Washington State’s Bellevue Arts Museum in “Dire” Fiscal Straits

The Bellevue Arts Museum (BAM) in Washington is struggling financially and must quickly raise $300,000 to cover the next few weeks’ operating costs or face closure, its director, Kate Casprowiak Scher, told theSeattle Times. According to Scher, the noncollecting contemporary art institution, which lacks a substantial endowment, has been relying for the past six months on donations from its board. Scher declined to elaborate on the amount of money left in the museum’s coffers, but told the paper, “We’re at the place where the straw breaks the camel’s back.”

The museum in the past few years suffered, as institutions around the world did, the crushing blow of the Covid-19 pandemic and subsequent changes in visitor habits and philanthropic giving patterns. As well, it has been roiled by board departures and staff turnover across nearly all departments and levels, including the top echelons: Executive director and chief curatorBenedict Heywoodleft in spring 2021 after the artistic community called for his resignation on the grounds that he acted disrespectfully toward artists of color and toward the museum’s first Black woman guest curator. The post was filled by E. Michael Whittington a year later, but he lasted only until fall 2023, departing owing to “personal health reasons.” Scher, a curator, art adviser, art historian, and onetime BAM board member stepped in as interim director, before assuming the role permanently in early February.

According to the Times, the museum “flew too close to the sun” financially even before the turbulence of the past few years, running a deficit nearly every year since 2010. “A lot of our problems started twenty-four years ago when this building opened,” Scher told the paper. “They built this gorgeous, 40,000-square-foot building by Steven Holl, but they didn’t raise money for an endowment. It’s like having a great big modern home and not planning for its future.” 

“While it’s sad to see what’s happening at BAM, it’s not surprising,” Joseph Steininger, a former board member, told the paper in an email. “Since 2019 the Bellevue Arts Museum has consistently lost the trust of its community and their donors. . . . I resigned from my position as a member of the board of trustees when it became evident that this lack of accountability was systemic. After reading their plea to be ‘saved’ I have no reason to believe anything has changed.”

Despite being only a few weeks into her role as director of an institution that by her own admission might remain open only another few weeks, Scher expressed commitment to BAM and to transforming its relationship with the surrounding community in order to remain operational. “There’s so much potential that’s been lost by not connecting with the community,” she said. “So, it has to change.”