Bowers Trustees Drop Try to Acquire Land, Museum

Bowers Museum of Cultural Art trustees have tabled efforts to obtain ownership of the museum and the land on which it stands to avoid “tackling what could be a volatile political” issue, executive director Peter C. Keller said Tuesday.

“We’ve dropped the idea totally for now,” said Keller, who had hoped by this month to ask the Santa Ana City Council, which holds the museum’s deed, to vote to convey ownership.

Board ownership of the museum would eventually privatize the Bowers, which wants to launch an endowment drive and has argued that Orange County donors prefer to subsidize private institutions. An endowment is increasingly crucial, Keller has said, because next month the city will begin to reduce by 10% each year its $1.5-million annual Bowers subsidy.

At least two of seven City Council members staunchly oppose the privatization plan, which would transfer the city-owned 40% of the museum’s collection to a private, nonprofit Bowers board. The value of the property and city-owned art has been estimated at $50 million or more.

Councilman Ted R. Moreno says the plan amounts to “giving away . . . our city’s crown jewel.” Moreno said Tuesday that the plan could conceivably allow Bowers trustees to convince some future, unwitting city council to permit the board to sell the museum.

“It is true they would need council approval,” Moreno said, but “at any time, they could come back” and try to get it.

Other council members could not be reached, but Moreno said Councilman Tony Espinoza also opposes the plan. A majority vote would be needed to convey the deed.

Bowers officials insist that their sole objective is to secure the museum’s financial stability. Keller said, however, that he had “been advised by the city that because of politics on the council, they’d rather we wait” to pursue the privatization issue. He would not elaborate.

Keller, who has championed the museum’s privatization, also said that a recent consultant’s study showed that “ownership isn’t quite as important as we thought it was.” Some in the community aren’t against funding a publicly supported museum, he said.

The study also suggested that the Bowers wasn’t ready to begin a major endowment campaign, Keller said, but should start one “on a low level” and focus attention on raising the $1.5 million it needs each year to keep its doors open.

Bowers officials have wanted to build a major endowment for a decade, but Keller added that the report also suggested that “we need to broaden our support base within the community and we need to get the board more involved.”

Meanwhile, Henry T. Segerstrom, whose family is one of the Bowers’ biggest private donors, said at a Bowers board dinner Tuesday that the museum shouldn’t abandon its privatization plan.

“You need to continue to reconfirm that you are on that journey,” said Segerstrom, managing partner of C.J. Segerstrom & Sons and founding chairman of the Orange County Performing Arts Center in Costa Mesa.

Keller announced at the dinner that the museum and St. Joseph Ballet are collaborating on an effort to relocate the dance company and school for at-risk youths from downtown Santa Ana to a site near the Bowers, on North Main Street.