08-23-17 Personnel and Finance (#3)

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Susan Visser, Executive Director of the Art Museum, 627 Leland Avenue, stated, I first want to congratulate the City on the Smart Streets Program. I think it is absolutely amazing and is really transformative for the Museum. Art Beat this Saturday was transformed. I think it will only get better and better. Some of our metrics from 2016 notify us that we had about 32,000 visits to our website as well as 25,000 visitors to the museum. We also hosted six (6) family days with about three thousand three-hundred(3,300) children in attendance. About three thousand five-hundred (3,500)people participated in our outreach and over five thousand (5,000)people attended Meet Me on the Island. More than six thousand (6,000)people attended our First Friday Event. One (1) of our goals of the museum is to be a cultural center and we have relished and cherished our location in the Century Center because that is now becoming the center of the City. Councilmember Tim Scott arrived at the meeting at 5:24 p.m. Ms. Visser continued, People are coming as visitors,to shop, to take classes and it has been very exciting for us. She then referenced the breakdown of the museum's budget. She stated, The City of South Bend allocates $65,000 and that is roughly eight percent(8%) of our budget. We receive forty-three point five percent(43.5%) from other public sources and fifty-six point five percent (56.5%) is earned from grants, sponsorships and other contributions. We added a program eleven(11) years ago called the Robert C. Shields American Series that we now do every Fall. It is an opportunity to bring in a nationally important exhibition that focuses on a particular point in our history. We very regularly collaborate with the Studebaker, History, and Snite Museums just to talk about a particular subject. Coming up this ye from November 4— December 31, 2017, we will be having an exhibition of comic strips from the 1940s— 1960s. It gives an opportunity to touch a lot of people's hearts as well as give the younger generation the opportunity to see what happened in the history of comics. We are collaborating with many local partners for that. This sponsorship and collaboration accounts for almost$70,000 to our annual budget. Every year we do a big fundraiser in the Fall to honor three (3)people. The Artist Mixer is October 6, 2017. Our fall art classes start the week of September 11, 2017. Councilmember Dr. Varner asked, Do you have a good mixture of revenue and do you see any of it increasing? Ms. Visser replied, We are always looking to increase revenue. I think the sponsorship uptick in revenue was great for us. We also are seeing tuition income for our classes growing year by year. We are looking at strengthening our endowment fund as we are focusing on addressing a new three (3) year plan for that. We have gotten a few grants but they aren't as available as they are believed to be. Councilmember Broden asked, Who is in charge of your fundraising within your organizational structure? Mr. Visser replied, It depends on if it is a major campaign or not. But generally we are all tasked with looking for more outside dollars. We do our strategic plans for every three (3) years. VPA 4