Museum merger talks delayed

The Autry Museum of Western Heritage, three months into merger talks with the financially troubled Southwest Museum, has delayed a crucial joint board meeting, saying the slowdown will allow the Southwest to get more input from community leaders and neighbors who have complained that they’ve been largely ignored in the process.

The two institutions have been in detailed negotiations since late 2002 to form a pairing that would unite the relatively young and wealthy Autry in Griffith Park with the cash-strapped, collection-rich Southwest, which has overlooked Highland Park from its hilltop Mount Washington site since 1914.

The museums had set their first joint board meeting for Feb. 20, when officials were expected to formalize a memorandum of understanding laying out the merger details. The plan calls for each museum to remain a separate entity, but creates an umbrella organization above them, the Autry National Center of the American West, that will control finances and coordinate efforts.

The merger would also unite the museums’ boards, giving the Autry a majority of the most powerful seats. John Gray, Autry director, said that joint board meeting will be postponed, with no new date yet set.

In addition, Gray said the Autry will delay the work of preservation architect Brenda Levin and a team of engineers and other experts, who were to spend February and March analyzing the options and costs in restoring the historic Southwest site.

These steps led to speculation among Southwest staffers that the merger was on hold, but Gray said Thursday the Autry is “fully committed to a merger.” The slow-down steps, he said, are a measure to encourage “the full support and understanding of all concerned groups.”

Gray said that Duane King, executive director of the Southwest Museum, will meet with several community leaders in coming days.

Since January, the Autry has underwritten the costs of keeping the Southwest Museum open, a commitment that Gray said amounts to more than $100,000 monthly.

The Southwest building complex, which has city landmark status, has been problematic in recent years, as museum officials have struggled with lagging attendance. This summer, a subway stop on a new L.A.-Pasadena line is expected to open at the foot of the museum’s hill.

A Feb. 10 community meeting at the Southwest drew a standing-room-only audience of more than 150 museum boosters, Native American activists and neighbors. When the Autry’s Gray and the Southwest’s King laid out their timetable for “due diligence” and planning, many audience members, including City Council candidate Antonio Villaraigosa, protested that the process seemed too rapid for adequate public input. Neighborhood leaders repeatedly sought assurances that the museum would remain a public venue.

Museum officials have said they can’t make any guarantees until they see the findings of Levin and company. “We don’t know for sure what the ultimate use will be,” King said. “But the community’s input will be critical to the process.”

“If one evening of public scrutiny has put this merger on hold, maybe the Autry wasn’t ready for the amount of public scrutiny this merger was going to get,” said Amy Simmons, a Southwest assistant curator who startled many at the Feb. 10 meeting by denouncing the Southwest board as untrustworthy.

“The opportunity for this national center could be wonderful,” Simmons said. “But my concerns remain: Why the speed? Why the push? Let’s have a third party look into this.”

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Times staff writer Kishan Kumar Putta contributed to this report.