tmoa - shut up already
tommyTampa Museum of Art board members Maureen Cohn and Sara Richter are pushing for a rooftop terrace on the new building. Cohn says it will cost about $750,000, but that a rooftop terrace to host parties would be priceless.
These people are insane.
The only way this happens is if TMOA raises the money for it. And based on how those folks have been doing for the past 5 years or so, Cohn and Richter need to remember they are lucky they have any building at all.
I’d really rather not hear anything from anyone on the TMOA board until the grand opening, k?
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April 11th, 2008 at 2:49 pm
Hmm, as I recall, Raymond James Stadium cost taxpayers almost $170-million, and the public is never allowed into that facility for free. (The museum will have free days as it always has, not to mention lots of free events.) And the name of Tampa or even Florida is nowhere on the stadium because the naming rights were sold for more than $30-million so we get to pay for something to regularly advertise Raymond James. Did you know we were still paying (and maybe still are) the tab for the old stadium when it was demolished to build RayJay?
Private citizens have raised a lot of money for a new TMA and Ms. Cohn and Richter (who have probably made large personal donations) will never make a dime off it, unlike the Glazers. Let’s also give the mayor (who ran as the “arts mayor”) some credit for making sure an interesting building didn’t get built and forcing us to settle for a new one that looks just like the old one but with a dated, 80s “Miami Vice” flourish.
I wish I could decide whether my tax dollars went to benefit the Bucs, the Glazers, a huge private corporation and the multi-billion-dollar football industry or art, the general public, the city and a rooftop garden.
If the museum ever gets built, I’ll see you at the grand opening, Tommy, which will be free and open to the public. I’ll even buy you a beer and we’ll look out over the river and enjoy a beautiful view of University of Tampa, all because a few women worked for years and years with no compensation and very little encouragement to make it happen.
April 11th, 2008 at 3:32 pm
*blows raspberry*
at Lara
*golf clap*
for Tommy’s post
April 11th, 2008 at 5:34 pm
Lara,
Instead of Raymond James Stadium, perhaps a better comparison might be the Tampa Bay History Center. They started in 1998, and promised not to begin construction until an $11 million endowment was raised privately. So far as I know, the vision has not changed much since then. They got the financing together, came to the city and county with a viable plan, made appropriate adjustments, and are now building a new 60,000 sq ft home. And they stay out of the news.
Meanwhile, the TMOA hastily built the old building in 1979, with no vision for expansion. In the last few years, they have had visions of grandeur in a new building and act like government should pay for more of it. Fundraising deadlines were not met, yet supporters are still bitter about losing “an interesting building.”
If the art museum ever gets built, I’ll be at the grand opening, and I’ll gladly take that beer and toast the efforts of those few women. But in the meantime, the History Center is scheduled to open just before the Super Bowl (to be played at our community stadium, in fact). How about we meet at the History Center, and I’ll buy you a beer, where we can look out over the channel and enjoy a beautiful view of …, um.. Harbor Island?
Ok… I’ll buy you two beers.
April 11th, 2008 at 6:27 pm
I don’t disagree with you about the history center. They are doing it right.
Over the years, some local arts organizations have been hugely irresponsible about their budgets and, like spoiled children have whined for public bailouts.
I’m thrilled with what the history center has accomplished after years of private fundraising and hard work. What bugs me is how little public support all of our cultural institutions get, especially relative to sports. (And I won’t think of the stadium as our community stadium until it bears the name of our community and lets me in for free once in a while.)
Our history is the most interesting thing about Tampa. We should have had a thriving and well-supported history museum for decades, and we probably would have if we had thrown in an ante from the public coffers earlier. Taxes shouldn’t have to pay for all of our cultural amenities, but well-placed public support can make a huge difference in creating a robust public realm. (And, I hate to harp on it, but a little more parity with sports would be nice, even if it’s only in the way we look at how public money is spent.)
But most important, even if we still disagree, looks like I’m gonna come out ahead because you will definitely be the first one buying beer at a new cultural facility.
April 12th, 2008 at 2:40 pm
Anyone noticed the similarity between the design of new TMOA and the Boston ICA?