A search committee has been formed to find a replacement for Museum of Contemporary Art director Robert Fitzpatrick, who announced last month that he’ll be stepping down next year after a decade on the job. It’ll be interesting to see if they offer the cool half million in annual salary and benefits that he’s been getting. With average annual attendance stuck around 215,000 or less for the last few years (the traveling Warhol show goosed last year’s to 275,000), Fitzpatrick’s effectively been collecting more than $2 for every visitor who walks through the door. When he leaves the museum will be celebrating its 40th anniversary and about to face competition unlike any it’s seen before: the Art Institute’s glassy new wing for modern and contemporary work, set to open in 2009.
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Fitzpatrick, who wasn’t available for an interview, is credited with smoothing things out after staff turmoil and financial losses earlier this decade and for getting the guards into Gap gear. But during the regime of the former EuroDisney exec the Chicago Avenue fortress has arguably generated more interest as a performing arts venue and singles bar than as a visual art destination. Still young enough to be disparaged as a playground for its founders and trustees (and what museum isn’t?), the MCA has a deep-pockets board in place, headed by Helen Zell. Now it needs a director who can get it in the game and keep it there, even as the big kid down the street steps onto the field. And maybe a bridge from Water Tower Place to the front door.
“Art Hard Sell Even When It’s Free” was the headline on a Tribune story this week about an attempt to find new homes for 16 sculptures created nine years ago for the village of Des Plaines. The wavelike concrete works and their surrounding plantings, which cost over $300,000 according to the village, were meant to represent the river and prairie grass, but in the opinion of many passing motorists they looked more like a collection of tombstones clustered around a “Welcome to Downtown Des Plaines” sign. Last fall, after years of discussion about whether they projected a desirable image, they were banished to storage. The sculptures were offered to local organizations and schools, but only the Des Plaines Historical Society showed interest, saying it might take three.
The city is preparing to buy back the Prairie District building it donated to the National Vietnam Veterans Art Museum in 1996. Planning Department spokesperson Connie Buscemi says the City Council will vote on an ordinance that allows the city to exercise its right of first refusal. “The museum board informed us that they were planning to enter into a lease/sale agreement with Black Orchid” that would reportedly turn the building into an event space, Buscemi says. “We want to make sure it’s used for the public benefit.” According to the agreement, the city can buy the building back at current market value, minus any donations. The building, worth $300,000 11 years ago, is now reportedly worth at least $2.5 million. Even after subtracting what it’s given the vets in loans, donations, and grants over the years, the city could still end up laying out $800,000 or more in cash (the ordinance authorizes up to $2.5 million) to get the building back.
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