Museum Planners Banking on a Love of Art

They’ve got the community support.

Now the people who want to put together a new museum in Santa Paula need the money.

With start-up costs for the proposed Santa Paula Museum of Art estimated at $2.2 million, fund-raising consultant Gary Erikson conducted a 90-day study to gauge whether half of that money could be raised through private donations. The rest would come from arts grants, organizers say.

After contacting potential key donors in the community, he recommended moving forward with plans for a rotating 400-piece collection culled from art created by local artists dating from the mid-1930s to the late 1970s.

That’s good news, said Deborah Sparkuhl, a member of the museum’s steering committee. “Our next move is to get a campaign committee together and that should be up and running by the fall.”

The roots of the idea can be traced to Santa Barbara Bank & Trust, which approached the Santa Paula Historical Society in 2001 about donating the former Citizens State Bank building for the creation of a museum.

It purchased the historic building in 1998, intending to use the 7,000-square-foot structure as a permanent branch location after all the required earthquake retrofitting had been completed.

Once the bank got settled into its temporary location next door, “We realized the space we were in was more than sufficient for our needs,” Senior Vice President Sue Chadwick said.

Located downtown on the corner of Mill and Main streets, the building opened in 1899 as the First National Bank of Santa Paula.

While the name on the front of the building has changed over time, it has been a bank for more than 100 years.

Coincidentally, Douglas Shively, who worked there as president of Citizens State Bank, was also an artist who co-founded the annual Santa Paula Art Show, from which the majority of the museum pieces would come.

Known as “Mr. Sycamore” for his paintings of the sycamore trees found around Santa Paula, Shively joined with fellow artists and community members Jessie and Cornelis Botke to found the show in 1937. Jessie is known internationally for work that focused on birds and flowers, while her husband centered his career on etchings.

Every year through 1976, artists entered their work in the juried show, and the winning entries were purchased by local public entities like the city, the hospital, the library and the high school and elementary school districts.

But by 1976, the prices set by the artists were considered too high for the various entities’ budgets, so a straight cash prize system was implemented. Shively died in 1991, but the show is still held annually in February.

While the purchased art work graces the walls of various buildings and private homes throughout the city, the collection has never been brought together in one place for viewing, nor have many of the pieces been properly cared for.

That is why the idea of a museum is so appealing, said Santa Paula Historical Society President Mary Alice Orcutt Henderson.

“Much of the collection hasn’t even been seen, with the pieces sitting in attics, so it’s very exciting to think about opening a museum,” said Henderson, who is also the president of the steering committee.

As a niece of Shively, an artist herself and a member of the Santa Paula Society of the Arts, Virginia Gunderson views the creation of a museum as long overdue.

“The artwork doesn’t maintain itself, and some of the collection has been untouched and is in bad shape,” Gunderson said. “The museum will provide a more stable environment, and it will be good for tourism, too.”

While the offer for the building has been on the table for almost two years, Henderson said it has yet to be officially accepted.

The committee has an architect working to see what is needed to make the three-story building suitable for a museum. Some of the additions would include installation of an elevator, climate control devices and better lighting. The majority of the needed $2.2 million would go toward building renovations.

In a February presentation to the Santa Paula City Council, Henderson requested that the city consider waiving building and permit fees for the museum as well as including the art museum under the city’s liability insurance policy. Once the group decides to accept the building, it can begin applying for grants.

City Manager Wally Bobkiewicz said a formal request has not been made for city help but that the city is very willing to work with the steering committee.

“For us, it’s not only an issue of exhibition but also of conservancy,” Bobkiewicz said. “Some of the paintings hanging in City Hall are worthless and some are worth $100,000, so we’re looking at the museum group to help us.”

With $100,000 already pledged from both Santa Barbara Bank & Trust and community member Ed Beach, Henderson said the group is confident the project will be a success.

The city already hosts the California Oil Museum, and the prospect of an aviation museum and an art museum opening in the next couple of years or so has her thrilled.

“I expect that by the end of the year, things will really be going,” Henderson said. “It’s all very exciting; we are becoming the museum capital of the county.”