I didn't see a thread on this. so I thought I'd start one since it seems to be a pretty big deal. It's much larger than I realized. I thought they were just adding a few new buildings and a garage.
Express-News:
Witte gets $4 million to help expansion
A $50 million capital campaign to finance an expansion of the Witte Museum is getting a $4 million boost from the Valero Energy Foundation.
“This is a huge, significant contribution for us,” said Marise McDermott, president and CEO of the Witte. “This gift from Valero is instrumental in moving us forward.”
The gift is to be announced at a news conference this afternoon. It brings the total the Witte has raised so far to $13.5 million.
The money from Valero, to be given out over the next five years, will go toward the construction of the Valero Great Hall. The entryway — an enclosure designed by Lake/Flato Architects that's roomy enough to house a permanent dinosaur exhibit, including a massive, birdlike Quetzalcoatlus northropi suspended high overhead — is part of Phase II of the Witte's expansion plan.
Valero has made smaller donations to the museum in the past, said Rich Marcogliese, chief operating officer for the company. When representatives of the Witte made a pitch for the capital campaign, the company saw an opportunity to do something big that would send a message.
“We wanted to make an impact where we could demonstrate our commitment not only to the Witte, but our continuing commitment to the city of San Antonio,” Marcogliese said.
The donation is the lead gift for Phase II, McDermott said, which includes the entryway and expansion of the museum's galleries. The total projected cost for Phase II is $16 million.
Marcogliese has served on the Witte's board for about five years and has been impressed by what he's seen.
“They have great leadership, great board support, and they've been able to encourage other large gifts,” he said. “They have created a certain amount of excitement among the giving community, and it's good to be part of the overall effort.”
If all goes according to schedule, the capital campaign should wrap up in 2011, with construction slated for 2012.
The plan was designed to give “the seventh-largest city the museum we ought to have,” McDermott said.
When it's complete, it will expand the Witte's footprint by more than 65,000 square feet.
“Right now, we are a museum with a backyard,” McDermott said. “With this, we will have a true museum campus. We'll have a cafe, places for people to eat; people can spend the day here.”
Phase I, which has a budget of $25 million, includes a South Texas Heritage Center and Collections Center, which will allow more of the museum's extensive collections to be displayed.
The final phase, which has a $9 million price tag, covers the building of the Center for Rivers and Aquifers. It will house interactive exhibits designed to explore the history and future of water in the state.
Each phase includes its own endowment.
Valero's gift comes less than a month after AT&T announced a $5 million donation to the Bexar County Performing Arts Foundation. That kind of support is important, Mayor Phil Hardberger said in a prepared statement.
“A city with a thriving arts scene is a creative, alive place,” he said. “Cultivation of the arts should be as important as anything else we do.”
Corporate giving to the arts in Texas has stuck pretty closely to the national patterns, said Gary Gibbs, executive director of the Texas Commission on the Arts. It declined steeply after 9-11, but has started to rebound in the past few years.
“I'm thrilled there are still some corporations in our state that realize the importance of supporting the arts,” Gibbs said.
He cited AT&T and Shell Oil Co. as two of the leaders in corporate giving to the arts in Texas.
As corporate giving to the arts revives nationwide, it's taken a different shape, said Randy Cohen, vice president of policy and research for Americans for the Arts. The nonprofit group works to promote the arts nationwide; its projects include research into the arts industry.
“I think we're seeing corporations be increasingly strategic in their grant-making and aligning their giving with business needs,” Cohen said. “They're using their philanthropy to show that they're good neighbors in the community.”
Declines in the economy do impact giving, he said, and he expects fundraising for the arts to be difficult over the next few years as a result of the current climate. In addition, a lot of corporations have started giving exclusively to a single cause, such as health issues or education.
“Single-focus giving rarely focuses on the arts,” he said. “So that's another challenge we see as corporate contributions evolve.”
Dinosaurs!
View from Broadway with nifty acequia water feature. The clear box is the new entry way.
Full view of the Broadway frontage.
View from opposite side of the SA River
This is the South Texas Heritage Center. Im not sure where it will be located on the campus.
The Water Center (On the back side of the museum)
I believe they have already broken ground on this city owned garage (on Avenue B).
Full descriptions of all the pretty pictures can be found here:
http://www.wittemuseum.org/Capital%2...Plan%201b.html
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