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2 museums find money to go separate ways

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Message: If you are having trouble reading this email, you may view this article online at: http://www.jweekly.com/19337/full/19337/2-museums-find-money-to-go-separate-ways/ 2 museums find money to go separate ways Friday, February 21, 2003 | by JOE ESKENAZI Despite dire financial projections that led the Magnes Museum to slash its budget and staff last year, both its San Francisco and Berkeley components insist they'll have cash on hand as they transition toward independence. On Feb. 13, the Magnes' combined board overwhelmingly voted to undo the 13-month-old merger of the Jewish Museum San Francisco and Berkeley's Judah L. Magnes, as the museum's executive board in January recommended unanimously. Frances Dinkelspiel, a Judah L. Magnes board member, said she hoped the institutions would be going their separate ways by April, but no official date has been set. Connie Wolf, the CEO and executive director of the combined museums, said the San Francisco museum still possesses millions of dollars in previously pledged capital funds plus significant "cash on hand," including promised donations toward the annual operating budget from a pair of anonymous donors. Wolf noted that Berkeley's museum possesses $500,000 in previously donated funds. Seymour Fromer, the museum's founder and director emeritus, noted that a pair of anonymous donors—probably not the same ones—also had approached him with an offer to make large-scale gifts in the event of a de-merger. "We're in good shape. We own two buildings with no debt. We have some endowment," said Fromer. "We have two endowed positions and, I can't mention names, but people have come forward to contribute funds to help in transition." The museums also will have to separate money that had been mingled during the cantankerous merger. A "de-merger committee" with three board members from each institution was established Feb. 13 to separate the museums' assets and liabilities. Wolf will remain at the helm of the Jewish Museum San Francisco, while the Judah L. Magnes has yet to name an interim executive director. Irv Rabin was voted Judah L. Magnes chairman of the board, while Roselyne "Cissie" Swig was elected to the same position across the bay. The museums were merged in January of last year largely to prevent hitting up the same donors within the community for two separate capital campaigns. The combined museum planned two new structures—one in San Francisco's Yerba Buena Gardens area and the other in Berkeley in a building the Judah L. Magnes had obtained on Allston Way. The Berkeley museum is currently on Russell Street. Now the de-merged museums will once again be on their own, with responsibility for building and fund-raising. However, the Berkeley institution got a jump-start when former Magnes Co-chairs Warren Hellman and Daniel Offit personally paid off the remaining $183,000 owed on a line of credit, and Rabin and other philanthropists picked up the $1.3 million mortgage on the Allston Way structure. Over the past year, a number of East Bay critics accused the Jewish Museum San Francisco of conducting a hostile takeover rather than a merger. They pointed to the Judah L. Magnes' closure all last summer and the November cuts of $2 million and eight staffers, which left the museum virtually bereft of curators. In protest of the cuts, most of the museum's volunteer docents quit, which was met with apparent indifference at the time by Wolf. Wolf, Hellman and others emphatically denied the takeover charges, and repeatedly pointed out that job cuts were distributed equally on both sides of the Bay. As late as mid-December, Hellman told the Bulletin that dismantling the merger would be a "lousy alternative, a lousy option." Yet one month later, both he and Offit urged in their resignation letter that the museums de-merge, stating cooperation between the San Francisco and East Bay contingents would be impossible. Hellman and Offit's blessing of the de-merger was the death knell of the Magnes Museum, according to Dinkelspiel. "Warren and Danny Offit, they were truth-tellers saying, 'This thing isn't working.' Once they said it out loud, it became very clear," she said. The resignation letter "is what really set this process rolling. It was just, in some ways, a reminder of how exhausting this whole thing has been." Officials from both museums said the merger's demise would allow the institutions to focus, once again, on serving the public. Joyce Linker, a board member at the Jewish Museum San Francisco, said several traveling exhibitions may soon appear in the city. Wolf noted that $17 million in capital funds remain pledged toward the museum's oft-delayed future home at the Jessie Street Substation, originally a $100 million design by Berlin-based Daniel Libeskind. Late last year, Hellman told the Bulletin that the building may be five to 10 years away, with a cost that should be scaled back to $50 million or $60 million. But Wolf said things may move more quickly now because, at the time of Hellman's prediction, "we hadn't put our attention to rolling up our sleeves and figuring out what to do in Yerba Buena because so much of our attention was given to Berkeley." Rabbi Brian Lurie, former president of the Jewish Museum San Francisco, claimed that, in September 2000, more than $63 million was pledged "or solidly in the pipeline" for the Jessie Street project. To many in the East Bay academic and artistic community, who had been the merger's harshest critics, the decision to untie the knot was a cause for celebration. "Oh, it's great, great news," said Deborah Kaufman, founder of the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival and a Judah L. Magnes member for more than 20 years. "The last few months have been really gut-wrenching for people who were close to the museum, and the de-merger is really a release after all this heartache because it allows each museum to really follow its mission. "It was never a good match. I'm not sure any lessons can be learned from [the merger] except it was a giant waste of time and money." When asked if the Judah L. Magnes would re-hire dismissed former executive director Susan Morris, Dinkelspiel replied that "we are not going to revert to the old Magnes. We are going to create a new Magnes. We're not looking to hire any staff at this time." Dinkelspiel added that the outpouring of support for the museum during the time of the staff and budget cuts must become tangible to keep the institution afloat. "There was a real uproar from people when Russell Street was closed for the summer, and when the curators were let go. People expressed concern that something was being destroyed, and I'm really hoping that people who care about the Judah L. Magnes will rise to the occasion and send us checks of 25, 50 or 100 dollars to help get us back on our feet," she said. "We will get out with some money, but both boards are going to be in need of some more."

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