
DATE: Sunday, October 26, 1997              TAG: 9710260032

SECTION: FRONT                   PAGE: A1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY TERESA ANNAS, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: NORFOLK                           LENGTH:  265 lines

CHRYSLER'S TURNAROUND MASTERPIECE MUSEUM HAS TIGHTENED BELT, RESPONDED TO PUBLIC TASTE

This afternoon, a reborn Chrysler Museum of Art will throw open its doors for a free festival celebrating the spirited art in a new Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec exhibit.

The Chrysler has a lot to celebrate.

Twenty months ago, one of the Southeast's finest art museums found itself $500,000 in debt, accumulated since 1992. At that time, seven employees were fired and a costly upcoming exhibit was canceled.

Since then, through severe belt-tightening and aggressive fund raising, the museum has ended two consecutive years in the black. A long-term strategic plan has been completed, and a new community-minded director has been hired. Donations and attendance are up dramatically.

Contributions, in fact, quadrupled in two years - from $105,000 in 1994-95 to $427,519 in 1996-97.

Perhaps most visibly, the museum has managed to present four high-profile, popular shows in just six months, featuring big names such as Rembrandt, Monet and Lautrec. And they've come at very little cost.

More than ever, the Chrysler is responding to public taste in its choice of shows, while marketing them effectively and building a wide range of programs around them. Across the board, the museum is striving for closer ties with a larger and more diverse audience.

Word has spread about the museum's turnaround.

``I understand they're making an incredible comeback,'' said Ed Able, executive director of the American Association of Museums, the nation's premier service agency for museums.

``What I see at the Chrysler,'' Able said, ``is they are using contemporary thinking in the way in which a museum can establish a good relationship with their community, and they're applying good businesslike management to the institution.''

Some observers attributed the resurgence to the new director, William J. Hennessey. ``He places an enormous value on the educational potential of the museum, and I think a lot of people in the community see that as a wonderful benefit. I believe that has assisted them in fund raising,'' said Minette Cooper, president of the Cultural Alliance of Greater Hampton Roads and a former Chrysler trustee.

``I see his whole perspective as one of connectedness with the community, in every way he can find to connect,'' she said.

``The openness that Bill has brought does seem to be different, and extremely welcome.''

With all the changes, the most visible sign of renewal at the Chrysler has been the four mini-blockbuster exhibits, three of which remain on view.

Usually, shows featuring big-name artists require a loan fee, which can easily exceed $100,000. But these were mounted at little cost.

The first one opened in April, and showcased several hundred works by turn-of-the-century glass artist Louis Comfort Tiffany. Nearly all of it was drawn from the Chrysler's permanent collection, much of it pulled from storage. Though a quick-turnaround, low-cost project that closed in August, the show received kudos in The New York Times and Southern Living magazine.

Next came a show of 17th-century Dutch art, including two portraits by Rembrandt van Rijn, loaned for free to the Chrysler by the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., partly in return for the many works loaned to them by the Chrysler through the years. Trustee Linda Kaufman, who has close ties to the National Gallery, discovered the possibility of such a loan and asked on the Chrysler's behalf, said Harry Lester, chairman of the board of trustees.

For another summer show, three landscape paintings by Impressionist Claude Monet were lent for free, too. The Monets were an exchange with Boston's Museum of Fine Arts for the Chrysler's late 19th-century Edgar Degas painting of a dancer, a now-famous work featured on the October 1996 cover of Smithsonian magazine.

The exhibits are credited forboosting attendance, which jumped in July, as the Dutch exhibit opened. In July 1996, the museum had 15,660 visitors, compared with 19,880 in July 1997 - a 27 percent increase.

The trend continued with the Monet exhibit, which opened July 31. In August 1996, the museum drew 16,380 visitors; in August 1997, there were 19,064 museum visitors - a 16 percent boost.

The museum's ability to attract such high-quality loans hinges on the caliber of its permanent collection, Lester said. The Boston museum wouldn't swap if it didn't like what it was getting.

Still, Ed Able suspects that the notion of camaraderie in troubled times may have entered into these sweet deals. ``We are a very collegial community. Museums are very willing to help out their colleagues when they're in need.''

The 108-piece Lautrec show, which opened on Thursday, was the only project with a loan fee attached, but Hennessey negotiated well on the fee - just over $35,000, a token sum to feature such a renowned artist.

The members' preview on Wednesday night drew nearly 600 people. So many wanted to hear the lecture on Lautrec by biographer Julia Frey that Hennessey asked her to give her slide talk twice in the museum's intimate theater.

That's not to say the museum won't ever again spend big bucks on an exhibit, or schedule a show with less popular appeal. ``I hope, once a year, to have a show that really makes people angry,'' Hennessey said. ``Most of all, we really don't want people to be bored.''

An Andy Warhol retrospective, after all, is booked for the fall of 1998.

The museum began life in 1933 as the Norfolk Museum of Arts and Sciences and was renamed in 1971 when collector Walter P. Chrysler Jr., son of the auto magnate, brought his world-class, encyclopedic art collection to Norfolk.

Since Chrysler's death in September 1988, the institution has been struggling to shift its identity from an elite organization to a truly community one.

The Chrysler's recent difficulties came to light upon the departure in late 1995 of former Director Robert Frankel, who was accused by staff of crafting budgets without the input of departmental heads and by a former board chairman of using a ``poor budgeting system.''

After Frankel left, to direct the Santa Barbara (Calif.) Museum of Art, the 24-member board of trustees, composed of prominent area citizens, discovered the debt and took control of the institution.

``We were obligated to become actively involved,'' Lester recalled. ``That's when changes got made. We reviewed and changed financial policies. And we reduced staff,'' he said, referring to the February 1996 firings of seven employees.

``We were thrust in this position, and I hope we responded well.''

Now the museum has a completely new financial accounting system, and a revamped development department geared for aggressive fund raising. Also, a five-year strategic plan was completed.

The plan touches on all aspects of museum operations, from collections to marketing. Its hallmark is a tighter relationship with the community, on all levels. One outcome is a newly created exhibitions and marketing committee, mostly made up of community representatives and headed by Trustee Andrew Fine. The committee's feedback will be deemed crucial in determining what sorts of art shows and programs to schedule.

``A lot of that tough, nitty-gritty infrastructure work had taken place by the time I got here'' in March, said Hennessey, who previously directed the University of Michigan Museum of Art in Ann Arbor.

``One cannot say enough good things about a board that rolled up its sleeves and seized control of some major problems, and solved them. They put their time, their expertise and their resources at the institution's disposal.

``That got us on very solid footing.''

In six weeks during May and June 1996, trustees raised $250,000, enabling the museum to end its fiscal year in the black, Lester said. Henceforth, the institution has stayed out of debt.

The museum's accumulated debt doesn't actually exist, Lester said. He reasoned that the accumulation of year-end debts from 1992 through 1995 had totaled more than $500,000, but each year the debts were met by dipping into a special endowment fund - the museum's only fund that isn't earmarked for specific use, such as art purchases.

That rainy-day fund was reduced to about $695,000, which is where it stands now. Meanwhile, a separate cash reserve fund, now at a modest level, has been established for emergencies. When the museum ended its 1997 fiscal year with an extra $84,000, that sum was added to the cash reserve fund, Hennessey said.

The trustees are working hard at raising money, Lester said. Whereas the museum used to get about 100 people to give $1,000 a year, now 85 people give $2,500 a year, more than doubling that upper-level membership figure. The museum also has landed more large gifts in the $25,000 to $100,000 category.

``Those are the kinds of gifts people don't give unless they feel you're worthy and headed in the right direction,'' Lester said.

New income sources were found. Since the museum began charging a modest admission fee ($2 to $4) in May 1996, the gate has taken in $172,548, with few complaints from patrons. The fee also encourages membership, since free admission is a member privilege.

The museum continues to receive city and state funding, which make up roughly 60 percent of its $4.15 million annual budget.

The city of Norfolk, which owns the building, gives between $1.8 million and $1.9 million a year for upkeep, security and utilities. The state grant has gone up about $100,000 each year since 1995, and the museum credits the boost to state Sen. Stanley C. Walker, D-Norfolk, who became a trustee this month.

In 1995-96, the state gave the Norfolk museum $471,000. The next year, the grant rose to $621,816. For 1997-98, it went to $721,816.

Walker said the Norfolk museum deserves state aid, since it is an important cultural institution that complements the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond.

``Art museums are not there to make a lot of money, but to help educate all who come there in the arts.''

Most observers agree that Hennessey is more community-engaged than the previous administrator.

``A museum is in the business of connecting people with works of art,'' Hennessey said. ``That's what we're here for. It's not a foregone conclusion that everybody who walks in here is going to know why Rembrandt and Toulouse-Lautrec are important to them.

``You don't want to tell people what to think, but you want to help them decide for themselves'' through extensive labeling, films, lectures and other related programs, he said.

Hennessey hit the ground running, Lester said. ``He is a tireless worker, a consummate professional. He has the character to stand up to any task. We didn't get everything done before he got here. There were still things that needed to be done, and need to be done now.''

Hennessey helped to organize four hit shows in six months. He closed a side entrance, saving the museum enough money - $28,000 - to stay open an extra hour - until 5 p.m., Tuesday through Saturday.

The 20th century and photography galleries were closed earlier this month for renovations and reinstallation with more extensive labeling. A community gallery will open in December, just outside the museum's cafe, Palettes. For the first time since the 1970s, the museum will earmark a space for showcasing regional art and history.

An audio tour of the permanent collection, to be offered free with museum admission, should be available by spring. Meanwhile, Hennessey is seeking funds to keep the museum open one evening a week, with programming.

In December, a major book on the museum's important Ricau collection of American neoclassical sculpture will be released; in February, the marble sculptures will be unveiled in a fresh installation on the second floor of the new $1.5 million education wing.

The wing's first-floor workshop areas, in use since earlier this year, finally provide a space for children. The wing was paid for through a combination of city and private funds.

``We get thousands of schoolkids through here every year. A key part of their experience is looking at art in the galleries. But we've never had a place to do hands-on workshop activities that let the kids try out the techniques they saw the masters doing in the galleries,'' said Hennessey, who loves to step out of his office to give tours. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo

Museum Director William J. Hennessey

Graphic

Twenty months ago, The Chrysler Museum was reeling. It was mired in

$500,000 in debt, seven employees were fired, and a costly exhibit

was canceled. Since then, the museum has executed a deft turnaround,

helped by a new community-oriented director whose most visible

accomplishment has been to open four major exhibits at the museum

this year. The exhibits:

Louis C. Tiffany

Turn-of-the-century glass

April-August Drawn from Chrysler's collection

Good reviews in The New York Times and Southern Living magazine.