 - 307 grants
Specific Cultural Projects/Culture Builds Florida Grants $1,165,486 - 57 grants
State Touring Program $200,000 - TBD
Cultural Facilities Grants $10,781,584 - 28 projects
Cultural Endowment Program $6,960,000 - 29 state matches

Total Appropriations Recommended: $43,273,117

County-by-County list of Qualified 2014-2015 Grant Applicants for categories above (except STP presenters) that will receive full funding of their grants if the Governor approves budget. This document contains links to each applicant's Web site.

Details of Budget Breakdown:

Access here a breakdown of above recommended appropriations and other arts, cultural, and historical appropriation recommendations in Florida's 2014-2015 proposed budget. Links are provided within this document that take you to all recommended grant applicants by category and county.

Proposed 2014-2015 State Budget: Access here the complete 2014-2015 proposed state budget that was passed by the Florida Legislature on May 2.



We have one more step to secure these 2014-2015 appropriations for these state grants' programs: the Governor's approval. 

The budget will be sent to the Governor's office for his review and final approval. The Governor must sign or veto legislation within 15 days of transmittal or it becomes law without his signature. House Bill 5001, the state's 2014-2015 budget was ordered enrolled today. Once it is submitted to the Governor's office, the 15-day count begins. We'll let you know when the budget is submitted to his office.

Our strategy is to generate thoughtful e-mails and letters to the Governor and his budget staff from local arts agencies who can write on behalf of all the potential grantees in their respective counties. The Florida Cultural Alliance will reach out today with details to Florida's local arts agencies to follow up with the Governor's office and his budget staff to help secure these state arts and cultural grants-budget line items.

We are optimistic these DCA and DHR appropriations will be approved by the Governor since all of these line items are programs established by rule and administered by the Florida Department of State. These state grants' programs also help achieve many of the goals the Governor has for the state: creation of jobs and a world-class education system, government accountability, and expanded tourism.

Please write to Governor Scott and let him know you support the Arts Funding included in House Bill 5001.  

All information contained in this post was compiled by the 
Florida Cultural Alliance 
@FLCULALL

Florida Nonprofits Receive $1.2 Million in NEA Funding - posted by FFAB

Florida Nonprofits Receive $1.2 Million in NEA Funding

The National Endowment for the Arts announced that in their most recent round of funding, Florida organizations will receive grants totaling more than $1.2 million dollars. In addition to the Florida Department of State, Division of Cultural Affairs state partnership grant, seventeen Florida nonprofits will receive grants ranging from $10,000 to $60,000.

NEA Acting Chairman Shigekawa said, "Working in partnership with the state and regional arts organizations is a key element of the NEA’s work in ensuring the arts are available to all. These organizations help to extend the NEA’s reach to thousands of communities across the country, while also carrying out innovative programming in such areas as education, creative placemaking, and cultural tourism.”

You can read more about this current round of grants here or view a state-by-state listing of all grantees. The full list of Florida grantees with a description of their projects and award amounts is found here.

New passport program with Miami Art Museums Alliance (MAMA) - posted by FFAB

The Miami Art Museums Alliance Passport

Get your passport stamped at all seven art museums listed from May 1st through September 1st. , and enter a drawing to win VIP passes to Miami’s hottest art fairs during Miami Art Week/December 2014, annual memberships to all seven museums, and more fabulous prizes and art experiences! Turn in your stamped passport to the visitor services representative at the admission desk of the final museum you visit, to be entered into the drawing.
 
About
Participating Museums

Success for Auction Houses in China’s Fine Arts Market - posted by FFAB

Broad Strokes of Success for Auction Houses in China’s Fine Arts Market
Posted on April 30, 2014 by China Briefing

SHANGHAI – London-based auction house Christie’s held its second-ever art sale in Shanghai last week, netting US$20 million in sales of fine art, including a Warhol, Picasso and Chinese artist Zao among the three highest-priced sales. While still modest by international standards, the auction’s 63-27 ratio of Chinese-to-foreign successful bidders illustrates that a mature taste for the fine arts is well cemented among China’s nouveau-riche.

As an intangible, non-functional commodity, fine art has long held important cultural capital, in China as elsewhere. After a nearly decade-long boom, in which China’s fine arts market grew 35-fold to US$14 billion in 2011, and a major dip in 2012, the market resurged in 2013, with total sales of nearly US$16 billion, making it the world’s second largest by value.

As a sign of the times, the IPO of China’s largest auction house, state-owned Poly Culture Group, in February of this year went for US$331 million. A subsidiary of the group, Polyculture, is the world’s third-largest auction house by revenue and holds the largest share of the China market by value (with RMB 7.9 billion in sales in 2013).

Long active in Hong Kong, foreign firms Sotheby’s and Christie’s have been competing for shares in the Chinese mainland auction market since being granted approval in 2012 and 2013 respectively, and are set to ramp up their China activities this year.

Sotheby’s made the earlier entrance into China through a joint venture with state-owned Beijing GeHua Art Co., under which it is licensed to conduct sales in the Beijing Freeport and other special zones. The firm made headlines last month when it sold a small Ming-Dynasty era bowl in Hong Kong for a record US$36.3 million to a Shanghai collector.

Christie’s inaugural auction in mainland China, held in Shanghai last year, brought in total sales of US$24 million, including the first-ever Picasso sold on a mainland auction. In April, the company expanded to Beijing by opening an art space at the Imperial Club to be used as a multi-purpose platform for exhibitions, lectures, special programs and private shows.

By basing their operations in Shanghai, Christie’s and its buyers are able to take advantage of preferential tax policies in the city’s Free Trade Zone. For example, the auction house is able to import works of art into the Zone at no cost of customs duty – and as long as the art is kept within the boundaries of the Zone, the buyer is not required to pay an imports tax on it.

Both auction houses, however, remain barred from selling “cultural relics” dating from pre-revolutionary China – an extremely lucrative market outside the country, valued at US$14.3 billion in 2012.

RELATED: Chris Devonshire-Ellis on Art and Culture in Understanding China Business

There is a darker side to the upsurge of interest in fine art, however, including market rigging, money laundering and forgery.

It has become commonplace for Chinese buyers to win auctions by placing exorbitant bids and then, when it comes time to pay the bill, questioning the authenticity of the piece as a means to annul the transaction. Subsequently, similar pieces held in their own collections will be valued at a higher price as a result of the inflated bids.

The problem is so severe that it has been identified as a major cause of the dip in the Chinese art market in 2012. Industry watchers point out that only 53 percent of Polyculture’s sales in the first 10 months of 2013 were actually settled – compare with an average of 80 percent of sales in Hong Kong.

A second type of misuse, coined in Chinese as “elegant bribery” (雅贿), consists of disguised money transfers in which works of art are first gifted to government officials, then repurchased on auction by the initial owner for much inflated prices. Here, the intangible nature of art prices makes them particularly susceptible to money laundering.

The threat of forgery also hangs heavy over the Chinese auction houses. Not only may buyers dispute the authenticity of their purchases for ulterior motives as above, but forgeries circulate at even the most prestigious auctions, as in two recent cases involving items purchased on Sotheby’s.

While the pedigree of international auction houses like Christie’s and Sotheby’s goes a long way toward vouching the authenticity of auction items, generally Chinese domestic firms do not benefit from the same reputation.

China’s market for fine art is not all Picasso's and dynastic regalia. The “affordable art” market is also rapidly expanding in the wake of the growing purchasing power of the middle class. Illustrating the potential of this market, while roughly 70 percent of art purchased in the West is classified as affordable, in China this accounts for only 30 percent of the market.

The main Chinese player in this industry, Surge Art, allows customers to purchase art from their website at prices ranging up to about US$5,000. The company also showcases the work of emerging artists in art fairs held in major cities across China – which have been known to attract 10,000 visitors each.

This is good news for both the high- and low-end art markets in China, especially in light of analysis pointing to China’s comparative lack of galleries as an impediment to further industry growth. - 

See more at: http://www.china-briefing.com/news/2014/04/30/broad-strokes-success-auction-houses-chinas-fine-arts-market.html#sthash.oVxT3jPk.dpuf

Ringling Museum of Art celebrates new U.S. Postal Service Circus Stamps. - posted by FFAB

Vintage Circus Poster Stamps: First Day of Issue Ceremony

Free Event
When:
May 5, 2014
Time:
11:00am

Where:
Circus Museum
Ceremony in front of Ca' d'Zan

Be the first to see the new U.S. Postal Service Limited Edition Vintage Circus Poster Stamps. This will be an event for all ages!

Clowns - Ringmaster - Lion & Gladiator Wagon

Plus, a rare opportunity to hear the 100 year old Bell Wagon featured in Cecil B. DeMille's The Greatest Show on Earth.

Stamps and memorabilia will be available for purchase on site! In celebration, The Ringling Circus Museum will be open and free to attendees of the ceremony.

This event is free and open to the public. The ceremony will take place in front of Ca' d'Zan. No RSVP needed! 

Ringling Museum website

"All Decked Out" Skateboarding Exhibit at Polk Museum of Art - posted by FFAB

All Decked Out!
April 26, 2014 – July 20, 2014
Perkins Gallery

As part of Innoskate 2014, the exhibition All Decked Out! will celebrate the artistic and innovative spirit of skateboarding. Polk Museum of Art is proud to host an exhibition of contemporary artworks that smack of the edgy aesthetic so often associated with skating. Co-organized by Chad and Suzie Cardoza, two Tampa-based artists and independent curators of all things skate, this exhibition includes a diverse checklist of works by artists from around the country. Painted skate decks, skateboard photography, skate-related sketches, and assembled sculptures will coalesce to provide audiences a renewed glimpse into the unique and creative state of contemporary skateboard culture.

Polk Museum of Art website and show information

Skateboarding is as much a culture and lifestyle as it is a sport.  The skateboard aesthetic was formed right from the beginning while gear and tricks were still being created.  Some of the artwork found on decks deserves to be considered worthy of hanging in a museum setting.  

Elevating a street design like this will draw in a new crowd that might not have gone to a museum otherwise at the same time educating the regular museum goers to a culture they had not previously been exposed to.  This is the kind of value a museum can bring to it's community.  Bravo, Polk! GL

Tampa art museum seeking $850,000 in U.S. tax credits - posted by FFAB

Tampa art museum seeking $850,000 in U.S. tax credits 
By Kevin Wiatrowski | Tribune Staff

TAMPA — The Tampa Museum of Art hopes to land an injection of cash from a federal tax credit program intended to boost investment in low-income neighborhoods.
Museum officials are asking the Tampa City Council for permission to use their 50-year lease of the city-owned museum as collateral for the New Markets Tax Credit, a federal program that encourages private investment in struggling areas.
The funding is technically a loan but it will be forgiven after the seven-year life of the tax credits, said Michael Qualizza, chief financial officer with the Urban Development Fund.
Museum officials expect to get about $850,000 through the tax credit program, said museum spokeswoman Nancy Kipnis. They’ll use the money to pay off some short-term debt and finance new exhibitions, she said.
“These exhibitions often require significant down payments anywhere from two to four years before the exhibition premieres in Tampa,” Kipnis said.
Putting the lease up as collateral is a requirement of the application, she said.
The mortgage guarantees the creditors get paid in case the museum should default, said Sal Territo, an assistant city attorney.
The art museum is the latest Tampa cultural venue to seek money through the tax credit program.
The Florida Aquarium used the same program last year to secure $1 million for its $15 million “Rising Tides” expansion project.
Before that, the Tampa Bay History Center landed New Markets Tax Credit financing in 2012 to cover the cost of two exhibits. In downtown, the company turning Tampa’s old federal courthouse into a boutique hotel also qualified for tax credit investment in 2012.
The Glazer Children’s Museum, which sits next to the art museum on the south side of Curtis Hixon Waterfront Park, was also built in part with New Markets Tax Credit financing.
All those previous projects were approved when federal officials were still using 2000 Census figures to estimate the income for the areas where the projects sat. Back then, households in the Channelside area — home to the aquarium and history center — had a median income of $30,000. Today’s, after years of residential construction, that figure is about $96,000.
Similarly, downtown Tampa had a median income of less than $12,000 in 2000. About half its 600 residents lived in the Morgan Street Jail. Today, the median income is just over $56,000 and several thousand people live in high-rise apartments and condos.
Kipnis said the museum has based its application on income figures from 2010, which show downtown’s households had a median income of $34,000.
By reducing the museum’s debt, the tax credit income could help it to bring its books more into balance. The museum’s latest publicly available tax filing in 2012 showed it operating with a deficit of more than $405,000.
The same document shows the museum owed about $2.5 million in debt payments, which made up the bulk of its $3 million in expenses.
Grants from the government and other sources accounted for about half the museum’s $2.6 million in revenue that year. It reported less than $90,000 in income from memberships.
 

Call for Art - Theme “Landscapes” Online Art Competition - postedby FFAB

Light Space & Time Online Art Gallery announces their 4th Annual “Landscapes” Juried Art Competition for the month of May 2014. 2D artists from around the world are called upon to make online submissions for inclusion into the Gallery’s June 2014 online group art exhibition. The gallery encourages entries from artists (including photography), regardless of where they reside to apply to this competition by submitting their best landscape art.

The Landscape theme will be the artist’s interpretation and depiction of the natural world, outdoor scenery, geographical environments’, scenic vistas and related landscape subjects.

Here is a link to the 2013 Landscapes Art Exhibition in order to help you see what type of art was accepted in the past. In addition, please review our article post which explains the Judging Criteria for Our Juried Art Competitions in order to provide you with a guide in submitting your entries.

Light Space & Time encourages entries from all 2D artists regardless of where they reside and regardless of their experience or education in the art field to submit their art. A group exhibition of the top five finalists will be held online at the Light Space & Time Online Art Gallery during the month of June 2014. Awards will be for 1st through 5th places. Also, 5 Honorable Mention places will be awarded. In addition, depending on the amount and the quality of the entries, Special Merit and Special Recognition awards will be posted as well.

Important Dates For Participating Artists

Art Competition Opens		April 15, 2014
Deadline for Receiving Entries		May 27, 2014
Results Emailed to Artists & Posted		June 1, 2014
Opening of Online Art Exhibition		June 1, 2014
Award Certificates Emailed to Artists		June 8, 2014
Online Art Exhibition Closes & Archived	XXX	June 30, 2014

Winners of the 2014 “Landscapes” Art Exhibition will receive extensive publicity in the form of email marketing, 70+ press release announcements, 75+ event announcements, social media marketing and website traffic in order to make the art world aware of the artist’s accomplishments. There will also be links back to the artist’s website as part of this achievement.

Artists provide us with your best “Landscape” art now. Submit Here