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Riverfront museum gets solid backing

Art museum trustees and many residents at a public meeting criticize using the old courthouse.

By LENNIE BENNETT and BRIAN WHITE
Published July 21, 2005

TAMPA - Mayor Pam Iorio faced a largely skeptical crowd Wednesday night during a public meeting to discuss sites for a new Tampa Museum of Art.

Iorio made her case for putting the museum in the historic federal courthouse at Florida Avenue and Twiggs Street and then said she wanted to listen to what residents had to say.

But earlier in the day, the chairman of the museum's board of trustees said it appeared the mayor had already made up her mind.

"We don't want to draw a line in the sand," chairman Cornelia Corbett said at a meeting of the board. "But I asked the mayor if there was any other site (besides the courthouse) she would support. Her answer was no."

The mayor listened for nearly two hours to dozens of people in the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center's Jaeb Theatre. About 200 people turned out. The city owns the museum and provides financial support, but until recently, city officials had left decisionmaking to the museum's board. They sparred during efforts to build a $76-million museum designed by Rafael Vinoly on its current footprint between Ashley Drive and the Hillsborough River, a plan that foundered because of inadequate financing.

That site is back in play along with another riverfront location and the courthouse, which Iorio has unequivocally championed as the anchor of an arts corridor running along Zack Street.

"The cultural district should be a much larger area, from the University of Tampa right into downtown," Iorio said at Wednesday's public meeting. Many who spoke wanted to see the museum stay on the river and did not like using the courthouse, along with an expansion, to house the art collection.

"You can shoehorn the museum into the courthouse, but then again, you could put it into one of the Winn-Dixies that are soon to be vacated," Phillip Crosby said.

Jan Platt, a former Tampa City Council member and Hillsborough County Commissioner, said she voted against the current museum in the 1970s because a study said it would be too small.

"Here it is today, and it's too small," Platt said.

Careful planning was needed to make sure the museum would be adequate in the future, Platt said. She also criticized Iorio for coming up with the courthouse plan without first consulting the community.

"Planning starts from the grass roots, from the bottom up, not the top down," she said.

Former Mayor Sandy Freedman, who spoke against the courthouse site last week at a public meeting, also came to Wednesday's meeting to repeat her opposition.

Betty Wiggins, director of the East Tampa Business and Civic Association, gave support to the courthouse plan, but qualified it, saying whatever plan was chosen had to be responsible.

Several museum board members spoke against the courthouse site.

"A riverfront park site is most appropriate," trustee Barbara Romano said.

Earlier in the day, the board voted to support just that idea.

They stopped short of rejecting Iorio's vision, but a majority voted to issue the statement that made clear they aren't happy with it.

"Our support is more for a park site," the board said.

"I'd like the public to think we know where the museum should go," board member Sara Richter said.

The vote came after the museum's building committee reported the courthouse was the least appealing choice, even with a 7-story addition.

"Every indication is that (a riverfront option) is the cheapest to operate," said trustee William M. Blanchard. "My family has been involved in renovating and operating historic buildings and they can be very expensive."

The mayor might be aiming too high with the courthouse idea, trustee Ed Waller Jr. said.

The trustees also voted to accept Ken Rollins as interim museum director but not without more contention over the process, in which the mayor interviewed candidates and made the recommendation.

Richter, saying "we have a fiduciary responsibility to look at more than one candidate," nominated Marshall Rousseau, director emeritus of the Salvador Dali Museum in St. Petersburg and a museum trustee, as a candidate.

"He was the mayor's first choice," she said.

Rousseau, who is in Chicago, said in a telephone interview, "She offered me the job over a month ago and I decided not to accept. I reconsidered and told her I'd love to talk about the possibility. I never heard from her again. I assume because I turned her down the first time I made myself unacceptable to her on any terms."

Rollins, who said in an earlier telephone interview he was asked to apply by city officials, will resign as director of the Gulf Coast Museum of Art, in Largo, to accept the job, which will pay $159,000, $47,500 of it from museum funds and the rest from the city.

He is guaranteed the job for two years; if a permanent director is hired before that, the city agreed to buy out the remainder of his contract.

[Last modified July 21, 2005, 00:56:18]