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For the Barnes, $500,000 from the Getty
by Patrick Kerkstra, Inquirer Suburban Staff
November 16, 2000
The financially shaky Barnes Foundation received a badly needed infusion of cash
and confidence yesterday, winning a $500,000 grant from the J. Paul Getty Trust and
Museum in Los Angeles.
The grant is the first large donation since the Barnes announced a $15 million
emergency fund-raising campaign last summer, and it gave the Barnes' leaders
new hope that they will be able to avoid closing the art-appreciation school in
Merion and its world-famous gallery of Cezannes, Renoirs, Matisses and other works.
The Getty grant, designated for broadly defined "planning" expenses, is the first
tangible sign that the Barnes may avoid that fate. Kimberly Camp, the Barnes'
executive director, said that, combined with other income, the grant buys the
foundation six months to find a long-term answer to its cash problems.
Barry Munitz, the Getty's president and executive director, said: "This was
an institution that needed a quick turnaround and a major dramatic statement. We
did this in hopes that others will follow."
Camp and the Barnes asked for the donation just a few months ago. By the
Getty's standards, the process moved quickly, Munitz said.
"It's a real endorsement of the direction we're moving in," Camp
said. "Because [the Getty] is such a discerning supporter, we hope others that
have been waiting in the wings will step forward."
The source of the money is probably more important than the cash itself, Camp said.
The Getty - which includes a large museum and art conservation and research
facilities, in addition to the grant program - is one of the most-respected and
best-funded art organizations. It has a $5.5 billion endowment and employs dozens
of researchers, archivists and curators. It is housed in the Getty Center, an
architecturally significant building atop a bluff overlooking the west side
of Los Angeles.
In short, the Getty has all the resources the Barnes lacks.
"The Barnes has maybe the world's most dramatic gap between potential and
reality," said Munitz, who was chancellor of the 23-campus California State
University system before going to the Getty in 1997.
Munitz said the Getty, with its formidable resources, could help the Barnes
achieve some of that potential.
Yesterday, archival experts from the Getty were already at the Barnes, and a
security and facilities specialist was scheduled to study a historic Chester
County farmhouse owned by the Barnes next week - all at no cost to the Barnes.
"For us, it's a wonderful thing," Camp said. "For them to loan us
professional staff means, in essence, that we're getting consulting
advice for free."
While the relationship is informal for now, Munitz said he expected a memorandum
of understanding to be drawn up shortly.
Munitz said that future financial support was possible but the Getty would
focus in the immediate future on technical help and strategic planning.
The Barnes is also developing closer ties with the Philadelphia Museum of
Art, according to Camp and Anne d'Harnoncourt, the museum's
director. The Barnes plans to form a "curatorial committee" that would
include experts from the museum to map out a comprehensive assessment of
the Barnes collection. The committee would also probably do some of the
scholarship included in the assessment.
A number of other experts said the Getty grant could prompt other potential
donors to consider the Barnes.
"These are people who know what they're doing," Robert Montgomery
Scott, past president of the Art Museum, said of the Getty. "This is a
big donation from highly reputable people, so it might really [get] something going."
Richard J. Wattenmaker, director of the Smithsonian Institution's Archives
of American Art and a former Barnes student, said the Getty's rigorous
donation standards could reassure donors that the Barnes is worth investing in.
"The Getty is very focused and very informed about those entities that they
provide support for. They must get more grant proposals than any other
foundation in the arts, because they have so much money," Wattenmaker said.
Camp said the Barnes hopes those predictions prove true. Because the Barnes
spends about $800,000 more then it makes each year, the Getty grant will be
used up quickly.
The Barnes can rely on about $1.7 million in ticket sales, licensing fees
and other income each year, but Camp says the foundation needs a minimum of
$2.5 million to operate. Eventually, the Barnes would like to increase income
and build a $50 million endowment to meet its needs and expand operations.
None of that is possible, though, without quick, emergency contributions
such as the Getty's to pay the bills until the big checks start to arrive.
"Ordinarily, foundations are not able to respond quickly. Ordinarily, a
foundation takes months, if not years, to approve a proposal and cut a
check," Camp said. "So, when it doesn't take that long, it's like
manna from heaven.
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