Wells Fargo Bank Giving Autry Museum $1 Million

It didn’t take a shotgun wedding to get Wells Fargo Bank and the Gene Autry Western Heritage Museum together. The bank with a stagecoach as its symbol and the museum that specializes in Old West memorabilia are a cultural matchmaker’s dream couple.

Indeed, Wells Fargo announced this week that it’s giving the Autry a $1-million grant.

“We had never before given a grant of that size,” said Judy Biggs, Wells Fargo vice president for community relations. “But given our history, that museum seemed perfect for us.”

Contact between the two institutions was initiated in 1986 when the Autry, located in Griffith Park, was under construction. The museum’s executive director, Joanne Hale, met Wells Fargo officials at an exhibit the bank was sponsoring at the Ventura County Museum of History and Art.

“Our board had decided not to seek grants until we opened,” said Hale, whose museum opened in 1988. “But they were interested in us and we began talks.”

Those talks picked up speed last year after the bank held its annual cocktail party at the Autry for its board and prominent customers. “That really tipped the balance,” Biggs said. “The directors absolutely loved the museum. We sat down and began to cut a deal.”

The deal calls for the museum to receive the money in payments over three years, with the largest portion, $650,000, earmarked for sponsorship of an already existing 223-seat theater in the building. Another $200,000 will support programs in that facility, which has been renamed the Wells Fargo Theatre.

The remaining $150,000 will be used to help sponsor touring and special exhibits at the museum. Appropriately, the first of those will be the “Stagecoach!” exhibition that opens on Tuesday.

The grant is the second-largest to be given to the museum, but it’s a distant second. The museum received $54 million from the Autry Trust for construction and acquisitions.