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Tampa museum director faces a city's doubts

Some say Emily Kass lacks the inspirational persona and financial knowledge that are needed for a $54-million art museum project.

By JANET ZINK
Published February 13, 2005

TAMPA - It was supposed to be one of the biggest days of Emily Kass' life.

Kass had cleared her calendar for the Tampa City Council's Feb. 10 meeting, where she said she hoped the council would launch construction of a $54-million art museum, designed by world-renowned architect Rafael Vinoly to be downtown's signature building.

Instead, Kass, 52, sat in her office, steeling her face against a city's doubts.

"It's a high-anxiety time," she said. "There's a lot at stake. No one wants to make any mistakes."

Least of all, Emily Kass.

Each time a hurdle has been cleared in this project, another has emerged, often the doing of a fiscally prudent mayor. No groundbreaking without money in hand, Mayor Pam Iorio decreed. Give me a business plan. Get your bank financing.

The delays have caused some community members to question whether Kass has what it takes to shape the museum's metamorphosis.

Many people who know Kass use words like "sweet" to describe her. Many say they consider Kass knowledgeable about art. But in private many say she may be facing a task too big for her shoulders.

It boils down to charisma and credentials.

Former museum director Andy Maass, who says Kass is a friend, said she lacks the public persona necessary to generate keen interest in the museum, which could bolster both attendance and financial support.

"Personal presence and involvement in the community is important," Maass said. "I'm not sure Emily has that."

Others in the arts community say leading a high-profile museum requires business credentials.

"The job of museum director has evolved over the last 20 or 30 years," said Jason Hall, director of government and media relations for the American Association of Museums in Washington, D.C.

Traditionally, museum directors rose from the ranks of art historians and curators, he said. But increasingly, museum boards seek directors with track records for creating financial stability and solid business plans.

Art museums still need directors who know art, he said. "But it's no longer an official requirement. The focus of boards when they're making these decisions has been more frequently on finding people with financial expertise. It's clearly become a more important factor," Hall said.

He points to the Field Museum in Chicago, one of the largest natural history museums in the country, run by John McCarter, who has an MBA. J. Carter Brown, former director of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., also has an MBA.

The art world is trying to teach its museum directors business skills.

The Association of Art Museum Directors began offering courses on financial management and strategic planning at the urging of its members, said the association's executive director, Mimi Gaudieri.

The Tampa Museum board has recognized its need for a person with those skills.

Several months ago, it hired a financial consultant. And after the board missed a deadline for securing bank financing for the project, it hired someone to negotiate with JPMorgan Chase.

Someone with an MBA.

Peter Lewis, who resigned from JPMorgan in December, will serve as a consultant for the museum.

"Emily has been trying to keep an awful lot of balls in the air," Lewis said. "Her main job is to run the museum."

While working for JPMorgan, Lewis introduced the museum project to his bank's investment team.

"It's a fairly complex deal," he said. "There are lots of moving parts and lots of people involved. I can hit the ground running."

Under the current operating agreement, the city, which pays most of Kass' $122,000 salary, has the right to hire and fire the museum director. The museum board members wanted the director of the new facility to be accountable only to them. Iorio, conscious of the city's expected $2-million-a-year contribution to operating costs, resisted that idea. Under a compromise agreement, Kass would work strictly for the board but Iorio could fire her if the museum didn't meet financial obligations.

Kass, hired in 1996 after a nationwide search, acknowledged the new building project is a huge task.

"It's been more challenging, more complex than I ever imagined," she said Thursday.

Her challenges now include a newspaper calling for Kass to step aside.

In a Jan. 30 editorial, the Tampa Tribune criticized her for failing to document financial support, basing a business plan on overly optimistic revenue projections and focusing fundraising efforts on Tampa's elite while passing up "regular folks."

The editorial also criticized the caliber of exhibits in the museum.

When asked about Kass' leadership, Iorio said she doesn't comment on city employees.

Kass said she has been shocked by the public criticism.

"I didn't really recognize who I was reading about," she said.

Kass said she clearly remembers the moment she decided to pursue a career in the arts.

She was a teenager when she and a few friends went to the Art Institute of Chicago to see an exhibit called "Dada, Surrealism and Its Legacy."

Looking at the art, she wondered: What makes these artists tick? What does the art mean? Why does this move me?

"This art was so amazing and strange and thought-provoking," she said. "I went back a couple times to see it."

It made her hunger for more, she said.

After earning a master's degree in art history at the University of Minnesota, she got a job directing educational programs at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis. Then came an interim directorship of the University of New Mexico Art Museum.

In 1984, she landed a job as director of the Fort Wayne Museum of Art in Indiana, just after the museum moved into a new, 44,000-square-foot building. She inherited a $400,000 budget and $800,000 endowment. By the end of her 11-year tenure, the museum had a $2-million budget, a $3.5-million endowment and a reputation as one of Indiana's premier museums.

She wanted to duplicate that experience in Tampa, she said.

From the beginning, people told her Tampa needed a new museum.

"It was one thing that the trustees and everyone that I met on the interview process was very forthcoming about," she said.

That was nearly nine years ago.

Under her leadership, she noted, museum membership has increased from 1,400 to 2,200. The endowment has increased from $400,000 to $2-million.

And the capital campaign for the new museum has raised pledges of $43-million toward the $76.3-million needed to build and open it.

She answers her critics like this:

Lack of exhibit space limits her options. Huge attendance figures aren't the only barometer of an exhibit's success. Any program can lead to gifts of art or turn new people into regular museum goers.

Standard fundraising practice is to start with big donors. More donations will come with the excitement of a groundbreaking.

Kass also has her defenders.

Roy Slade of Clearwater, a former director of the Washington, D.C., Corcoran Gallery of Art, credits Kass with the success of museum fundraising efforts.

"I am awed that they raised $43-million from the private sector in Tampa, which is hardly the cultural capital of the world, with all due respect," he said. "It's an absolutely bloody miracle."

Board member Marshall Rousseau, a former director of the Dali Museum, helped hire Kass. He said he stands by that decision.

"She's a top professional museum person," he said. "She's respected among her colleagues."

Former Mayor Dick Greco, who hatched the plan for the new museum, said Kass shouldn't be made the scapegoat for stumbles along the way.

"I'm sure some people think if she was a real pusher and out there beating people over the head for money that would have helped. But she's not that kind of a person," Greco said.

"She's a gentle woman, quiet, and many feel she's not the type of person to raise money because that's not her demeanor."

Greco said he sees no point in questioning Kass' leadership now.

"It's not right to throw that into the equation when you're trying to get $3-million or $4-million from people," he said.

For now, he said, the focus should be on getting the project going.

Kass, meanwhile, said she's not taking the criticism personally.

She wants to focus on the matter at hand.

"I have a job ahead," she said. "Let's get this building open."

Janet Zink can be reached at jzink@sptimes.com or 813 226-3401.

[Last modified February 13, 2005, 01:16:08]