Miami heat over expansion plan - Front Page - some locals oppose Miami Art Museum's rebuilding plans

Art in America, June, 2003 by Roni Feinstein

Over the past two and a half years, the Miami Art Museum (MAM) has built a firm foundation of local government support for its plan to construct a new, considerably larger facility and a 4-acre sculpture garden in Bicentennial Park, a rundown city-owned property on Biscayne Bay in downtown Miami. In July 2002, the Miami City Commission and Mayor Manny Diaz adopted a resolution designating "Museum Park Miami," which will comprise both MAM and the Miami Museum of Science, as the official development plan for the 29-acre waterfront park. Proponents of the museum's relocation, including many government officials, maintain that Museum Park Miami will not only restore Bicentennial Park's land to public use but also help revitalize downtown and surrounding neighborhoods.

MAM currently occupies a 36,000-square-foot building, part of a cultural center designed by Philip Johnson in 1984, which includes the Miami-Dade Public Library and the Historical Museum of South Florida; all three structures face onto a plaza. Supporters of the museum's plan to construct a 125,000- to 150,000-square-foot facility have long argued that its transformation into a major educational and cultural institution would unite the Miami community, strengthen the area's economy and enhance the city's global profile. Unlike most major American (and indeed international) cities, Miami does not have a dominant art institution. It has, instead, six smaller, independently functioning museums: MAM, the Museum of Contemporary Art in North Miami, the Bass, the Art Museum of Florida International University, the Wolfsonian (a design museum also affiliated with F.I.U.), and the Lowe Museum of the University of Miami. MAM, which has focused on post-WWII art, changed its name from the Center for the Fine Arts and became a collecting institution only in 1996. At present, its permanent collection is still small.

The new building is currently estimated to cost about $87 million, with additional monies needed for a sculpture park, landscaping and operating costs. Of major importance is the establishment of an endowment; MAM director Suzanne Delehanty said that sum is yet to be determined. A capital campaign has not been officially launched, although an impressive leadership team has been assembled.

Lately however, some vocal opposition to the plan has developed. On Mar. 25, the Margulies Collection at the Warehouse, a private foundation that houses the extensive photography, video and installation art collection of real-estate developer and philanthropist Martin Z. Margulies, called a "town meeting" titled "MAM: The New Museum Master Plan: $200 million for new museum--who should pay for it & where will the art collection come from?" Upwards of 200 people were in attendance. While the title suggested an open format, the meeting clearly had been organized to publicly protest the construction of the new museum and the projected use of public funds. Presentations were made by Helen Kohen, former art critic for the Miami Herald, Dahlia Morgan, director of the Art Museum at F.I.U., and Peter Plagens, New York-based art critic for Newsweek magazine. Although Delehanty decided not to speak at the meeting, several members of MAM's board of trustees, among them chairman Aaron Podhurst, addressed the assembly.

Opponents of the plan maintain that, with the fiscal problems of museums across the country, this is not the time to undertake a project of this nature, particularly not with taxpayers' money. Miami is among the poorest large cities in the U.S., and opponents say that it is fiscally irresponsible for the museum to use funds sorely needed for social and education programs. If a new museum is sought, critics argue, corporate and private funds should pay for it (this has been the case with the frequent expansions of the Norton Museum of Art in Palm Beach, which is now, with its recent opening of a new wing, the largest museum in South Florida). Opponents are also quick to point out that MAM's permanent collection does not justify an expanded facility. At the meeting, Podhurst announced that Carnival Corporation, which owns Carnival Cruise Lines, has agreed to make a substantial contribution toward the new museum's education center. As later reported in the Miami Herald, he said that private gifts, not yet made public at press time, are "way over" the $10.5 million the museum was required to raise in order to receive $3.5 million in city funds for the early planning stages.

Miami currently boasts a plethora of disparate art venues. Each of the city's six museums has its own supporters, collection and programs. The Rubell Family Collection occupies a spacious industrial building, as does the rapidly expanding Margulies collection; Rosa and Carlos de la Cruz are major collectors with an exhibition space attached to their home. Though Miami's art world thrives on and is energized by this diversity, it has been suggested that if the various powerful local players were to pitch in on one big project, the new MAM could become one of the leading museums of contemporary art in the world. Any such pooling of resources, however, is unlikely; at present it seems MAM will have to go it alone.