Western museum raises director funds

Organizers of the proposed Scottsdale Museum of the West announced Monday they have raised enough money in private donations to hire a museum director.

The next step is to find up to $30 million from donors to build the museum on a 10,000 square-foot, city-owned lot on the southwest corner of Main Street and Marshall Way.

Former City Councilman Ned O’Hearn, now a member of the unofficial committee of Scottsdale leaders and businesspeople behind the museum drive, said the group hopes to hire a director and possibly a secondary fundraising position in the spring.

The director would help with designs and fundraising, and would be the public face of the project, he said. “We want these individuals, particularly the director/curator, to be involved,” he said. “It really gives the project credibility.”

Scottsdale has set aside $7.5 million for the project. Vice Mayor Jim Lane said it’s unclear yet whether the city will exercise any control over the museum through the Scottsdale Cultural Council, the nonprofit group funded by the city to oversee its arts venues.

The balance, nearly $30 million, will have to come from private donors.

“The major effort will take place after the director is on board,” O’Hearn said. “Every indication we have right now is that, yes, we can raise this money. Now we have to go out and prove that we can.”

He said organizers are aiming for a completion date of 2010. The museum will collaborate with other Western museums around the country on rotating temporary exhibits.

“This will be a lure designed to bring tourists into the heart of downtown,” O’Hearn said. “There’s really nothing else in the Valley that does this.”

Abe Hays, owner of Arizona West Galleries at 7149 E. Main St., said many gallery owners are on board with the project. Hays serves on the museum organizing committee and helps raise funds.

“I’m 100 percent for this museum. I don’t know anybody that’s opposed to the concept, the idea, the place, the purpose,” he said.

Plans for a Scottsdale museum featuring Western art date back to 2002, when the city budgeted $3 million for a place to exhibit the Fleischer Collection of American Impressionist Art and pieces from the Scottsdale Western Art Association. Plans fell through, however, because of funding goals.

Then in 2004, the city set aside $7.5 million in hope of partnering with the Buffalo Bill Historical Center in Cody, Wyo., but the deal fell apart because no one could agree on who should run the museum.