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Tampa eyes interim museum leader

The head of a museum in Largo has been suggested as interim chief of the Tampa Museum of Art.

By JANET ZINK and LENNIE BENNETT
Published June 28, 2005

TAMPA - After a two-month search, city and Tampa Museum of Art leaders on Monday suggested Ken Rollins as a possible interim director for the art museum.

Rollins, director of the Florida Gulf Coast Museum of Art in Largo, will meet with museum board members in the coming week. If the board approves him, he will replace Emily Kass, who resigned in April after serving as museum director for nine years.

City officials and a museum board subcommittee selected Rollins as their candidate for interim director.

"I respect Ken's museum leadership experience and believe he is a good short-term choice until we are able to hire a permanent director," said Cornelia Corbett, president of the museum board.

Santiago Corrada, the city's administrator for neighborhood services, has been filling in for Kass on a part-time basis. Corrada said city officials were impressed by Rollins' experience and reputation.

"They've shared that he's been a team builder and very, very good to work with. He's respected by his colleagues," Corrada said.

The interim director will help with the search for a permanent director and develop a plan for a new museum.

Plans for a $76-million museum designed by architect Rafael Vinoly unraveled in March, causing a rift between supporters and detractors of the building as well as with City Hall, trustees and donors who had raised a record amount of money for it.

The city and museum board are now considering either turning the old federal courthouse into an art museum or building a less costly museum on Ashley Drive.

Rollins said his main goal as interim director would be "to get the city, board, museum members and staff on the same page with a vision and to rebuild confidence in the museum."

The terms of his contract would not be finalized without trustees' approval, but it likely would include a two-year commitment.

Kass earned $122,000 a year, with the city paying most of her salary.

Rollins, 63, has led the Gulf Coast Museum of Art since 1994. When he assumed the job, the institution was known as the Florida Gulf Coast Art Center, located in Belleair. He oversaw the elevation to its status as a museum after getting accreditation by the American Association of Museums, and a move to a Pinellas County park that includes the Florida Botanical Garden and Heritage Park, a "village" of historic local buildings.

Previously, Rollins, of Clearwater, was director of the Polk Museum of Art in Lakeland for about 12 years, beginning in 1981.

He comes from a studio art background, with a master's degree in ceramics and sculpture, which he earned after serving as a Navy lieutenant in Vietnam. In the late 1970s, he moved into arts administration, first as the assistant director of the DeLand Museum of Art, then its director. During his tenure at the Polk Museum, Rollins built it from a small facility and collection to a respected regional museum in a new, larger building.

He's well-connected in statewide arts circles, having been chairman of the Florida Association of Museums Foundation and president of the Florida Art Museum Directors Association.

Rollins has had mixed success at Gulf Coast. He oversaw a move from Belleair to Largo in 1999 and has reduced the debt on the building from $5.5-million to about $900,000. But the museum has struggled for support and a strong membership base. Museum leaders asked the county in June to contribute $500,000 to the operating budget for three years, a request that met with little enthusiasm.

Gulf Coast Museum has an annual budget of $1.1-million. The Tampa Museum of Art has a $3.7-million budget.

This would probably be his last job in administration.

"I have no interest in the job of permanent director. I only intend to work two more years," he said. "My plan is to live in Mexico part of the year and to get back into the studio."

[Last modified June 28, 2005, 01:45:13]