The new director will also have to deal with the highly unusual relationship of the museum to the SCC.
Because SMoCA operates under the umbrella of the SCC, it doesn't have its own dedicated board. The 30-member council is too large and unfocused.
Paolo Vescia
ASU art historian Betsy Fahlman chairs the SMoCA subcommittee of the cultural council.
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Jacobson says that the SCC tried to remedy that a year and a half ago. It created three subcommittees to more effectively track the needs of the museum, the SCA's performing arts program, and plans for future expansion.
But those changes haven't solved SMoCA's lack of a dedicated marketing or development staff. The museum has to compete for time and money with the SCC's performing arts division and the council's exploration of potential future expansions.
Those initiatives include the potential development of two new major cultural complexes: one a cluster of up to five or six theaters along the Arizona Canal; the other an art center in north Scottsdale. The tab would far exceed $100 million.
Jacobson and many board members say the council needs to explore the possibility of building these projects. The downtown theaters, they say, would provide needed venues for area performing arts groups. The uptown art center would serve the growing population.
But the pressures of exploring the expansions are significantly thinning the SCC's resources.
Under its five-year plan, SMoCA was allowed to operate at a deficit for the first few years. But a shortfall in SMoCA's endowment -- it was supposed to be $5 million but only $2 million is in the bank -- coupled with the cost of planning for future projects means SMoCA now has to raise about $600,000 more to operate this year. It's unclear where that money will come from.
It's also unclear where the museum will get the money it needs to effectively market shows. The marketing sum for Turrell is only $10,000, a pittance, given the enormity of the show. No money has gone into national marketing.
"That isn't because the SMoCA subcommittee didn't ask," says Fahlman. "There just isn't the money."
Last year, former board member Ellie Ziegler pumped $25,000 into selling "Almost Warm and Fuzzy," an exhibition of contemporary art intended to draw families, because she feared the show would be a failure if it wasn't marketed. That push raised attendance to then-record levels, about 3,500 visitors in December.
The good press that's accompanied Turrell has helped to keep those numbers up. It has drawn about 4,100 people in its first two and a half weeks.
But unless the SCC comes to terms with the pressures that growth is applying to existing organizations, those good attendance trends are bound to slide.
Jacobson insists that no expansions will take place until the cultural council has fully examined the consequences.
But a number of council members say those consequences are already having an effect.
A few weeks ago, says Wittmer, "The board finally said, 'Look, we're spending all these resources chasing these two opportunities. We know SMoCA is a problem. We've got other things we could be focusing on. Let's make a decision one way or another whether these things make sense to chase.'"
