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Get behind mayor on art museum

If Tampa hopes to build a new arts museum any time soon, the mayor and philanthropists need to come to an understanding. Pam Iorio has made her conditions abundantly clear: No building on the riverfront, the museum needs to line up financing before construction starts and $10-million should be socked away to cover any operating losses. In exchange, the mayor needs to guarantee the city's financial support. She also needs to show more commitment to a project that drifts on and off her radar.

The art museum board hasn't gotten the message, even now that the Vinoly proposal and a cheaper Plan B have collapsed. Replacing the existing riverfront museum with a grander building on the same site, as many museum backers want, would only compound the previous mistake of paving precious riverfront. This is the only waterfront park in the downtown core, and Iorio should continue to insist that the site be reclaimed for public recreation.

The museum board needs to forget the river, find a new site and focus on larger concerns: What art would a bigger museum feature? How does a city little known for the arts operate a new facility in the black? Where does a museum figure in shaping downtown and Tampa as a tourist destination? By prolonging the debate over the riverfront, the museum has given the mayor an out to shift money and attention toward broader city needs.

Finding an appropriate home, and raising funds for construction and the endowment, will enable the museum to test Iorio's pledge to provide $18.7-million for the building and $1-million annually toward operating costs. The museum should not play chicken with a mayor who has plenty of competing spending needs. In downtown alone, completing the riverwalk, expanding parking and making the streets safer for pedestrians will cost tens of millions of dollars in the coming years.

The mayor needs to see a new museum as befitting a growing downtown and not just a financial burden passed on by her predecessor. Downtown's new condo dwellers and those moving into historic neighborhoods nearby expect a certain energy from urban living. In that sense the museum is part of the package Iorio promised while campaigning as the neighborhood mayor. However much rests in the hands of museum donors, nothing this size takes off without mayoral leadership. She has made her case, museum backers should accept it and the two should begin acting like the partners the effort requires.

[Last modified September 5, 2005, 01:15:10]